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An individual perspective

 

I had lunch with a friend today and we were talking about spiritual matters. We had different perspectives on some of the things we talked about. We talked about reading the Bible. She says she has a simple faith, that if she has received Jesus as her Saviour and repented of her sins, she doesn’t need to know all that is in the Bible. I remember another very good friend who trained in the Ministry saying something similar. She found parts of the Bible hard to read and hard to understand but all she needed to know, was that she was saved.

I just happen to love studying the Bible and feel it important to do so. I love it! I find it fascinating! Does this make me better than my two friends or more ‘saved’? No, we simply have diverse ways of approaching our Christian walk.

My friend and I also had different views of what hell looked like. Does it matter? No, it simply matters that we understand hell is real and that we pray for all our unbelieving family and friends.

I belong to The Salvation Army who do not practice water baptism or communion but allow for individual choice. I have been water baptized, and I practice communion if I am visiting another church. Others might say it was a command of Jesus, and we should be doing these things. Again, there are many different thoughts on this.

Sometimes in our Bible study group, I may have a different understanding of a passage of scripture than someone else.

I guess what I am trying to say is, that as long as we understand that the only way to salvation and eternal life with God is to accept and believe in what Jesus did for us on the cross, repent of our sins and receive forgiveness, that is what is most important. We should also believe that Scripture is God breathed. The rest is just semantics.

It is okay to have a different perspective, if it is Godly and lines up with all of scripture.

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