OK, one more to go after this, then I'll be caught up...

>>>“And since God doesn't show up and define Himself to us, how else can He be defined, except by men? “

***Well, first you start with an assumption that there is a God and that this God wants to be known by men in a way that is comprehendible by men of all levels of education, etc. He needs a way to provide this Truth about himself that will work from the beginning of man to the end. He can’t just stand there ‘in the clouds’ and say “look at me” or he’ll violate our freewill of choosing to believe he exists or not. There HAS to be compelling alternatives.

So for the early years, God used oral tradition through the Hebrews who were very structured and amazingly good at passing down traditions from one generation to the next. In time, these oral traditions were written down and saved. At the time of Jesus, the role of the Hebrews\Jews in preserving the OT had been fulfilled. Now when the Gospel of Jesus needed to be spread to all nations, languages, cultures, etc, the OT and the Gospel\NT could be documented, preserved, and shared in writings.

The early Catholic Church played a role in preserving the Bible (not without problem, but that is another topic) through the ‘dark ages’ during the rise and fall of empires and the pillaging and burning of the old libraries and during times when very few people were educated enough to even read.

In the last several hundred years, education, the availability of books \ bibles became much more prevalent. Those that had preserved the texts (amazingly well when compared to the Dead Sea scrolls and other ancient writings found) – i.e. the Catholic Church, had also abused the power they had because they controlled who could and could not read the scriptures (and thus controlled how the scriptures should be interpreted). Along comes guys like Martin Luther who realized what had been happening and desired to put the scriptures back in the hands of the common person. The timing of course was spot on because printing presses had just started being used. Today anybody can get a bible and read it (in their own language) in nearly every corner of the world (or look it up on the internet  ).

Today we have access to many biblical versions. Some are word for word translations while others are more thought for thought oriented. Bother are valuable tools for studying the Bible. We have confidence in the translations based on the remarkable accuracy found when compared to the ancient writings. We have so many resources like concordances and other tools that help us study words and phrases used in Biblical times to help understand the modern meaning based on a very good understanding of the culture, traditions, politics, social issues, historical references, archaeological references, etc.

But even with all of those resources, God tells us through the Bible that the Word and Wisdom of God given to us is all foolishness to the unbeliever. For the believer, God has given the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us in spiritual matters and in discerning the mysteries of the Bible.


>>>“The unfortunate fact is that this whole shebang is an issue of faith, and faith only.”

***By design, this is true. But there is plenty of evidence – from evidence that backs up the historical claims of the Bible, so the evidence of millions of lives completely and unbelievably changed by God and the evidence of God working in your personal life. The latter form of evidence is impossible to know unless you or someone you know has personally experienced it. The evidence is very compelling in that case…


>>>“I'll just say that Christianity in the U.S. in undergoing a period of especially bad salesmanship on the part of its most visible and vocal "practitioners." I placed quotes around that because we discovered the other day that these most visible, vocal are actually just another cult”

***That has always been the case. The good news is that with the tools we have at our fingertips, we can clearly discern who the ‘cults’ are and who is misusing Christianity and twisting it for their own agendas.


>>>“Or any other question regarding Religion, God, whats right and whats wrong or anything on the matter. However, you seem to have all the answers. Maybe your God ??? “

***Nobody has all the answers. I have faith – educated, experienced, and personal faith. I am learning all the time.