Living in Truth.

@secondson said
It's all in the Bible, which I have studied in detail for nearly 40 years.

Do you feel that telling the forum how long you have been studious in your research gives your posts more gravitas and yourself more credibility? Should I (your’s and god’s enemy [sic]) be impressed with your 40 years of knowledge when you appear incapable of discerning a metaphor from a literalism, and when your behaviour here does not set you aside the way posts like this one would have me believe?

Isn’t this simple scripture true?

Romans 2:13
For merely listening to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight.

@secondson said

Seems rather sloganistic to claim to be "living in Truth", yet are unable to say what that Truth is.

You got an honest answer to your question, but because it flies in the face of both yours and FMF's worldview you demonized the answer as “bumperstickerism”, yet fail to define the term "Truth" as it relates to your slogan of "living in Truth".

it seems that we are using words differently.

I asked you now on several occasions to flesh out in practical terms what YOU mean by “living for Jesus”, but no response. I asked this because (and this is certainly not disputed, even by you) different people (I mentioned for example the Mormons) attach different meanings to that phrase. I would have thought my request was reasonable.

I clearly stated (also on more than one occasion) what I mean by living in the truth.

To repeat, for me it means to not knowingly and willingly present falsehoods to others and myself. To live according to the light which I now have, knowing that my current understanding of truth may be subjective and open for correction and/or growth.

Does this answer your complaint?

Now will you please answer mine? Without merely quoting Bible verses?

@fmf said
What I said was true.

No.

@secondson said
No.

You started posting here early last year. I have been here for over 12 years. There has long been a deficit of Christians here interested in talking about 'faith in action' and about the application of Christian belief to everyday life. It's always been very noticeable.

@divegeester said

Isn’t this simple scripture true?

Romans 2:13
For merely listening to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight.

You need to read all of Romans. You are in error. Pulling a verse out of its context and using it to support the idea that obedience to the law "makes us right" with God demonstrates your profound ignorance of the meaning of Romans.

Romans 3:20,21
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

Keep reading. Learn to follow along with what Paul is saying instead of cherry picking and making yourself look like a fool by asserting meaning not consistent with the whole context.

Romans 3:28
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

@caljust said
it seems that we are using words differently.

I asked you now on several occasions to flesh out in practical terms what YOU mean by “living for Jesus”, but no response. I asked this because (and this is certainly not disputed, even by you) different people (I mentioned for example the Mormons) attach different meanings to that phrase. I would have thought my request was re ...[text shortened]... this answer your complaint?

Now will you please answer mine? Without merely quoting Bible verses?

What do you want? I'm not writing a book here about the practical application of every Bible verse about Christian living.

The answer to your simplistic question in the OP about "what is Truth" and what it means to "live in Truth" is summed up in the person of Jesus Christ, and the details are covered in the content of the Bible.

You claim to be a Christian, and yet you create arguments against the answers to your questions that are found in the Bible? Is that what you're doing?

@secondson said
The answer to your simplistic question in the OP about "what is Truth" and what it means to "live in Truth" is summed up in the person of Jesus Christ, and the details are covered in the content of the Bible.

Actually the OP says "If at all possible, be practical and specific, don’t just mouth religious words like “Jesus is the Truth”"

And then shortly after, the OP poster was very clear: "What I meant when I said: do not just say “Jesus is the Truth,” but what it actually MEANS TO YOU that Jesus is the Truth. How do you live? How does it affect your choices, etc.

Rather than being a "simplistic question", the OP was an invitation to expand upon the issue, something you seem determined not to do.

@caljust said
You think Moses wrote it?

Have you ever read any scholarly review of any of the books of the Bible? Or is your opinion based on what your pastor says?

Three questions for your kind response please.

There is no evidence that Moses didn't write the Pentateuch.

Just ask Jesus. Deuteronomy was His favorite book to quote from.

@caljust said
it seems that we are using words differently.

I asked you now on several occasions to flesh out in practical terms what YOU mean by “living for Jesus”, but no response. I asked this because (and this is certainly not disputed, even by you) different people (I mentioned for example the Mormons) attach different meanings to that phrase. I would have thought my request was re ...[text shortened]... this answer your complaint?

Now will you please answer mine? Without merely quoting Bible verses?

Apparently we can't get past square one because you seem unwilling to affirm the biblical answer to the question you posed in the OP.

Everyone knows what the Bible teaches about what it means to "live in Truth". It begins by acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the truth. But even from your OP you brushed Him aside. Odd behavior for one that claims to be a Christian.

The simplicity of your OP cannot be overstated. Jesus Christ is The Truth, and living the Christian life is summed up in two very simple laws. Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Simple.

@secondson said
Jesus Christ is The Truth, and living the Christian life is summed up in two very simple laws. Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Can you expand on these with any anecdotes or examples or parameters or barriers or pitfalls or stories about when these "laws" worked or didn't work in everyday life?

@fmf said
Actually the OP says "If at all possible, be practical and specific, don’t just mouth religious words like “Jesus is the Truth”"

And then shortly after, the OP poster was very clear: "What I meant when I said: do not just say “Jesus is the Truth,” but what it actually MEANS TO YOU that Jesus is the Truth. How do you live? How does it affect your choices, etc. ...[text shortened]... estion", the OP was an invitation to expand upon the issue, something you seem determined not to do.

That is a strange post coming from you. For someone like you, that believes that the Christians posting in this forum hold to a "torturer god ideology", should seek to be a critic about their answers to the questions asked in the OP by one that claims to be a Christian yet can't affirm what the truth is, and denies the truth about creation, and denies the authenticity and veracity of the Bible.

It's simple. "What is Truth?" Answer: Jesus Christ.
What is "living in truth?" Answer: Love God, and your neighbor as yourself.

@secondson said
For someone like you, that believes that the Christians posting in this forum hold to a "torturer god ideology"

There are several Christians who subscribe to the Christian torturer god ideology on this Forum - sonship, KellyJay and Philokalia prominent among them - and others who do not subscribe to it, like Suzianne and divegeester. Historically, in this community, the Christian torturer god ideologues have been dominant: posters like RJHinds, Eladar and numerous others.

@secondson said
It's simple. "What is Truth?" Answer: Jesus Christ.
What is "living in truth?" Answer: Love God, and your neighbor as yourself.

Can you expand upon it a bit and talk about examples of the everyday application of these ideas?

@secondson said
the questions asked in the OP by one that claims to be a Christian yet can't affirm what the truth is, and denies the truth about creation

What "truth about creation" do you think CalJust denies?

@fmf said
Can you expand on these with any anecdotes or examples or parameters or barriers or pitfalls or stories about when these "laws" worked or didn't work in everyday life?

Ad Infinitum, but can you acknowledge that Jesus Christ is The Truth?

That's square one. It's The Great Debate.