SIFTING OUT THE TRUTH: IS THE BIBLE GOD's WORD

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW IS IN THE BIBLE!

As a child growing up, I heard many preachers and some teachers proclaim all i needed to do is come to Jesus and all of my problems would be solved.  I also heard that everything you need to know is in the Bible. When I announced that I was going to college to study for the ministry, one dear old preacher's wife pulled me aside and said, "You don't need an education.  The Bible is all you need.  God will fill your mind of His word so when you preach, the Spirit will lead you what to say."

I began reading the Bible at age eight.  I started in Genesis and read all the way through without anyone telling me what to read or any commentaries to explain what I was reading.  I came across some stories and events that I could not understand like Cain killing Abel and Abraham willing to sacrifice his son because God told him to so.  Then there was Onan who was swallowed up in the ground.  Later I was told that this is a sign that masturbation is a sin.  I read about Sodom and Gomorrah.  Then there were the daughters of Lot who got their father drunk and slept with him.  I read about wars and the killing of others in war because told the Israelites to drive the heathen out of the land God promised God's people.  Then was Jonah and the Whale, Daniel in the Lion's Den, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.  David slew the giant Goliath.  The along came John the Baptist and Jesus.  After Jesus, there many books written to explain what Jesus did and how we are to live.  The end, the Book of Revelation, was like reading mythology and science fiction.

I accepted what I was told about these events.  I became a pre-millennialist, pre-tribulationist.  To put it mildly, I believed with many others believe that Jesus would return as a thief in the night and take all the Christians out of the world and then God will sent all the rest of the creation through the most horrific and catastrophic events to punish them for their lack of faith and rejection of God's plan.

I developed the concept of God as the holy God who was ready to zap me and send me to hell if I said one curse word or drank a drop of liquor.  I lived in fear of displeasing God.  I seldom heard about God's love nor did I seldom see it in the attitudes of those who called themselves Christians.  I saw church fights, church splits, scorn for education, dislike of anyone who was not like us, and yet these were good people in so many ways for they believed they were living right based on what they had been taught. Over the years as I have seen and experienced the struggle to find truth, I have many wonderful people with kind and caring hearts for those who are like them but disdain and vocal condemnation for those who dare to be different.

Sad to say, this still happens.  We are terrified that Muslims will take over our country and install Shia law that we find so repulsive.  Yet, we fail to recognize the same thing occurs in our country as the Christian church seeks to dictate laws that govern the behavior of individuals at the same time forcing those who do not believe in Jesus to listen to prayers and participate in events that only Christians believe and accept as truth.  This is done because we are a Christian Nation.  Are we any better than Muslims or any other religion that forces all to be what we expect them to be?

I hear so many laments about what we have lost in this country.  We complain about the leadership of our country.  We want to return to be a God-fearing nation.  We want to make prayer a requirement in school.  We want to stop abortions for that is murder but yet we practice capital punishment.  We want to make same sex marriage illegal for that is an abomination to God based on Scripture that is written in a day when men and women were ostracized if they could not have children.  We think it is terrible that other religions want to celebrate their holidays for we believe them to pagans.  Yet, Easter and Christmas are actually pagan holidays that have been "Christianized" to make them acceptable and Christian.

Fifty years ago and yes even a hundred years ago and even in the days of the revolution, humanity was dealing with the issues we see today.  Marriage and family life was controlled by the patriarch of the family or the matriarch.  Everyone had to obey the the will of the Leader of the family.  Divorce was not rampant because of the autocratic rule in families.  Today, we see "Dysfunctional" families and we lament that marriages are falling apart because of homosexuality.  Marriages have been broken and divorce became acceptable before we heard the word "gay" as it is used today.

SIFTING OUT THE TRUTH

Let's face it, the division we see today is about power.  We are in a struggle to determine the ideology, the the theology, the  philosophy, and the political party that will have the majority to enact laws that will determine the paths we take.  Those who seek power use fear to persuade us to support what they say.
During this power struggle, we need to think rationally about what we have been taught and what we have experienced.  We need to sift through all of the rhetoric we hear on tv, we read in print, and we discuss with others.

There are some truths that I have burned deep in my heart.

1.  God is love and love is God (I John 4:7-8)
2.  God is holy means that God is perfect in God's Love (I John 4, Hebrews 12:14)
3.  Perfect Love casts out fear (I John 4:18)
4.  Fear is used to control us.

THE BIBLE IS USED AS A WEAPON OF FEAR

The Bible is a weapon used to gain power and to promote fear.  It is easy to find passages to support almost any thought or theology.  We must remember to sift through the traditional teachings and the television preachers who tell us the Bible is the only source of truth.  The Bible is written by human beings about their relationships especially the relationship with God.  The books of the Bible were chosen by church councils and Hebrew Religious Leaders.  There are no original manuscripts.  Some of the books like the Gospels were written by men as much as 70 years after the events occurred.  Cell phones, tape recorders, digital cameras, video cameras and tvs did not exist.

I don't know about you, but I can't remember word for word conversations a year later so the red letters where Jesus spoke are not exact quotations.  The authors of the first five books of the Bible were written thousands of years after the events occurred.  My point is not every word or book is inspired.  What makes me feel this way is the way the Bible came into being and the books that were left out and the ones included.
In addition, the similarity between the stories in the Bible and other sources are very similar.  The Jews consider the books Christians call the Old Testament to be allegorical, a popular method of teaching.  For example the word "Adam" means humanity.  Adam and Eve are considered to representatives of the humanity.  One needs to sift through the claims of the Bible for the Bible became the only source of truth under the doctrine of "sola scriptura" or the scripture only as source of truth during the Reformation Period.

The Bible does contain some universal principles that be called "natural law".  The commandment to love God, to love others as we love self is a universal principle.  The Levitical Laws are codified law or legal law passed by the leaders of the day.  They are not natural law or principles from God.  The Gospels and Epistles are the writer's view of God.  Over the years, the stories of Jesus were embellished.  The Epistles were written to address issues in a specific group and in fact where the opinions of the writer on how to resolve the issues faced.

If this view is disappointing to you, I understand.  Yet, it is the conclusion I reached after many years of study using my ability to reason, the experiences I have, the sacred writings of all religions and other writings to sift through the traditions or teachings passed down to me.  I still use the Bible as a source but not the only source of truth.