# Walking with God, is the bible required?



## gordon 2 (Aug 22, 2017)

As Enoch and Noah walked with God how was it that they walked with God without the bible?

 Both these individuals preceded Abraham and Zacharias, Moses and Paul from which the scriptures ( Old and New Testaments) stem.

Genesis 5:22 Enoch continued to walk with the true God.

Walking with God, is the bible required? It appears not according to scripture.


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## formula1 (Aug 22, 2017)

*re:*

I suppose there is potential for anyone to walk with God without the Bible when walking in complete communication with Him and in perfect obedience to Him! Enoch walked with God in such a way that many presume he never died!  But not much written down at the time of Enoch but it points to a truth that God is always speaking but not everyone hears.  Enoch did and also Noah to a point.

I am also convinced that the Scriptures (God's revealed word) helps all men today have that potential to walk with Him through Christ! John 20:30-31 comes to mind!


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## hummerpoo (Aug 22, 2017)

The scriptures are first, and foremost, a gracious gift of God.

As you point out, it would be difficult to argue that they are necessary.


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## hawglips (Sep 20, 2017)

I believe the word of God is required - in the sense that without it, one does not know the will of God, and therefore cannot do it; and if we don't do the will of the Father, then we miss out on heaven (Matt. 7:21).  

But the word of God isn't just what has been recorded and accepted as canonized scripture.  The word of God comes from God - through direct communication from God as per Enoch, Noah, Moses, etc., through angelic ministrations, through the Holy Ghost, or through the records of these communications which are written down by those who received them - i.e., scripture.


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## j_seph (Sep 20, 2017)

formula1 said:


> I suppose there is potential for anyone to walk with God without the Bible *when walking in complete communication with Him and in perfect obedience to Him! *Enoch walked with God in such a way that many presume he never died!  But not much written down at the time of Enoch but it points to a truth that God is always speaking but not everyone hears.  Enoch did and also Noah to a point.
> 
> I am also convinced that the Scriptures (God's revealed word) helps all men today have that potential to walk with Him through Christ! John 20:30-31 comes to mind!


Makes me think of the kid playing a video game. He'll sit there and you can talk to him, holler at him, make a noise and their eyes never leave that screen. Just as we are today with life in general, God will speak to us but like that kid we are so tied up carnally in this world today we do not even hear his voice. Even seen kids later on say they heard ya but don't know what was said to them. Again just as we are with God he talks to us but we couldn't tell you what he said because out attention goes to the worldly things more so than one on one with God.


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## SemperFiDawg (Sep 20, 2017)

That's a great analogy j.


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## gordon 2 (Sep 20, 2017)

j_seph said:


> Makes me think of the kid playing a video game. He'll sit there and you can talk to him, holler at him, make a noise and their eyes never leave that screen. Just as we are today with life in general, God will speak to us but like that kid we are so tied up carnally in this world today we do not even hear his voice. Even seen kids later on say they heard ya but don't know what was said to them. Again just as we are with God he talks to us but we couldn't tell you what he said because out attention goes to the worldly things more so than one on one with God.




So, God talk missed is like parent talk when kinder are distracted by play? ( It possibly worked this way with the Hebrews, but Christians?

Yet should not God talk be the life itself, that is eternal life within the believer? Can play be a distraction to eternal life?

I somehow don't think so. It might be more you got it or you don't have it.. and therefore all the bible quotations to explain stuff is adrift in The Sea of It Might Mean This if you don't have the Son and eternal life.

Here have a go at this scripture and if you don't get it the first go around you might have to question your alter call or have a revisit. 


Quote{11And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.…} end quote

Now... are you distracted, knowing not where to go, what to do, or does this verse hit you like the bark of a drill sergeant and you know right where you stand with passing... certainty?


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## gordon 2 (Sep 21, 2017)

13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

16 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.

Roots? Our soil is rooted with eternal life from which patience ( love)  brings forth fruit?

"And that which fell among thorns are they"... Are they J's analogy?

"which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it"?


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## j_seph (Sep 21, 2017)

Trying to cypher what you are getting at. Just because we hear his voice does not mean we listen to his voice.


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## gordon 2 (Sep 21, 2017)

j_seph said:


> Trying to cypher what you are getting at. Just because we hear his voice does not mean we listen to his voice.




Yes... I suppose.


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## Artfuldodger (Sep 21, 2017)

Maybe God talks and we hear, we just choose not to heed.


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## gordon 2 (Sep 21, 2017)

Artfuldodger said:


> Maybe God talks and we hear, we just choose not to heed.



Well, for me God talks with his love, from love and out of love. That love is with the saint...

Personally I find it strange that a saint would not heed. What I suspect it that some might think they are christian for various reasons but their use of God's love is as if they were guided by God's discipline as with the Hebrews and they know  only this love. But that is not our love... We have the ministry of Jesus as described in scripture, his example with people in general, and we have his words, his teachings about all sorts of relationships, and we have people who have freshly received the Holy Spirit such as Paul, Peter, John and James the Just and we have the ministering of the Holy Spirit and we have the body of Christ, as the church.

So what's not to heed? Can you give example of not heeding? I might try to give you one: When a congregation, a brand of christians or its members, under the name of Christ encourages the temper of the Roman body politic in individuals, and so to deal with the world as the world deals with itself,  even today, then it might be not heeding.


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## Artfuldodger (Sep 21, 2017)

gordon 2 said:


> Well, for me God talks with his love, from love and out of love. That love is with the saint...
> 
> Personally I find it strange that a saint would not heed. What I suspect it that some might think they are christian for various reasons but their use of God's love is as if they were guided by God's discipline as with the Hebrews and they know  only this love. But that is not our love... We have the ministry of Jesus as described in scripture, his example with people in general, and we have his words, his teachings about all sorts of relationships, and we have people who have freshly received the Holy Spirit such as Paul, Peter, John and James the Just and we have the ministering of the Holy Spirit and we have the body of Christ, as the church.
> 
> So what's not to heed? Can you give example of not heeding? I might try to give you one: When a congregation, a brand of christians or its members, under the name of Christ encourages the temper of the Roman body politic, and deal with the world as the world deals with itself,  even today, then it might be not heeding.



What about the Holy Spirit telling me to sing, dance, laugh, or roll around on the floor and I just sit because I don't want to be labeled a fanatic?
I hear the calling but I don't heed. I get the feeling but I don't react. I don't "walk with God" in that instant.


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## j_seph (Sep 22, 2017)

Artfuldodger said:


> What about the Holy Spirit telling me to sing, dance, laugh, or roll around on the floor and I just sit because I don't want to be labeled a fanatic?
> I hear the calling but I don't heed. I get the feeling but I don't react. I don't "walk with God" in that instant.


This was sort of my thought, I can remember a devotional we were doing for our teens on a Thursday night for a couple months before they started back to school. One of the leaders said he felt we needed to go into the chapel, hold hands around the pulpit. As we gathered around it I looked down at the oil in front of it. It came to me we might should anoint the pulpit. Instead of picking it up and doing that that instant I delayed just a few seconds. One of the other leaders reached down and grabbed it and did so. I did not say a word to anyone when this feeling came on me. I didn't heed his voice, what the Lord wanted done got done regardless. Just a few minutes after that she felt tingling all over, as did the 2 that were holding her hands when we started to pray. She actually led the prayer and I have never heard Mrs Kathy pray so hard with so much spirit in my life.


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## Artfuldodger (Sep 22, 2017)

j_seph said:


> This was sort of my thought, I can remember a devotional we were doing for our teens on a Thursday night for a couple months before they started back to school. One of the leaders said he felt we needed to go into the chapel, hold hands around the pulpit. As we gathered around it I looked down at the oil in front of it. It came to me we might should anoint the pulpit. Instead of picking it up and doing that that instant I delayed just a few seconds. One of the other leaders reached down and grabbed it and did so. I did not say a word to anyone when this feeling came on me. I didn't heed his voice, what the Lord wanted done got done regardless. Just a few minutes after that she felt tingling all over, as did the 2 that were holding her hands when we started to pray. She actually led the prayer and I have never heard Mrs Kathy pray so hard with so much spirit in my life.



Amen, that's powerful!


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## Ronnie T (Sep 22, 2017)

If you dont use God's word you can just do and teach anything your mind conjures up.
Sounds like a great modern-day plan.


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## gordon 2 (Sep 23, 2017)

Ronnie T said:


> If you dont use God's word you can just do and teach anything your mind conjures up.
> Sounds like a great modern-day plan.



It is possible yes. However... does not the HS reprove, guide, teach independent of scripture those who do and teach so that it is not anything a mind might conjure up? The Holy Spirit might teach from the kingdom, while  lots of what is related in scripture was before the kingdom was and when men thought other men what scripture meant? Now God teaches directly... ?


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## Jack Ryan (Sep 23, 2017)

gordon 2 said:


> As Enoch and Noah walked with God how was it that they walked with God without the bible?
> 
> Both these individuals preceded Abraham and Zacharias, Moses and Paul from which the scriptures ( Old and New Testaments) stem.
> 
> ...



Ya might have a better shot at answering this from reading the Bible than an internet hunting board.


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## gordon 2 (Sep 24, 2017)

Jack Ryan said:


> Ya might have a better shot at answering this from reading the Bible than an internet hunting board.


\
Thanks bros. Good point. However my friends here often come up with good points.  But yea, I should look for answers in scripture more than I do. It's just that a lot of the friends here have a head start in scripture searching on me...


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## hawglips (Sep 25, 2017)

hawglips said:


> I believe the word of God is required - in the sense that without it, one does not know the will of God, and therefore cannot do it; and if we don't do the will of the Father, then we miss out on heaven (Matt. 7:21).
> 
> But the word of God isn't just what has been recorded and accepted as canonized scripture.  The word of God comes from God - through direct communication from God as per Enoch, Noah, Moses, etc., through angelic ministrations, through the Holy Ghost, or through the records of these communications which are written down by those who received them - i.e., scripture.



But by clarification, I also believe a lot of folks that have not had access to the Bible walked with God (literally and figuratively).


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## hawglips (Sep 29, 2017)

hawglips said:


> But by clarification, I also believe a lot of folks that have not had access to the Bible walked with God (literally and figuratively).



Is it likely that anyone today could walk with God without the scriptures?    I'd say it's possible but highly unlikely.


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## Spineyman (Sep 29, 2017)

gordon 2 said:


> As Enoch and Noah walked with God how was it that they walked with God without the bible?
> 
> Both these individuals preceded Abraham and Zacharias, Moses and Paul from which the scriptures ( Old and New Testaments) stem.
> 
> ...



My question is, why would you want to? In  Hebrews 1 verses 1 - 3. God the Father reveals to us His Living Word. 

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 

The written Word reveals to us the Living Word. Everything in the Bible points us to Jesus. The Old Testament points us forward to Christ and the New points us back to Christ. His earthly ministry culminating in His death, burial, and resurrection is the pinnical of human history. Scripture is also given  to us as a gift, and remains to this day the only way to overcome the fiery darts of the evil one.

So again I ask, why would anyone want to, especially when it is so readily available, unlike the Old Testament. When printing just was not available or cost effective. Oh what a gift, oh what a treasure.


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## Artfuldodger (Sep 30, 2017)

Spineyman said:


> My question is, why would you want to? In  Hebrews 1 verses 1 - 3. God the Father reveals to us His Living Word.
> 
> 1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
> 
> ...



I don't think the OP is suggesting that today one would want to seek God without using scripture. He was showing that Enoch and Noah did. 
Therefore it could be possible that today, say folks on far away islands and villages deep in the jungles can walk with God without ever hearing or reading scripture.

If God wants one to hear, then he will hear.


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## welderguy (Sep 30, 2017)

1 John 2:27

27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

"the same anointing teacheth you of all things..."


A person can study scripture 24/7 , but if they haven't received this anointing, they are still in darkness.


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## Spineyman (Sep 30, 2017)

Artfuldodger said:


> I don't think the OP is suggesting that today one would want to seek God without using scripture. He was showing that Enoch and Noah did.
> Therefore it could be possible that today, say folks on far away islands and villages deep in the jungles can walk with God without ever hearing or reading scripture.
> 
> If God wants one to hear, then he will hear.



I do not dispute that because it is God who calls us, and seeks us out. It is also God who makes covenant with us , not the other way around. But those references are Old Testament and pre printing abilities. Yes there are still areas that are remote enough to not have Bibles or even know about them. That is not the norm though. The end results , God still calls and saves those whom He chooses for Himself.


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## Artfuldodger (Oct 1, 2017)

Spineyman said:


> I do not dispute that because it is God who calls us, and seeks us out. It is also God who makes covenant with us , not the other way around. But those references are Old Testament and pre printing abilities. Yes there are still areas that are remote enough to not have Bibles or even know about them. That is not the norm though. The end results , God still calls and saves those whom He chooses for Himself.



I would agree that most folks now a days have access to a Bible if they want it. This did not happen at the end of the Old Testament. It took many years for the written Gospel to reach the ends of the earth. 

Therefore as you mentioned, God still calls and saves those whom He chooses for Himself. I would also agree that it would be foolish for one to walk with God and not use written scripture. Why would one want to indeed?


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## Big7 (Oct 1, 2017)

Most folks never even heard of one
the better part of the first 450-500 years or so
of Christianity.

Just sayin.


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## Spineyman (Oct 2, 2017)

Big7 said:


> Most folks never even heard of one
> the better part of the first 450-500 years or so
> of Christianity.
> 
> Just sayin.



You are correct, Martin Luther in the 1500's learned the importance of printed media. Before that it was extremely expensive. But the greater condemnation today is we have churches on almost every corner, we have Bibles in most households, and look at the wickedness that prevails today. So I say not God bless America today but God please have mercy on America because we have lost our way.


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## hawglips (Oct 3, 2017)

Spineyman said:


> You are correct, Martin Luther in the 1500's learned the importance of printed media. Before that it was extremely expensive. But the greater condemnation today is we have churches on almost every corner, we have Bibles in most households, and look at the wickedness that prevails today. So I say not God bless America today but God please have mercy on America because we have lost our way.



Amen.


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## LittleDrummerBoy (Dec 6, 2017)

I think it is possible to confound the idea of men walking with God who did not have access to the Bible with men walking with God who have rejected the Bible.

From whom much is given, much is expected.  Having the blessing of Scripture raises the bar.


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## Israel (Dec 7, 2017)

LittleDrummerBoy said:


> I think it is possible to confound the idea of men walking with God who did not have access to the Bible with men walking with God who have rejected the Bible.
> 
> From whom much is given, much is expected.  Having the blessing of Scripture raises the bar.




Well put. "those who knew the Master's will, _but did it not..."_

If we approach _anything_ apart from the love of God ruling in our hearts, well,  we may find _ourselves _being schooled. (And that _works good_)

We are responsible/entrusted to those things_ we say we know._


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