No worries 405! I would count it as out of character if I thought your questions to be anything but sincere. Same as with Peter, just forthright discussion.

"Are you erring on the side of God's scripture, or are you choosing to believe in your ability to interpret said scripture perfectly, or even anything approaching perfection, therefore erring not on the side of said scripture, but on the side of your own interpretation?"

Well, the text says(meaning God says) to "study to show thyself approved, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth". Which clearly suggests that God means for us to understand Him and His message for us. It says elsewhere that the "Spirit of God will lead us into all truth", but here again I would suggest that is correspondent to the individuals willingness, which I haven't always been, nor are most believers I suspect, at least not perfectly. At the core, everything is proportional to ones faith, including ones spiritual growth.

I begin with the premise that God is knowable, that he has revealed himself, that he will reveal(which is also scriptural) as much truth as one needs, have need of and may be worthy of(can digest). Everything is its time. I am not a babe in Christ and I certainly am not perfect(nor expect to be by the conclusion of this life) but I am His work in progress(as are all the born again). I wish I could shortly convey the continuing transformation my life is. The inner life I would never have dreamt of, and certainly did nothing to deserve, this too is His gift for my answering His call(I'm fairly certain not His first call to myself). All that said, I am far from perfect, and still struggle with allowing Him lead me from within, as he promises is available, and occurs, ntl, in fits and starts because the flesh (containing also the spirit of man(standard equipment:)) wars against the Spirit of God that seals me and my brethren. We have been changed, and we don't always like it(we want to be part of the in-crowd too:), but in the end, well I can only imagine.

I personally, have moved away from that area of the meat of scripture (prophecy) back to the milk of the word, the gospel: the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Much of the scripture is quite plain and requires no interpretation, especially the milk. Not to a believer anyhow.

"Is this the matter of what you want to believe?"

Yes and No. And there's several aspects to this so if I leave something out, forgive me(though you prolly won't know:).

First off,I'm not clear on what you mean by "this" but here goes.

Yes, I believe on Jesus Christ. I believe He is the literal Son of God, took on flesh, born of a virgin and so on and so forth. But, you have to understand, that not unlike other disciplines, we're talking about a process. Being reborn happens all at once but everything after is about personal growth, and one can, and I did, stunt it, for quite some time. Think of me as a seed sow upon stoney ground. Before the age of 15, Jesus was presented to me in various religious formats(churches). I had quite the educational experiences where church varietals were concerned, and came away from it all quite unimpressed. Did the holy roller thing all the way through to the Latin Mass, including churches pretending to be Christian. Whether it's speaking in tongues or giving the Mass in Latin, well it's just stupid if the idea is to communicate the gospel. Or any message, LOL.

I can see the hand of God in my life, and every instance could be logically explained away. [We're presently experiencing sunshine and intense rattle the windows thunder, very cool. And I have faith the Lord will allow me finish this missive.]

And no, I don't always want to believe. I don't always want to restrain myself from my lusts. But mostly I do, call it out of fear, or enlightened self interest but I am a better man for it, a far better man than anyone would have expected me to become, including myself. I know I too must give account. It'll be a different time, sooner in fact for us Christians than the world at large. And too, we are instructed to judge ourselves, thus offering our confessions to the Lord expecting the forgiveness he promises. We're told that if we judge ourselves we need not be judged [and now it's raining cats and dogs and we may need an Ark, I tellya, just amazin' and more rumbling ... wowser...]

I know my being led to the Lord at 15 not only prolonged my temporal life, but it caused me to want to know the truth, about just about everything. Such as it is, I've educated myself because I needed to know geography, I needed to know history, I needed to know something of science, in order to better understand my faith. My faith demanded it, and really the Lord demanded it, He would not have us be ignorant.

One of the common ways my kind error, is forgetting we are no longer our own. We were bought with a price(without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins). An amazing price at that. My real point in this paragraph though is that while my dead self has been (often times)fighting to go its own way, the Lord ntl kept working on me, within and without(circumstance, frustrating, and even protecting me). I no doubt remain a far cry from the man He would have had me to be, were I more willing at an earlier age, but I am thankful that He most mercifully didn't leave me to my own devices. I surely would not have survived to this age.

So yeah, I believe because He lives, in me too. Almighty God witnesses to me from within, His Spirit is my comforter, just as promised. I needn't rely on my interpretation, He is risen, sitting at the right hand of the Father, for the present, and I too, by his mercy and holiness will rise from the grave one day, should He tarry. You have to admit it'd be cool to be of the generation who didn't experience the first death! Thus any death, since the second death is not an option for the believer.

Anyhow, that was pretty much stream of consciousness, off the top even, but if I failed you, give it another go, I'll get around to answering but it prolly won't be til late next week, busy busy busy through Monday.

peaceably

My gardens have pretty well drowned, although I'm told the pumpkins are huge in our sunflower patch. It's on some leased property down the road and I can't be by much. Sadly ... I wanna be a weed wackin' farmer, that's what I really want to be eee Wanderin' 'round behind the little animals ... LMAO, ahhh