God bless you too, dearest Scribe.  I can understand being a little scared, but I’m sure you know that you’ll learn so much about yourself.  I will be praying for you.  And if you are able to check your inbox, rest assured, there will be emails. 

That’s a hard call. I’d say it is an ancient text influenced by the Word of God .
The hard part about this is that all texts in my opinion are influenced by an outside source. The Bible tells good stories of God’s work to those who don’t find him present in their own lives, but as for the actual word of God, the Bible was written by humans, fallible creatures, who are able to twist and work words to say what they thought God said or what they heard him say. The books of the Bible were passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth before finally being transcribed, as well. That makes it a book similar to the Odyssey or Iliad. People have even added material as they saw fit to the Old Testament to be prevalent to the people of their time.
Now, before you flip out on me, just think on the matter. The Greeks believed in several gods and transcribed sensational poetic epics about them that have lasted for years and are read in World Literature classes the world over. The same has happened for Christians and Jews everywhere through the Bible. The Bible, passed down from generations to generations, helps share the beliefs and ideals of many generations and cultures along with tell their story of God.
I think as I’ve said before we need to keep the core of the Bible in our faith life, read the stories, but also know it was written thousands of years ago, and between then and now changes have been made either in writing or interpretation of the book.
I don’t mean to come off as a cynic against the Bible, either. I believe it did something right to be able to stick around for thousands of years, and it is a great guide for people to find their own faiths. I feel faith after a while, however, comes back to our own conversations and beliefs in God we develop through prayer and our own interpretations of the Word, through conversations and debates with others. We recieve guidance in how to communicate with him through reading the Bible, talking to friends, family and pastors, and through discussing the Word with others relate it to our own lives. In a way, the Bible is a way to finding our own truths and thoughts in God, and makes it a conduit for the word of God to approach us.
This is hard to put down in words. My belief in God is not hinged on the Bible’s existence. I see how he works in my life through the good and the bad. Without reading the Bible or becoming familiar with it throughout childhood, however, I believe I’d chalk alot of my personal experiences up to luck or lack thereof. I believe hinging your belief around a book which can prove to be fallible hurts religion. God is all around us, looking out for us and guiding us through our daily lives. No matter the choices we make, he is near us to help us down the road in the future. I put my faith in that claim almost every day.
Wow. This discussion is really making me look at my own beliefs in a new way.
Good luck and may god be with you during your communications blackout. My computer at Algona went belly-up yesterday, too, so I’m in a state of communications outage, too.

I believe in the New Testament and the Pentateuch of the Old Testament. Beyond that, the books tell great stories and show God’s love and strength, but I wouldn’t say they’re integral to living everyday life. Leviticus, I believe, is a book that is extremely outdated. It might have been great for orthodox Jews, but all those laws and rules wouldn’t uphold in our days society. We’d have to constantly be repenting, which might be the case, but when Jesus came down to reside with us and die for our sins, I feel those laws were eliminated in exchange we follow the examples given to us in the New testament. The Ten Commandments, however, are terrific guidelines to building strong societies, so I feel their is some importance to keeping them fresh in people’s minds.
Paul’s Letters to the apostles help explain faith well, and what challenges churches need to make sure they are correct.
Scribe, I’m loving this discussion and I hope it’s giving you an idea on my beliefs and feelings on Christianity. I feel my interpretation of the Bible and faith are different and unique to me and my experiences, as I’m sure others are to them, but it helps me keep peace with God in a world so fraught with changes and challenges everyday. Hope you have a peaceful retreat and a terrific month Scribe, and look forward to talking to you again! You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers, that’s for sure.

I tried being mentally silent for a few days.  I told myself many times to “shut up!”  Context contributes a lot to an endeavor like that, though!
Some days discernment makes so much sense and all the orders are beautiful.  I came across the Marians on line along with some Dominican websites;  I feel like a kid in a candystore and God tells me to pick one.  One?!