Thursday, January 25, 2007

Faith and the Bible

The Holy Bible - What is its purpose in a Christian's life? Should an adherent of the Christian faith obeys completely on all the writings in it, and form a so called christian worldview based solely upon this great book? How important is a book in a life of worshipping God? If we are to follow and believe everything written in the bible unquestioningly, without a single trace of doubt, are we not at risk of idolizing a book, as sacred as many claimed?

After all, if ones knowledge about God can only be formed within the context of the Bible, then God is nothing but a book! An idea formed by the general concensus by the believers of the Bible! That can't be right! God should comes first, then the Bible! How can the Infinite be described, analysed, and contained within a finite object? No, I'm sure the Bible only shows what God chose to reveal about himself, instead of who he truly is. We humans could never have the capacity to completely comprehend God, as his ways are far beyond our grasp.

So if there is no final authority in judging who or what God is, how can we worship him whom we cannot fully comprehend? By faith. By personal faith. God will reveal himself to each of his believers in his own unique way, and never, ever en masse. Therefore, any attempts to systematically categorize biblical verses into doctrines to be embraced by a group of adherents, are equivalent to constructing a golden bull to be worshipped in place of God. To crave clarity and certainty in our perception of God is to strip away the faith element in knowing God, and replacing God with laws and dogmas.

Funny how the more we seek to intellectually conceptualize the God we worship, the further we focus away from him.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

I'm finding it harder and harder to write about something in a coherent, essay format, as I simply lack the energy and patience to translate my thoughts into words. I guess I'm gonna post mostly scribblings in the future, and perhaps synthesize and expand them when I feel like I'm ready. So expect mostly short posts in the days to come!