WHY I DON'T BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS THE INERRANT WORD OF GOD
1. It doesn't need to be
There are plenty of people in the underground church that know Christ better than we do, are more passionately serving and more obedient to this will... they don't have Bibles.
Jesus is the full revelation of God's will and character. The stories are in the Bible but the stories are not the Bible. It is the story that matters not the pages and the binding.
The purpose of the Bible is to serve as a guide to God... TO SUPPLEMENT the revelation of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
2. It threatens to compete with the authority of Jesus
I was at a youth camp in Carson-Newman TN and the director walked on stage cradling a Bible in her arms, she had swaddled it like baby. She said 'until we get to heaven, this (holding the Bible) is the closest we will get to God.
'The Word of God' is a title that belongs exclusively to Jesus. Calling ANYTHING other than Jesus 'the Word' is blasphemy.
The moment you say Jesus isn't enough, when you have to add something to make your faith work, you are no longer a Christian. You can be like Christians, but you have to call yourself something else.
*on a side note, I also have an issue with what Christians call 'holy'. From what I read things that are holy will melt the face of a seraphim.
3. It is an obstacle to our ONLY MISSION ON EARTH
Atheists are not stupid. The idea that all the crimes against humanity outlined in the old testament are offensive not consistent with the true definition of love.
Religion is meant to comment on revealed truth. Science is meant to observe the laws of the physical world. It is only when these disciplines comment outside of their purpose that there is a problem. The OT is filled with ancient near-east cosmology vocabulary (flat earth). It is expected that writing reflect the it's cultural context... and social context. Let's get over it.
*btw, just read an interesting study that sexual orientation did not exist as a phenomenon until the 1800s. Maybe some of us have been reading the Bible in an erroneously modern context.
4. It is neither a spiritual nor rational doctrine
"all scripture is god-breathed"
'All scripture' doesn't mean what you think it means.
At that time there were more than Hebrew writings (the word 'scripture' just means writing) in circulation. Ugiritic, Cannanite, Zoroastrian, Babalonian, Greek, Akadian... you name it.
So does that mean all of that other stuff was the word of god also???
'God-breathed' doesn't mean what you think it means.
Spiration goes both ways, one way is inspiring and the other inspired (subject and object). Either way, inspiration or inspired, it's not that big a deal. Artists inspire and are inspired all the time, it only affects their experience by degrees. Granted when it is God inspiring or has inspired then it is different, but that doesn't make it something to be revered. In fact reverence is only something we give to people with relational distance, certainly not for someone we would call 'daddy' (Abba), certainly not for someone who's spirit dwells within you.
Friday, May 25, 2012
WHERE IS IT GOING TO END?
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Bible, and whosoever believes in it (in addition to all the other required stuff) shall not perish but have everlasting religion."
Whatever our 'non-negotiables' are in Christianity become equal with Jesus. It seems like the conservative trinity is GOD the intolerant, the Bible, & Christians traditions (beliefs & culture).
Nicky Gumbel says that our faith is based on the Bible, I thought it was based on the 'good news' of Jesus. I guess it wasn't good enough.
Everyone knows our religion has a consumer crisis. The product we indulge in is religious self-affirmation.
Question, does your God care more about religious legislation or people? If your expression of faith about how you live, or helping others to become fully alive? Is your church for Christians or pagans?
If Christians NEED to come back to church every Sunday to get filled up again to face the next week then they need to plug their hole. The church is not a business so we don't do 'work for pay', we are supposed to serve and be fulfilled by the idea that we are making a difference. If you want to break the consumer culture in your church then start cultivating a fulfillment based environment. Always be showing people how they have made a difference.
If they are not making a difference then they are not following Jesus... show them how. They will see a difference very quickly.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
A FEW RANDOM THOUGHTS STITCHED TOGETHER
In the movie Unbreakable Samuel Jackson's character speculates that if someone as 'breakable' as himself could exist then the opposite could also be true. There could be someone as unbreakable as Mr. Glass was breakable.
This idea set me off on some profound speculations.
In the movie Contagion a pandemic virus evolves from passing from a bat to a pig to a human, each time taking a bit of DNA from each host to become the virus that changed the world. This virus changed the world in a bad way, but perhaps another virus could change the world in a good way. Fantasy could tell a story about a virus that enhanced human capabilities but what I was interested in was reality. Instead of a literal virus I wanted to contemplate an idea-virus. Ideas have been changing human civilization since there was such a thing. The combination of Newtonian physics with gun powder influenced ballistics in a way that affected every human on the planet. The world's most difficult problems must begin with an idea. Somewhere out there are the components to an idea that when they come together will end human trafficking and genocide and starvation.
But it doesn't stop there.
I was just thinking about Westboro Baptist and what a bunch of scum suckers they were. It occurred to me that if hateful people like the folks from Westboro or the sadly mislead people of Heaven's Gate could depart from Christian orthodoxy is such a bad way then it is also possible for some to depart from Christian orthodoxy in a good way... a way that leads closer to Christ. The hesitancy to entertain such an idea comes from a misguided tradition or assumption that our finite orthodoxy is absolute... inerrant... divine... equal with God, that somehow we know all the depths of God and these depths fit into 3 pounds of grey matter and a leather-bound tome... because that is what makes sense to us.
and that's bullshit.
If we are going to deviate from the safety net of orthodoxy we still need something to make sure we don't go looney-toons. Some look towards the Bible as their regulatory fence but we all know that the only real gauge is Jesus himself. Last Friday a woman was telling me that in her youth she believed in God and thought herself to have a relationship with God even though she did not profess to be Christian or recognize Jesus as anyone of importance. Then a friend of her's told her, 'If you don't know Jesus then you don't know God.' Jesus is the full revelation of God's character and God's will. Jesus is 'The Word of God'.
Let's start small.
The traditional view of Christian what it means to be a Christian is inadequate. The amalgamation of the moment of free salvation, our resurrection as a new creation and the costly lifelong process of becoming a follower of Christ are actually 3 separate things.
It also seems to me that the traditional view of the crucifixion is also inadequate. We minimize what Jesus achieved on the cross. The significance of Jesus taking on the sins of the world is not fully understood to to an over emphasis on the sins committed by the individual riddled with guilt. If Jesus took on the sins of the world then it would also include the sins committed against us. All the humiliations and violations that we suffered could be nailed to the cross, buried and reborn.
Just a thought.
Hold on to your hat, I'm about to get religious.
In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke our pain and despair, it is crucified with Christ. I invite the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts and not just redeem what was lost, not just restore what was broken but glorify everything that was made ugly and shamed. Amen.
In the movie Unbreakable Samuel Jackson's character speculates that if someone as 'breakable' as himself could exist then the opposite could also be true. There could be someone as unbreakable as Mr. Glass was breakable.
This idea set me off on some profound speculations.
In the movie Contagion a pandemic virus evolves from passing from a bat to a pig to a human, each time taking a bit of DNA from each host to become the virus that changed the world. This virus changed the world in a bad way, but perhaps another virus could change the world in a good way. Fantasy could tell a story about a virus that enhanced human capabilities but what I was interested in was reality. Instead of a literal virus I wanted to contemplate an idea-virus. Ideas have been changing human civilization since there was such a thing. The combination of Newtonian physics with gun powder influenced ballistics in a way that affected every human on the planet. The world's most difficult problems must begin with an idea. Somewhere out there are the components to an idea that when they come together will end human trafficking and genocide and starvation.
But it doesn't stop there.
I was just thinking about Westboro Baptist and what a bunch of scum suckers they were. It occurred to me that if hateful people like the folks from Westboro or the sadly mislead people of Heaven's Gate could depart from Christian orthodoxy is such a bad way then it is also possible for some to depart from Christian orthodoxy in a good way... a way that leads closer to Christ. The hesitancy to entertain such an idea comes from a misguided tradition or assumption that our finite orthodoxy is absolute... inerrant... divine... equal with God, that somehow we know all the depths of God and these depths fit into 3 pounds of grey matter and a leather-bound tome... because that is what makes sense to us.
and that's bullshit.
If we are going to deviate from the safety net of orthodoxy we still need something to make sure we don't go looney-toons. Some look towards the Bible as their regulatory fence but we all know that the only real gauge is Jesus himself. Last Friday a woman was telling me that in her youth she believed in God and thought herself to have a relationship with God even though she did not profess to be Christian or recognize Jesus as anyone of importance. Then a friend of her's told her, 'If you don't know Jesus then you don't know God.' Jesus is the full revelation of God's character and God's will. Jesus is 'The Word of God'.
Let's start small.
The traditional view of Christian what it means to be a Christian is inadequate. The amalgamation of the moment of free salvation, our resurrection as a new creation and the costly lifelong process of becoming a follower of Christ are actually 3 separate things.
It also seems to me that the traditional view of the crucifixion is also inadequate. We minimize what Jesus achieved on the cross. The significance of Jesus taking on the sins of the world is not fully understood to to an over emphasis on the sins committed by the individual riddled with guilt. If Jesus took on the sins of the world then it would also include the sins committed against us. All the humiliations and violations that we suffered could be nailed to the cross, buried and reborn.
Just a thought.
Hold on to your hat, I'm about to get religious.
In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke our pain and despair, it is crucified with Christ. I invite the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts and not just redeem what was lost, not just restore what was broken but glorify everything that was made ugly and shamed. Amen.
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