Is this Bible verse about believers and poison to be taken literally?

Funniest thing I have ever read on EvC. I literally spit out my pepsi onto my powerbook.

Duh.

Are we not in the same crisis of faith? It's even pointed out by Phat in his post about modern culture.Where are the poison drinkers that should be showing us that God is here and we should accept his word? Are we less important than the people He was trying to convert so many centuries ago?

I understand where you're coming from, Faith (at least I think I do).I suppose I just feel that the crisis that Christians of today's world face is not much different from what was experience in yesterday's time. To me, it seems like a God that was so involved and passionate about believing and faith, who was doing all he could (even sending his only begotten son) has since left us.Why?Is there anything to indicate that his plan was to set the wheels of the church in motion and then let them ride out without further involvement?

I don't see how that's possible. Preachers and their other higher men of faith are still men. They're human and show no signs of being connected to anything of a higher power (and in some cases, as recently has come out in the press more so, do very very very bad things).Putting all that aside, we have people that you're saying the Bible tells us to hold in high regard and trust. How can we -- as people ourselves -- trust other normal everyday people with the understanding of our entire state of being?I wouldn't even trust them with my son or daughter (if I had one). That's not saying anything derogatory about the church, mind you, don't take it the wrong way. My point is, I wouldn't trust ANYONE in such high regard just based on their title. To say that we must be blissfully ignorant in our trust in order to show our faith to God, I just can't get behind.I still have to say if God wants me he needs to show me indisputable evidence. If he is the God I have read about, I don't see any reason why that would be a problem.Am I way off base?

I see. That's not enough for me, personally. I, being but a mortal human, do not understand why He wouldn't just want to show himself as legend has it he has done in the past. However, I do now understand where you're coming from. Thank you for explaining it.This message has been edited by dsv, Wednesday, April 27, 2005 12:47 AM

When God is thought of in those terms it's impossible to know Him. You could loosely base his morals and opinions on the time period that involved Jesus, but you're defining him as a "thinking" entity in constant reanalysis of his universe. Maybe he is different from the God of biblical times -- maybe he is drastically different, maybe he has a slightly different view of the outcome. Maybe he's gone altogether, he left and went to a different brane in M Theory (heh, why not pull together more philosophy while we're at it) and has created a new universe since the whole perfect sin-free world deal didn't work out in this one.I think your description adds a certain humanizing reason to God. I'm not sure how that affects one's faith, because I do not subscribe to it, personally.Imagine I had a train set with a little city and all (one of those highly complex ones, like at the Pittsburgh science museum). If it is my universe, my opinion of that world would evolve over time. Running trains in the same old way is fun for a while, but now and then you like to smash them together, or do random unrelated activities.The philosophy that stems from such a suggestion could be very interesting. (I would be interested in a thread specifically about it, perhaps.)