RETHINKING THE BIBLE
Like millions of others, I too believed the Bible was infallible and inerrant for many years of my life. I have read the Bible from cover to cover, more than once and studied portions of it many times. Based upon certain verses in the Bible, we have all been led to believe that it is all inspired by God. Perhaps part of the reason for that belief is that even Jesus Christ made reference to certain individuals in the Old Testament. In life I have learned to question and that to automatically assume something is true, is a sure ticket to deception. Bible infallibility is actually a form of CENSORSHIP, which means to Bible apologists that it cannot be questioned, because to question the Bible is to question God. Not so!
Strangely, even in the New Testament the reader is told to "prove all things" and "try the spirits whether they be of God." The things Jesus Christ taught during His human life time, were jaw-dropping. Jesus Christ was is in fact the most renowned whistleblower the world has ever known and His impact upon human beings is monumental. We read that Jesus came to SET THE CAPTIVES FREE. Jesus also DEMOLISHED man-made religion as recorded in Matthew 23, which is worthy of being read and thought about by all church goers. Jesus was profound. Jesus offended the religious rulers and the religious elite. I would even suggest that should Jesus Christ walk our streets today, He would bypass the "pastors", the "senior pastors", the "bishops", the "elders", the "reverends", the mega-church leaders, those with titles such as "Dr. Pastor", the "scholars", those with "masters" degrees in theology, those with "doctorate" degrees in theology and so forth and once again hand-pick "uneducated fishermen", or perhaps farmers or housewives as disciples (people with common sense).
Jesus Christ bucked the religious status-quo. Jesus and His disciples picked corn and ate it on the Sabbath Day. Jesus healed the sick on the Sabbath day. Jesus proved that man-made religion is just that---man-made. Jesus did not wash His hands before He ate, which was an offense to the legalists. In our world today, we also have the legalists, not only in the original Worldwide Church of God and its many daughters, but the world is overrun with religious legalists in many different groups. Going to church itself is a form of legalism. What does it really have to do with salvation or eternal life? Sure Jesus entered the synagogue, but not to learn truth, but to enlighten those who lived in darkness.
The church world is Bible obsessed. They think life on earth revolves around Bible study. It does NOT! Life really revolves around LOVE (at least it should), and God is LOVE. How is God love in the face of tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and "natural" disasters? What about endless wars of death and destruction? The issue is that God created human life and we all suffer because of the decisions humans make in life. Most of us are not responsible for the heinous wars of mankind, but many suffer because of them. Why does God not intervene and stop them? I have asked that question a million times and the only conclusion I have is that we have to learn from living, but that does not make God responsible for insane wars. As to natural disasters, I have no answer, but I do not assign evil to God. Who does not have questions with no valid answers?
The Bible in my opinion is a great deal of fiction, myth, legend and human fabrication. That of course offends the senses of many. I can receive the fact that there are some good teachings in the Bible, especially the words attributed to Jesus Christ, such as about love, compassion, mercy, empathy and humility but that does not cause me to believe that everything in the Bible is fact or truth. I have no idea how the New Testament was penned, even though I have read that it was penned many years AFTER the life of Jesus Christ. Was Jesus Christ quoted "verbatim?" How does anyone know? Truth is---they don't know! For many it seems that their faith in Jesus depends entirely upon the false belief that "the Bible is infallible and inerrant."
The Old Testament and the book of "Revelation" both defy the teachings of Jesus Christ and are cause to seriously doubt inspiration. Just because one verse says "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", does not make what is called the Bible, the word of God. In the end of the book of "Revelation" we read that anyone who tampers with "Revelation" will suffer the consequence. That is an obvious attempt at CENSORSHIP and I would suggest that the real author of this novel and fiction had an ulterior motive. Throughout history men have always put words in the mouth of God that God never spoke and attributed events to God that God is not responsible for. The gullible and naive "think" God authored the Bible, for no other reason that they read "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", and the hard fact is that ANYONE with pen in hand could pen such words and attach anything to those words they wish, causing the reader to believe that God did it, when He did not.
Anyone who digs deep will learn that there are mountains of information about the Bible, that will overturn what millions have believed about it. There is an avalanche of knowledge about the Bible that will no doubt change the course of how human beings see the Bible in the years to come. In my personal convictions, that does not cause me to be an atheist or cause me to doubt Jesus Christ. In fact, without Jesus Christ there is NO LIGHT in the world. Naturally I read that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, but also the Living Waters, the Bread of Life, the Manna from Heaven, the Light of the World, the Vine, the Door, the Resurrection, the Good Shepherd and the ONLY Master from the Bible and I accept that. What other hope is there? NONE!
Is what is called "the Bible" really a man-made idol? Do many worship "the Bible?" Of course they say they do not, but I believe they do. The Bible is really just INK on PAPER. It is not God and God is not the Bible. God is a Spirit Being, He is not INK on PAPER.
Van Robison
10 comments:
"without Jesus Christ there is NO LIGHT in the world."
Sure there is.
And let's face it. Without the bible, there is no jesus christ, is there. So you can cast doubt on the book all you like, your "light of the world" is rather dependant on it.
Let the cherry picking begin!
Keep going, Van. You're getting there step by step. Once you see that Jesus the Christ is a fiction too concocted from a plethora of other saviors who existed centuries before, things will begin to be a lot more clear.
Strange how the first century historians never noticed this suppossedly outstanding individual and all the wondrous things he was supposed to have done. Maybe it was just because Judea was a hotbed of one executed wild-eyed "messiah" after another, much like the COGs are hotbeds of apostles, that prophets, two witnesses, etc.
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
-Voltaire
That's right, Allen. Once you can convince yourself of the absurd idea that the bible is the infallible word of God, it becomes possible to convince yourself of lots of other absurd ideas, such as the idea that your or someone else you know is an apostle, or a prophet, or the two witnesses, or even Jesus Christ himself!
The process of coming to believe all of these things is exactly the same. The only difference is the inputs. When this first crucial step is completed, then the fun and atrocities can begin!
Jace is at a different end of the spectrum to me, but we are in agreement when he says:-
“Without the bible, there is no jesus christ, is there. So you can cast doubt on the book all you like, your "light of the world" is rather dependant on it”
Is Van Robison’s position even rational? On the one hand he says:-
“The Bible in my opinion is a great deal of fiction, myth, legend and human fabrication…. I have no idea how the New Testament was penned”
But using this source of ‘fiction, myth, legend and human fabrication’, Van Robinson then concludes:-
“In fact, without Jesus Christ there is NO LIGHT in the world……What other hope is there? NONE!”
With Van Robison’s view of the source of the Hope, what value can be placed on such a hope?
"With Van Robison’s view of the source of the Hope, what value can be placed on such a hope?"
The same level of value that could be placed on said hope even if the book were to be taken seriously. I'm sure I sound like a broken record here, but if you put stock in the bible, you have to 1) either ignore the horrific parts in it (IE cherrypick) or 2) convince yourself that things like genocide, virgin rape, slavery, killing your son, etc are OK. Ignoring the old testament just isn't a viable option.
Jace, I for one have never been able to set aside the horrific parts of the Old Testament. I react to the god character the same way I react to, say, Captain Ahab in *Moby Dick* or Jason Compson in *The Sound and the Fury*: "Damn, if I had a boss who was such a jerk as that, I'd walk out on the job!"
Since it was inconceivable to me that a loving, merciful god could act like the one depicted in the Bible, I concluded such a being was an impossibility. There might exist some some intelligent force that kick-started the universe, but it was safe to cross Yahweh off the list of candidates. But even if I could believe that particular god was not a fiction but an actuality, I would refuse to worship him. That's how I rethought the Bible some fifty-odd years ago.
In 1975, I left Armstrongism. One strike, you're out on something as big as backpedaling and lying about the date you manipulated us with, the date for the return of Jesus Christ.
I abandoned religion for pretty much the next thirty years, and frankly, I was in the minority amongst my peers in Pasadena, as some of my friends joined up with Dr. Martin, or some of the other ministers who left. These friends wondered how I could possibly just chuck the whole thing and become an atheist.
During my thirty years as an atheist or agnostic, I really never stopped investigating or seeking. For the sake of brevity I'm not going to enumerate all of the books, philosophies, and disciplines which I studied, but they were many. Sometime in 2006, I realized that none of it was scratching the itch which I simply could not get at, either through study, the pleasures of beautiful women, or through constant search for extreme adrenaline rushes. Nothing was nourishing my soul. In fact, if anything, I had devolved over the years. Though non-belief had at first seemed liberating, it ultimately left me very depressed.
You can say what you will about the Bible. However, no other book that I've ever encountered has the same capability of lifting and nourishing the soul through stellar examples of love, ethical behavior, and promise of a time of ultimate restitution. One of the reasons the Bible is so encouraging is that its characters are three dimensional, with before and after stories, no white washing, bad examples of their behavior are included with the good. Higher highs, and lower lows.
I'm nearly finished reading it cover to cover, uninfluenced by Armstrongism or any other denominational bias, for the first time in my life. Had I followed the original daily schedule, this would only have required one year, but I also digested the abundant study notes at the bottom of each page. Having read the complete works of Josephus the previous year provided additional insights.
Is it a perfect book? How could a mortal even begin to know, especially since the art of translating automatically becomes paraphrase? Am I more perfect, or even noteworthy for having read it? In a word, no. However, for anyone who has never read this book on their own, without the HWAcaca, I'd say you owe it to yourself to do it at least once in your lifetime.
BB
"But even if I could believe that particular god was not a fiction but an actuality, I would refuse to worship him. That's how I rethought the Bible some fifty-odd years ago."
Professor, I had the same exact thoughts when I first gave up religion. Even if he did exist, I would never again bend a knee to such a tyrant. Of course now, the concept of a god, any god, seems utterly ridiculous to me. Ah, the road we travel eh?
"However, no other book that I've ever encountered has the same capability of lifting and nourishing the soul..."
Why do you say "the soul" when you really only can mean "my soul"? Besides, comfort and truth are two different questions. When will you learn this basic fact?
"I'd say you owe it to yourself to do it at least once in your lifetime."
As if reading it again under a different mindset will magically make it say different things? I can quote much of it verbatim. I'd rather spend the time I have left reading more interesting and useful ancient texts, like the Kama Sutra.
Post a Comment