Originally Posted by
Sean Herbison
Wal, I'm Christian too. Lutheran, to be more specific. I believe the Bible, but I can't agree with you here. If the Bible was not difficult to understand, we would not have so many disagreements about it. It requires a lot of knowledge to understand, and this includes historical and sociological knowledge of the time period over which is was written and compiled.
Even people who understood the setting and had the background knowledge disagreed about parts. Look at Luther and Calvin. Both of them believed the Bible alone was the basis for religion, but they had different ideas about salvation.
Revelation in particular is difficult to discern, and requires a whole lot of cultural context just for that one book.
Anyhow, I generally refrain from debating religion online. Very little gets accomplished and people more often get angry than educated. In person, I'm more than happy to discuss it, but it's usually counterproductive over online forums.