Biblical Literacy

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In Galatians, Paul claims Christ was revealed to him and he immediately went to Arabia before returning to Damascus. In Acts, after Ananias lays hands on him, he starts preaching in the synagogues and goes to Jerusalem. Which account is true?

In I Corinthians and Galatians he claims Chrust was revealed to him. No mention of bring struck blind or Ananias. Is Ananias mentioned in any of his writings? He expresses gratitude for many people. I would expect him to be grateful to Ananias.
 
Anyway, back to the thread... Being literate about the Scriptures would involve recognizing the different canons of the Bible, and why there are, in fact, different canons-- to wit, the Protestant canon, the Roman catholic canon, and the Eastern Orthodox canon,. Understanding the historical and theological reasons behind these differences would help in reading the Bible intelligently.
This sounds to me like far more than we are ever going to learn listening to weekly sermons. Is this part of the problem?

Study groups can be offered but are they ever very well attended?
 
my view ----

So do we really understand that in order to have True Spiritual Biblical Literacy that with our Human Intellect we can only have a human Intellectual Biblical Literacy of what the Scripture is saying -----and is that enough to understand what the true meaning of the Scripture is really saying ?-----

Jesus taught in parables for a reason ------so He could separate the Sheep who adheared to God's call to soften their hearts and open their ears to heard the Mystery behind the Logos Words ---which is the Rhema Word ----from the Goats who didn't accept God's call to have their hearts soften and their ears open to hear the Mystery behind the Logos Word --they found the words foolish and confusing ---as they used their Human intellect only ------

Nicodemus is an example of not understanding Jesus Logos Words about being Born again ---His human intellect could not Fathom the Spiritual Message --or meaning behind the the Logos ----His Wisdom and Understanding were intellectually Limited -------

Nicodemus is also a good example of a Minister trying to teach God's word to others without the proper heart and mindset to convey the True Spiritual Meaning to his Church -----

Jesus even says to Nicodemus --John 3

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?

11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.

12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

Nicodemus's mind was one of reason which is of this world --he says -----how can someone be reborn a second time in the womb -------which is a great worldly intellectual question -----

But
Nicodemus would have read many times in the Old Testament about the Holy Spirit and the role of the Holy Spirit so he should have had the right mindset to understand what Jesus was saying ----but because he refused to have his heart softened to the scripture and his ears open to receive the Spiritual meaning ----he was not able to understand what Jesus was meaning
Jesus told the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit to come before they went out into the world preach ---there is a reason for that -----

And it is still the same today ------Ministers or any of us on our own intellectual understanding can not understand the Spiritual message behind the Logos Word ----
I say
Biblical Literacy is so very important in fully understanding what the Scripture is trying to Spiritually convey to us -----what we can take away from the scripture with our worldly intellect is limited ------

It is so sad that just anyone can become a Minister without having the right Spiritual guide to guide them into all the Spiritual truth of the Scripture ----so they can preach the Holy Truth to their flock and lead them to their right end ------

and Ministers are warned in scripture that their Judgment will be strict as they are the ones who are out suppose to be preaching the truth of the Word to their flock -----

James 1

View attachment 7798
The Gospel of John indicates Nicodemus became a member of the community, do his heart wasvnot hardened against the truth.
 
Nowhere does Acts say that James and the other apostles initially opposed the legitimacy of uncircumcised Gentile converts! Acts identifies the opposition group as "some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees (15:5)." "Some individuals" (from this group) came down from Judea (to Antioch)" to insist that Gentile converts be circumcised (15:1). Paul refers to these visiting Judaizers as "false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on our freedom... that they might enslave us (Galatians 2:4)." "James, Cephas (Peter), and John" had already approved Paul's Gospel exemption from Gentile circumcision in in a private meeting with Paul prior to the Jerusalem conference (Galatians 2:9-10). Peter's testimony was only needed to try to convince the holdouts. Their subsequent literature (e. g. Ascents of James, Clemetine Homilies and Recognitions) and early patristic descriptions of their beliefs demonstrate that these holdouts were not convinced.

jimkenney12: "As much as I like the story of Pentecost and the story of the conversion of Paul, I do not know how they actually happened."

You are apparently ignorant of Paul's own report of his vision of Jesus and accompanying revelatory call to be an apostle (1 Corinthians 9:1; Galatians 1:13-16; cp. Acts 9:1-6).

I shudder to think of the spiritual harm you do to you biblically illiterate impressionable UCCan congregations by sharing your poorly reseached sketpicism.
Galatians 2:11-14. In this passage, Paul accuses Peter of pretending to support Jewush laws. I was wrong in claiming Peter was a supporter of circumcision. This passage left a trace in my memory that caused my error. He just pretended to be a supporter of circumcision when some other Jews were there.

As for Pentecost, I believe something happened, but I am not sure what did.
 
Study groups can be offered but are they ever very well attended?
Which raises a basic problem in maintstream Christianity (not just the UCCan): While there are lots of engaged, spiritual people (as we see with the UCCan crowd on here), there's also a segment who are just looking to have a "church experience" or because that's what they think they should do. They might believe in God and Jesus on a certain level, they like going to church and maybe getting involved to some degree, but aren't interested in doing any spiritual "heavy lifting" like actually doing in-depth learning about the Bible, church doctrine, history of the faith, etc. And I am not saying they shouldn't be in church, but that people like that will simply always put the brakes on raising the overall level of something like "Biblical literacy" because it's not what they are in church for.
 
Agreeing with @Mendalla

Some people are in church for nostalgic reasons. Maybe they like the building and the music. Maybe their grandparents were married there.

Some people are in church because they have deep friendships in the congregation.

And some are there because the like the social justice side of things in the United Church. Unfortunately I think the denomination has been pushing us in this direction for a while.

IMHO spiritual development and justice work need to go hand in hand.

From what I have seen and heard about EDGE consultations, they are biased towards the the social justice side of the equation. Maybe it isn't always this way, I don't know.
 
Not thr denomination, activists in the denomination. People pursuing spiritual growth usually do not push their agenda on others.
 
We see it in UU'ism, too. Social Justice is deeply engrained in our priniciples and history (e.g. there were Unitarians in the abolitionist movement back when Unitarianism was a liberal Christian movement in the 19th century) but there's plenty of support there for spiritual exploration and growth, too. However, the focus, at least locally, is very strongly on the social justice side.

And that's one of the reasons I have not re-engaged. It is very clear that the local fellowship, even with most of the old humanist crowd now moved on or passed on, are focused mainly on congregational life and social justice nowadays. I am not sure if my often highly spiritual-theological services would even be welcome anymore.

At the same time, the local UCCan congregations, even the most progressive ones, are still very much in the Christian fold and I miss things like being able to hear or give a service drawing on a diversity of sources beyond just The Bible (e.g. the one I did on creation stories that had Classical Greek, Indigenous North American, and Biblical creation stories and even a homily on what we can learn from viewing modern cosmological theories as creation myths). So I feel a gap there, too.
 
Anyway, back to the thread... Being literate about the Scriptures would involve recognizing the different canons of the Bible, and why there are, in fact, different canons-- to wit, the Protestant canon, the Roman catholic canon, and the Eastern Orthodox canon,. Understanding the historical and theological reasons behind these differences would help in reading the Bible intelligently.
This is a very good point IMO. Despite very regular United church attendance & involvement throughout my childhood & youth, I got a stunning surprise several decades ago. I went to purchase a bible or similar gift for a RC neice who was being confirmed. The person at the store asked me what kind of bible I wanted? RC, Protestant? WHAT??? I truly thought the bible was the bible was the bible. I had no idea there were different 'versions' of this book.
 
This is a very good point IMO. Despite very regular United church attendance & involvement throughout my childhood & youth, I got a stunning surprise several decades ago. I went to purchase a bible or similar gift for a RC neice who was being confirmed. The person at the store asked me what kind of bible I wanted? RC, Protestant? WHAT??? I truly thought the bible was the bible was the bible. I had no idea there were different 'versions' of this book.
I kind of knew that back in the day given that Dad had multiple versions just on our shelves. I myself had a Good News Bible New Testament and a complete RSV bible from my confirmation. What I didn't know until later was the history of how that came about, the Protestant vs. Catholic differences, what was the difference between a "translation" and a "paraphrase" and stuff like that.

Even now, I am learning a lot about the underlying history as I watch the Useful Charts series on the family tree of Christian denominations.
 
So how often do you attend a 'mainstream' denomination's church services to see what the preaching is like? What is your source for this "imformation?"
Sadly, I can confirm unsafe's verdict and I pastored 2 churches in progressive denominations (UMC and UCC) and did seminary field education in a 3rd (PCUSA)!
 
The question was addressed to unsafe, not to you. You may have a background in such congregations, which I'm not sure unsafe has. Just wondering where she get her impressions from.
If you'd really like to respond to a question I asked you, there's one in the Trump Legacy Thread (posts # 625 and 631) that awaits your response.
 
he Gospel of John indicates Nicodemus became a member of the community, do his heart wasvnot hardened against the truth.

jimkenney12 ---Nicodemus came to believe in Jesus because of the Miracles He preformed but he never followed Jesus --he was never one of the Disciples ---where you get that from --I don't know -----He had Human Faith in Jesus because of what he saw Jesus do ------this made him believe that Jesus had to be of God ----

Human Faith will not help you understand the Spiritual meaning of the Scripture ------human faith relies on the 5 senses it is the Faith of this world

It has to be God's Producing Faith ---which is Faith in the unseen -------in order for Nicodemus to believe --he should have believed Jesus was the Son of God without seeing the Miracles He did -------and he only believed because he saw ----the Miracles preformed

And just because you believe that Jesus was the Son of God ----your heart can still be hardened to the Spiritual message of the Scripture ------you have to be drawn by God and receive His draw for Him to unharden your heart and open your ears to hear and grasp the Spiritual message behind the Logos word
 
Nicodemus was one of the people who helped bury Jesus. His disciples all ran away. His community of followers was larger than the people who were named. You have no evidence that he did nor grasp the Spiritual message eventually.
 
You have no evidence that he did nor grasp the Spiritual message eventually.

And you have no evidence that he did -----the Scripture doesn't say anything about that ----

Here is what we do know ---when He came to Jesus --He was not able to grasp the Spiritual message of being Born Again with his worldly intellect -------as your worldly intellect cannot nor will not grasp the Spiritual Rhema Word of the Scripture -----and Nicodemus is a perfect example of that -----in John 3 ---
 
Given the trajectory of Nicodemus through the Gospel of John (the only gospel in which Nicodemus appears), I'd be more likely to agree with jimkenney12's comments more than unsafe's. Nor in John's gospel; is there any mention of "wordly intellect."

From Wikipedia: Nicodemus - Wikipedia
 
And you have no evidence that he did -----the Scripture doesn't say anything about that ----

Here is what we do know ---when He came to Jesus --He was not able to grasp the Spiritual message of being Born Again with his worldly intellect -------as your worldly intellect cannot nor will not grasp the Spiritual Rhema Word of the Scripture -----and Nicodemus is a perfect example of that -----in John 3 ---
I did not claim that he did. You made a claim that you could not support that he never did. His decision to visit Jesus indicated his heart and mind were willing to be opened.
 
The Nicodemus story came up a few weeks ago in the lectionary. My minister talked about the curiousity and knowledge of Nicodemus not being enough. He still needed to be born again.

We were not sure if our minister meant Born Again as evangelical denominations define it. I wished he had said "born from above".

Very thought provoking minister I must say.
 
Displaced scripture may simulate all the libraries that the Romans burned 2000 years ago ... hard to recover once torched ...

Nothing left but something resembling Eire or legacy ... more intangible than many would accept when accustomed to only physical reality ... hypothetically speaking! Can result in having the book throw at you in it present perfect form as the history is dune gone ... accept the abstract that remains as a sort of pit ... in the alternate!
 
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