Why do you have to pray to God to beable to understand the Bible?

Number1Anarchist

If you read any book on the planet as long as you have some kind of education you can read it and clearly understand it and not argue this means this and that means that. Now i still do reasearch on the bible and i am starting lean that it is a strange book full of nonsens but the Jury for me is still out on that final verdict.

I was on youtube and the guy quotes this scripture which i never read before. Answer me this, what is this scripture saying to you and why do you have to pray to God to understand his book that he wrote for us. lol Here is the scripture with different interpretations. He understands it as one thing and i understand it as another. This is what he last said to me."ask jesus if He would bring clarity to this. If he is willing the HOLY SPIRIT will reveal it to you".

Matthew 16:18 (Wycliffe New Testament)

18 And I say to thee, that thou art Peter, and on this stone I shall build my church, and the gates of hell shall not have power against it. [And I say to thee, for thou art Peter, and upon this stone I shall build my church, and the gates of hell shall not have might, or strength, against it.]

Matthew 16:18 (New Living Translation)
18 Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means rock),[a] and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell[b] will not conquer it.

Matthew 16:18 (New American Standard Bible)

18"I also say to you that you are (A)Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of (B)Hades will not overpower it.

The way i look at this scripture is Peter is the rock that Jesus is establishing his church on we both agree on that but he is telling me that the powers of hell will not conquer it? (the church) while i think the powers of hell will not overpower what Peter is assigned to do?What do you see it as. Let me know even if you don't beleive in the bible. How would you interpret the (IT) in this scripture.

We all know the Church itself has been overpowered even Jesus said somewhere that wolves would enter the congregation. so if wolves enter your congregation wouldn't that conquer it?

Why would you have to pray for understanding of a book written 2000+ years ago for people who had no education?

I'm about to toss the bible out the window i'm so sick of this nonsense. Thx

I copied and pasted the scriptures he used and the video for some reason posted and has nothing to do with the subject but feel free to watch if you like.

shamus100

Without circular reasoning you will never find god.

Stop kicking yourself; just believe. If you're one that can actually believe that there is no god and not go off the deep end, welcome! There are many of us.

The bible is just a story book. Nothing more.

Number1Anarchist

Lol, I'm almost there with you. I'm starting to lean that the bible is just a made up story book. thx

shamus100

Trust me; it is.

What people need to ask themselves is can they handle this simple truth? Some can, some can't. I'd rather have a person addicted to Jesus Christ than addicted to alcohol or drugs.

Besides, why keep your mind closed? One day there could be proof that god exists. My mind isn't closed to the possiblity. Frankly, I think that if it was any religion, it probably wouldn't be christianity. I've heard that Hare Krishna's have a pretty good one...

oompa

beable and lean...not learn.....i love that many here cope by booze...not really..but at least i am not alone....we gotta do better...........oompa

Number1Anarchist

Lol, the Jury on religion is already out for me. I want nothing to do with religion of any kind i will follow nobody but myself. The bible as oompa put it, im learning is a story book.

Oompa ya it can be tuff at times that's for sure. Hope we can both work through are questions or just be satisfied with no answers but it can be fun in the process learning.

Nobodies interpreted my scripture yet.lol

WTWizard

A small child would actually be able to better understand the Bible than most adults. That's because they haven't yet had the indoctrination of the "God can do no wrong" and "God has the right to abuse anyone or anything as He sees fit" crap. (Too bad that children learn that crap before they learn to read well.)

Trouble is, in the Washtowel Slaveholdery, I thought I had a better understanding of the Bible. However, it was merely an illusion from the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger taking scriptures out of context, twisting them around, and loosely basing their rules on the scriptures. Once I quit associating with the witlesses, I found that I have a better understanding of the Bible as an apostate than I ever did as an active witless--in fact, it took about the same amount of time to understand the truth about God once I looked at it objectively as it did to master multiplication once I got all the pieces--about ten seconds.

And I didn't even have to pray to God for that knowledge. Once it was brought to my attention that every single act in the Old Testament that came from God was unfair, value destructive, and coercive, and that Jesus denounced all of those traits, it didn't take long for me to realize that Jesus was only using the "good God" concept to get people to start thinking despite external authorites, and that Paul mistook those parables as literal (and ended up confusing the other apostles in the process).

I strongly suspect that, if all the books that were supposed to have been in the Bible but that the early Catholic church threw away or altered then were put back as they were originally supposed to have been, the Bible would be that much easier to understand. And if Paul's mess could somehow be cleaned up, it would be no more difficult to understand the Bible without God's help or help from any Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger than to understand how to set up a computer network (and, if people were fully integrated in their thinking besides, it would be blatantly obvious what is the truth).

abbagail

[...] The way i look at this scripture is Peter is the rock that Jesus is establishing his church on we both agree on that but he is telling me that the powers of hell will not conquer it? (the church) while i think the powers of hell will not overpower what Peter is assigned to do?What do you see it as. Let me know even if you don't beleive in the bible. How would you interpret the (IT) in this scripture. [...]

(NKJV) Matthew 16:18 -- "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."

Since you asked for opinions, here's how I see it...

You = Peter.

This Rock = Jesus referring to Himself.*

My Church = is the "IT" which the gates of Hell cannot prevail against.**

* Jesus has always been referred to in scripture as THE FOUNDATION -- or "Chief" -- CORNERSTONE (Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 28:16), and THE ROCK that the builders rejected (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; 1st Cor. 10:4; 1st Peter 2:6,7) . So it's pretty much "standard fare" that Jesus was referring to Himself as The Rock (or The Stone as some translations say it). And for all we know, the Lord could have been pointing or gesturing to Peter when he said, "YOU are Peter," and then pointed back to Himself when He said, "and on THIS ROCK I will build MY church" - referring to Himself.

** Hell and death will not PREVAIL over/against the Body of Believers (which is "the church").

Web definition for "PREVAIL" is "predominate: be larger in number, quantity, power, status or importance." Hence, Death and Hell will never predominate or overpower the Body of Believers, since we have the resurrection as a guarantee. The bad guys/wolves, etc. can come and go all they want in and out of churches or assemblies of believers, and do all the "earthly damage" they want, but they cannot take away or destroy the resurrection of the believers.

----

And yes, I believe in the Bible. ;-) And I hope this helps you to not be in such a hurry to throw yours out the window. ;-)

And no, I didn't pray about this, merely used a scripture search engine to find the verses I was thinking of.

/ag

Witness 007

John was stoned on "spirtual grasses" of Patmos when he wrote Revelation so you either have to be stoned or pray to understand it.

snowbird

I agree with Abba.

When I looked at this on last night, the Scriptures that came to mind first were Deuteronomy 32:4 and 1 Corinthians 10:4; the former speaks of Moses extolling the Rock that brought Israel out of Egypt, and the latter where Paul identifies the Rock as the Christ.

The gates of Hell couldn't hold Christ, they won't be able to hold His church, his ecclesia, his called-out ones, either.

Praying for Holy Spirit to understand what the Bible teaches is a commendable thing, imo, because Jesus of Nazareth said the Spirit would guide believers into all Truth.

Sylvia

Why do you have to pray to God to beable to understand the Bible?

Matthew 16:18 (Wycliffe New Testament)

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