Spiritual Fruits & religious nuts … (08/12/13)
It seems like every time I bring up anything controversial about the any of the verses in the Bible — any time I happen to point out a verse here or there that does not at all reflect the perfect LOVE preached by Jesus Christ in the Gospels, some well-meaning Christian will calmly tell me that I can’t do such a thing; that the Bible is perfect as is; that every verse within it is the irrefutable “Word of God”.
Well I’ve got a major newsflash for you: THERE IS NO SINGLE, CONSISTENT “WORD of GOD” IN THE BIBLE.
In fact, as this first image clearly shows (it’s high resolution, so you can zoom all the way in), there are at least 439 direct contradictions within the Bible’s 66 books. Some of them are admittedly minor, and some of them can indeed be harmonized by apologetic research. AND some of them are both critical and unresolvable (for example, contradiction #355) …
One of these major contradictions centers around the very nature of God — namely, is He the monster of the Old Testament who harshly condemns “sinners”, advocates slavery, allows rape and encourages genocide, or is He the all-forgiving & perfectly Loving Father as portrayed by Jesus in the Gospels?
To be fair, He could have been both … After all, God did apparently make us in in His image; so if we are at times fickle & fallible & inane & ignorant, then maybe the “young” God of the Old Testament was sometimes equally clueless & crass. Maybe He just didn’t know any better at that time, and woke up to an understanding of unconditional LOVE later.
OR, maybe the ancient Hebrew gives us a clue to God’s radical mood-swings in the book of Genesis — where every time “god” does something bad the Hebrew actually says that “gods” did it; indicating that God was not a bipolar schizophrenic in those days, but rather that there were other spiritual entities in existence then — other spiritual forces that were less than Loving; forces that were competing with God for control over the Earth.
Or, of course, maybe the texts are simply a collection of very powerful (and still quite poignant) metaphors …
Frankly, it doesn’t really matter how you look at it or which explanation you happen to believe. No matter how you slice it, the Old Testament and its condemnatory bigotries simply don’t come out smelling too rosy.
Fortunately for Christians, however, the Bible itself tells its followers repeatedly to test the scriptures for themselves before they decide which ones to focus upon and which interpretations thereof to believe … Consider:
“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” ~ Jesus (Luke 12:57)
“Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all. Hold on to what is good, and reject every kind of evil.” ~ Paul (1 Thessalonians 5:20-22)
“Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” ~ unknown (1 John 4:1)
Finally, and most wonderfully, Jesus himself encourages everyone (especially all Christians) to follow only those Biblical preachings & scriptural interpretations that bring others Peace & Joy when put into practice …
“Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to those who produce the Fruit of the Kingdom.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 21:43)
“If you understand these things I have taught you, blessed are you while you do them.” ~ Jesus (John 13:17)
“Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but rather what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not yet seen God.” ~ 3 John 1:11
Let me have an “Amen!” for that!
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