Originally Posted by
BigJulie
Realfake, you ask a good question, so I thought I would reply.
First, the goal of the Bible is not to teach you to trust the Bible, but to trust God (whose words it is), right? I think you would agree. The Bible if full of stories in which people are told to listen to God, not what they think God wrote. An example is the Pharisees versus Peter. One trusted what they think was written, the other trusted God.
So, how do we get to the point we trust God. Well, we follow what is written--for starters. God teaches us to pray and to turn to him. We are also born with the "light of Christ" or an inner mechanism that teaches us what the Spirit feels like versus the body. We do something wrong, we feel guilt. We do something good, we feel light.
So, the point of the Bible really is to get us to learn to recognize the Spirit---it essentially teaches us what it means to follow the Spirit and what it means to follow the flesh. It is full of stories of those who followed God even when it appeared to contract what was already known of God--such as with Abraham, animal sacrifice, eating kosher or not, etc. The end point---the authority is always God, we are always to turn to God, we are to learn what it means to follow God. How do we know the difference of when we are following God or not? If we went by the word of God alone, we would end up looking much like the Pharisees and Saducees. Sure that they understood the word, sure that they were chosen, but they were horribly mistaken. Therefore, God gives us a second witness--His Spirit. The combination of the two (His word and His Spirit--wow, doesn't that sound an awful like like Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost)---is what allows us to known and learn to trust God.
Second point--everything that comes out of the mouths of the prophets. Well, I think that is the whole point of the Bible--that with God nothing is impossible. As I noted, with faith Abraham sacrificed Isaac. With faith, Moses parted the Red Sea. With faith, the apostles healed the sick and raised the dead. What exactly then, do you think is impossible?