In general I agree with the sentiment of your stance. I think that we vary on the importance and place of scripture a bit and the church but definitely find unity at the centrality of the resurrection.
Our differences of opinion are OK. And I appreciated your last post.
Most people who walked away from Christianity did so for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. They walked away from a version of Christianity that could be compared to a house of cards…if someone convinced them (for example) that if the earth wasn’t really created in 6 literal days, then why should they believe anything else in the Bible…that if any part of any of the 66 books of the Bible is proven to be untrue, then the Bible isn’t true, and if the Bible isn’t true, then their version of Christianity comes crashin’ down (like a house of cards).
Who taught them that believing non-essential things, like the literal 6 day creation account in Genesis (for example) was essential to following Jesus…? A person can certainly follow Jesus without believing whatever it is that they’ve decided they no longer believe (non-essential beliefs). And what these folks disbelieve usually intersects with something in the Old Testament.
I will say this... man is corrupted, from Adam and Eve, to Moses and David. The bible is written by men, it is corrupted. It's the account of man reaching to God with all the good and bad. God reached back to man with Christ, who didn't leave one personal written word. Then written words are continued again after the resurrection, man was reaching back to God. No matter how well meaning and sincere any man is in his attempt to 'speak' for God, they will always be interpreting it through the human deficiency.
Man's words are rooted in time, place and space. They are insufficient to describe, define or contain God. True communication with God does not use man words, it's through spirit, emotion. Man's closest word to describe God is not eternal, it's infinity. He exists forward and backward, outward and inward, from infinite points in infinite directions. The mind can't comprehend that, words can't explain it.
Nothing wrong with the bible used as a self search into your relationship with God, you are just another human in the list of humans in the bible doing the same. If someone uses those human words to ostracize or judge another man's relationship with God... well that's corrupted human nature at it's core... for good or bad that's just how it is.
