Hijacking Craig's Blog

The following questions were asked of me by a fellow blogger after I commented on one of Craig's blog entries. I will attempt to answer them here.

What does that actually mean? Can one teach the whole Bible and be consistent? Where Old and New Testaments are in conflict which part do we go with?

If you are referring to Old Covenant and New Covenant, we go with new. I would of course pay a great deal of attention to someone who has studied the topic more in depth than I have, but I think a lot of that is a matter of your own conscience. If you want to practice some of the ceremonial laws of the old covenant, I believe you can. But I also believe that I don't have to.

Do we teach the Bible as literal truth? Assuming a yes answer, always? In every
case?

Yes, Yes and Yes.

Do we teach Jesus' Christianity or Paul's Christianity?

They are the same.

What exactly does it mean to be a Bible based Christian in practice.

It means you base your theology and your beliefs on what strictly on what the bible says.

I'm not trying to be funny here, but surely its a matter of interpretation: one person's whole Bible is another's Iran. I've met those Christians.

But some interpretations make absolutely no sense. When someone brings an interpretation to me that makes sense, but I don't agree with, I leave them be.

How about the Phelps clan from Topeka? Are they, as they claim, living by the Bible? If so, how? If not, how?

In some ways they are. I don't know that their claims or their theology are that far off. (I know, I know...) But I also don't believe the Bible promotes evangelizing through insults and condemnation. That type of behavior only turns people away from God.