Been hit with a Bible recently?
I recently posted this article to a site that allows comments. I only have about 50 followers there but was pleased by the response and some astute comments.
What is it about religious(?) people that makes them feel that they have the right to beat anybody into submission by simply referring to chapter and verse? Does anybody else find it as annoying as I do that arguments are not entered into but are sought to be closed by quotes like Hypocrits 14:32?
The Bible is a selection of ancient texts that a religious hierarchy calling itself ‘Christian’ has carefully selected to support the type of religious teaching that it wishes to promote. The selection process was never open and nor has it ever been justified by reason or argument.
What books or testaments have been deliberately left out, I wonder.
There is no doubt that the words of the Bible are believed by many to be divinely inspired. If that is the case, I wonder why there is so much divergence and contradiction in fundamentals.
If we look at the story of creation, at the end of each day God looked at his work and saw that it was good. Fair enough, but why was the work of this divine creator so badly flawed? Why did He deliberately create a being that was susceptible to suggestion and then allow a tempter to have access to him? Why, in His wisdom, did he install a tree in the garden that the newly created man should not eat from?
When man disobeyed and ate from the tree, why did God not reason with man and explain to him that he had been naughty and that he must not do that again? We all know that God did not reason with man. He dismissed him from the garden and set cherubim and blazing swords to ensure that he could not return. I suppose we should feel that He showed compassion by clothing man before evicting him but isn’t this punishment for simple disobedience out of all proportion to the crime?
What about poor Judas? Here is a man in the age of Jesus who has been vilified ever since for betraying Jesus to the Romans.
Will somebody please explain how Judas, by ensuring that a prophecy by Jesus would come true, had betrayed anybody? Jesus knew that He would be betrayed and told those at the supper that ‘one among you will betray me’. Doesn’t it stand to reason that Jesus was actually telling Judas that he understood the impulse which he harboured and that he was already in acceptance of the consequences? Wasn’t He saying ‘It’s all right Judas – to you has fallen the poisoned chalice’.
Had Judas not betrayed Jesus, how would the ultimate sacrifice by God have come about? Should Judas really be condemned for carrying out God’s will?
The Bible is not divine instruction and it has never been a cohesive piece of literature because the authors lived so seperately and in such differen ages. Even the translation of much of the writing has been carried out in secret amid much controversy leading to all sorts of rumours about suppressed books and revelations.
By all means use the Bible as a source of ideas and wisdom but please, do not use it like a stick to beat others into submission because you do not have the ability to formulate, express and justify your own ideas and opinions.
If God truly speaks to you, you will know His will and you will be given a voice to convince those to whom you would impart His teaching.
If God does not speak to you, could it be that you are not really listening?