Recently I made a few posts pointing out obvious lies that Christians are telling each other, and then they act all surprised when other people see that the emperor is wearing no clothing.
We don't need to tell these obvious lies. It doesn't help us and it doesn't help our cause.
The lies are, specifically:
* The Bible is infallible (or inerrant)
* The doctrine of the Trinity is clearly taught in the Bible.
Regarding the first lie, no one can agree on what the Bible is. It's useless to try and drive a consensus. It wasn't until the 1500s that there was even an agreed upon formal definition by the Catholics, and even then, there were other documents that were considered sacred or scripture outside of that (such as the creeds and councils.)
Even if we did agree on which source texts to use, they are not original, they are copies. Copies can contain errors. Therefore, even if the original manuscripts were perfect, the copies cannot be guaranteed to be so.
But suppose by some miracle God preserved the copies (which don't even agree with each other all the time.) If you can't read Greek or Hebrew, you need a translation, and there is no guarantee that any translation is perfect and infallible. Even the beloved KJV is known to contain errors in translation, some of them intentionally put in there to preserve tradition or poetry.
Thus, stop saying things like "The Bible is perfect" or "The Bible is infallible" and such.
Instead, say something like, "The Bible is inspiring." "The Bible teaches us about Jesus", etc... Do you notice how focusing on what the Bible does for us is actually more important than what the Bible is?
The second fallacy is that the doctrine of the Trinity is "clearly" taught in the Bible. It is not. And the more scholars study the text of the Bible, the more obvious this becomes. There are numerous challenges to trying to interpret the doctrine of the Trinity, foremost among them is the lack of any teaching on the consubstantiality of Deity. In plain English, nowhere does it say that Jesus and the Father share one Being or Essence. The text just doesn't support that. I've shown you again and again how the "go-to" verses just don't mean that in context and in light of other similar passages.
Going back in time, it's clear that NO ONE in the First Century or before had any idea that there was only one Being that could be called God. They were fine with "multiple" gods, and it's pretty clear in the OT and the NT alike, that some of them were worthy of worship (like the Father) while others aren't (like Satan, Baal, etc...) It's not an easy thing to "prove" that the earliest Christians even understood that Jesus was God, and the text you often turn to (John) is esoteric in nature and seemingly poetic rather than historical, as opposed to, say, Luke. Even if you could mathematically prove the point, you can't really say that people walking and talking with Jesus understood who he was at the time.
NOTE PLEASE that I am NOT saying that you should stop teaching your church's doctrines. Just don't make the OBVIOUS mistake of saying that it's in the Bible when it's not. Stick to facts that are easily defended, avoid getting into a debate where you will lose because you don't have the facts on your side.
A whole lot of you who tried to debate me showed that you haven't really considered alternate positions or readings of certain Biblical passages. I blame you for being LAZY and not taking your religion seriously. A few of you obviously had more experience and knowledge, and you were fun to engage with because I actually learned a few things from you, but the rest of you were tedious, boring, or just plain annoying.
My challenge to you -- as the LDS church is rising both with convert numbers and child births -- LEARN YOUR OWN FAITH. Stop listening to people who are stating things that are obviously false. LEARN WHAT YOUR TEACHERS ACTUALLY TAUGHT YOU rather than what your dimestore pastor made up in his sermon because he was too busy playing Pokemon to read the Bible and study it seriously. We have our own challenges in our own church, and I know how hard it is to get people who are otherwise decent and honest and upright to take their religion seriously and stop pussyfooting around with heresies and false ideas.
