>Charles,
>
>What does this mean to you? I Corinthians 2:1-5
>
>1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
>2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
>3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
>4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
>5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."
>
>God's ways are different, Charles.
>Anyone wanting to find God must seek Him as He is, not as they choose to seek.
>
>In short, and very simply: These "man's wisdom" thoughts you possess are keeping you from God.


It means you believe that these line, written by Paul, a man, only revered among those who accept certain basic premises that self-referential, are directly dictated, inspired and at very least proof-read by an anthropomorphic diety.

Your "faith" is in this man, Paul, the translators, the validity of the suppression of all succeeding strains of Christianity, the rejection of the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of all the rest of mankind throughout history, and your understanding of the English language version of the Bible.

You are worshiping text, hoping it is the instruction manual that will help you figure out life.

Good luck with that.

You think this text is God talking to you - and that the great ground of being of the universe "talks" just like men do because we are comfortable creating gods in our own image and therefore create the idea that somehow god must be just like us (or a powerful, wrathful, jealous, petty king in the Babylonian model, or a Father we wish we had.

I'm glad it gives you comfort but please understand that to an even moderately intelligent, educated person your arguments are not persuasive and probably do your beliefs a disservice.

The idea that you, or any textural literalist relying on a book written and translated by those who have not more clue than they do, have a clue about God, "god's ways", the validity of the book you use as your soul source of information has become kind of a joke.

I know that is cool for you because then you get to be a martyr for the faith, but since you seem to be a nice - if delusional - person I hope you realize that your smugness has become kind of tedious for most people and sometimes it is difficult to be polite when you pontificate in areas where only willful ignorance can explain your argument.

I accept that you have completely cut yourself loose from the wisdom of men. I just reject the idea that in its place you have received the wisdom of the power of God.