And the Bible doesn't say you're going to hell for being circumcised.
"Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing ... ye are fallen from grace." Galatian 5:2-4
I'm sure you have some alternate interpretation of this then? Since you have the superior biblical knowledge I'm sure you already knew about this and were just joking when you said it wasn't in there.
Here's what you need to understand about the Bible. It speaks in absolute statements. What I mean by that is it takes everything to one extreme and presents that idea. For example, in Proverbs 26:4 it says, "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself." But then immediately after that in verse 5 it says, "Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes." At first, this may seem extremely contradicting, but obviously the author meant to write them both since they're right after each other. They are both true, but written as absolute statements. An English example is "Many hands make light work" and "Too many cooks spoil the broth". Both are true sometimes but each are written as absolute statements. So the Bible works in the same way.
So the bible isn't contradictory. It just says one thing and then says the exact opposite..........I think you might need a dictionary if we're going to continue this.
Leaving that aside however, there are four problems with this.
1)I wasn't quoting the same authors regarding salvation. I was quoting different verses from different books. So the author did not mean to write them both, one author gave one instruction, and then a second or third author gave a completely different instruction later.
2) You are not applying this to the criteria that was set out. My comment was about the exact instructions given on how to achieve salvation. "Too many cooks spoil the broth" is a folk proverb. Not an instruction from god. The instructions cannot both be true. You cannot hate the world and everything in it, yet love it. You cannot be fearful and yet without fear. None of this addresses the questions.
3)By your own admittance then, the bible is a useless book. If we're supposed to follow a large set of contradictory (and yes, that is the right word; look at your dictionary), then it simply becomes a matter of us making our own decisions about right and wrong anyways. After all, how are you to decide when you should hate the world, and when you should love it? Since you are required to do both and there are no instructions given on when to do which. Ultimately then it boils down to doing whichever one you want, whenever you want to do it. Which is no different from if you just ignored everything the book had to say.
4)You did not address anything that was said. I asked you which of these 100+ methods of salvation you are supposed to follow. Then cited specific means of salvation as examples, all of which you ignored. Instead you trotted out a bunch of old proverbs that have no bearing on the discussion. You didn't even address the initial post I quoted in the post before either. We are not discussing proverbs and folk sayings. We are discussing specific instructions regarding salvation and how they are to be followed.
You cannot have two absolute statements that are true and contradict each other. In fact you were asked how to resolve this conundrum, something else which you didn't do. You are dodging the issue, and not very well might I add. This doesn't address on anything said so far in the two posts.
Edit:As an addition, I should also point out that most of the methods for salvation are not contingent on simple faith and are matters which require you to perform certain actions. Since you claim that works aren't important, I'm guessing that this is why you ignored every detail of the issues that I raised.
Tell you what, let's play a game. You show a part of the bible that says that your position in the afterlife is determined on nothing more than faith. And for your one, I'll show you three that are based one either works or gods whim. Then we'll see who runs out first. (Hint:It won't be me.)
