I submit the above statement is itself an example of an opinion.
You failed to cite the reason why your submition is legitimate.
I've said that I don't consider the Bible, as a whole, to be the dictated WORD of God.
That is because you are well aware that
most of the bible is the words of flawed men, and only a small portion is the dictated words of god.
It is a record of the revelation of God
The only parts
"revelealed" by god are the parts dictaded by god. The rest is written by imperfect men.
sometimes they make efforts to record words that God specifically inspired them to write and sometimes they write simply as they are inspired
The phrase
"simply as they are inspired" more readily implies that god inspired the apostles to write specific messages. That's the meaning you subtly expressed. But that's not the meaning you were pretending to express. You should have written that sometimes they make efforts to record words that God specifically inspired them to write and sometimes they write
simply as inspired men.
That would have been a more honest statement.
these are two different forms of inspiration that requires discernment on the part of the reader, but all of it is at some level inspired.
There are two
forms of inspiration and both forms are inspiration. But when you write that all of it is inspired, "
at some level", you imply that the two forms of inspiration are the
same forms but on different
levels.
The truth is that the two forms of inspiratoin do not even apply to the same objects.
One form of inspiration is a dictation from god.
The other form has nothing to do with god's words. That form has to do with god
having a relationship with man. You, Graceseeker, claim to have that form of insperation (
a relationship with god). Will you assert that all of your words are
on some level inspired by god (specifically dictated by god) because you have a relationship with god? I doubt it; it would be blasphemous if you were to do so.
It is also blasphemous for you to imply that all of the apostles words are on
some level inspired by god because they have a relationship with god.
And it is dishonest of you to
subtly imply that if you have a relationship with god then
on some level all of your words are specifically dictated by god.
It is also incorrect to assert that the entire NT is
on some level a dictation from god.
The
reader must descern which parts of the NT are
dictated by god, and which parts are
the uninspired, normal words of everday christians who have "a relationship with god".
I reject categorically as an unsubstantiated a priori assumption on your part the implication that for a passage of scripture to be inspired the author of it must stated, "this is God's word on the following subject....."
You have already stated that the NT is the
imperfect words of flawed men. It is common knowledge that if god directly inspired a message, then that message is perfect. It follows that you have already stated that the NT is not inspired by god.
The NT is mostly the words of inspired men like yourself.
I don't need a direct statement of inspiration. I'm simply pointing out that for the majority of the NT the authors did not even
imply, with the benifit of the doubt, that their words were inspired by god.