Sylvanus said:Personally, I study the Bible to improve my spiritual growth by changing my lifestyle and mentality.
The Old Testament and the Gospels are the story of a relationship, how our God thinks, acts and reacts, thus I read it to understand what sort of God we have. If I want to further my reading into a study, then I would prayerfully consider how I myself fit into that relationship. I might diverge into doctrines and others, like dispensation or other, but my main goal would be to know how to syncronize my spirit with the Holy spirit, as you say, to improve my spiritual growth by changing my lifestyle and mentality.
If I were to do it to find loopholes, those would be mine. I suspect that if one is to find other loopholes, they would only be regarding man made doctrines or such, but not with that relationship or with God Himself, otherwise that person would not be humble enough to discern the Spirit of the Scriptures.
But that's just me..........
I am wondering when we study the Bible if we are studying to improve our spiritual growth by changing our lifestyles and mentality, or we are just looking for the loopholes to make excuses.
Just my two cents.
I hope we study the Holy Bible in order to find the TRUTH about the real IDENTITY of Jesus Christ. Perhaps many people have missed His rebuke in the following:
Joh 8:19 Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.
We all believe there is only One True God. Some questions:
1. What really is the relationship between Father God and Jesus Christ?
2. Who is Jesus before "coming in the flesh?"
3. Who is the God of Abraham and Moses and Peter and Paul?
4. Who is the One True God that we will be meeting in heaven and to be with in eternity? What is His name?
5. Who is the Holy Spirit?
Before I did not even think of all these things. However, now I begin to ask myself, whether TO LOVE comes before TO KNOW?
Believing in the Trinity is essential to the Christian faith.
http://www.loveofchrist.info/theology/trinity.html
Loving helps overcome the mystery of knowing.
http://www.loveofchrist.info/church/love.html
Who Is the Holy Spirit?
http://www.loveofchrist.info/theology/holyspirit.html
Who Is Jesus Christ?
http://www.loveofchrist.info/theology/jesus.html
M Paul