The Bible - a closed book?

[Garland-Green]

I get that impression talking to people, and reading debates, even around Gaia, you don't have to go further than the Morality and Religion sub-forum (I have found it to be a place where there is little room for religion, at least for Christianity), and you will find people debating the Bible, where the object is to show how corrupt it is, without actually understanding what it is saying. Is there much point in debating people who have made it their online-profession to argue against the Bible? I am not saying they are not intelligent by the world's standard (1 Corinthians 3:19), and that they are not able to construct what appears to be good arguments against, appearing eloquent and gathered, but that it is their main drive, and it is not how God views wisdom because it is not used to get a better knowledge of Him. Would prayer be more efficient than debating some of these? From what I am seeing it seems as if those (many) who set out reading the Bible to prove it wrong are experiencing a hardening (?) (Job:5:13 & 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12) You can see it not only with how they deal with the topic of the Bible I think, but also their general being, and attitude. Am I perceiving it wrong? Using myself as an example before I was saved I just saw it as a collection of stories, like the stories of the brothers Grim. I didn't see any connections, or anything valuable worth understanding. It seems as if intellectually you can't begin to understand it, you can't hope to unwrap it by your own power, and that the stories are history, and that not all stories are what you should do, but also some stories of what you should not do. What are your thoughts? Is the Bible a closed book in a sense to those who do not understand spiritual things? Can we hope to unwrap it for people, just using our debating skills?

1 Corinthians 2:14
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 1:21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  

[setsuna_PT]

you know... "He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
¶ Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 2 Pedro 3:16-17"
i think this is comming to pass T__T is sad and at the same time is alarming because is happening before us and we cant really do nothing to prevent it...  

[real eyes realize]

At first, I would reply fully expecting that God would work a miracle in the person I was speaking to. But nowadays, because of conversations I've had and seeing who was actually affected (and meditating over Jesus' interactions with the Pharisees), I find myself doing it for the sake of the lurkers. Jesus didn't debate the Pharisees thinking he was going to persuade them all. He knew, regardless of what he replied, they would conspire to impale him. The point was to (A) remove all excuse that they never heard the truth, and (B) give others an opportunity to hear the truth, "hey, look, someone with a believing attitude, speaking with authority, relying on the whole counsel of God is in our midst". Some will get written into the book of life because of how they respond to that person, some will get/stay condemned. But the lurkers/crowds are always there. You never know who's listening.

Quote:

John 11:42 (NIV)

I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

 

[Ratsah]

It is the very reason Jesus spoke in parables, because some if not most didn't believe Him from the gecko. He spoke around the Pharisee's to reach the lost who were imprisoned by the traditions of men rather than of God. So in effect Jesus used the Pharisee's as an example of what NOT to be, thus infuriating them to anger.