About the Bible and Christianity

8/14/2019 About the Bible and Christianity

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About the Bible and Christianity

I have been studying Christianity and the history of the Bible and such for a number of years.The following is my comprehension of what I have studied this is not an annotated thesis, it is

my impression, heavily colored by my own viewpoint.

I grew up taking the Bible quite literally. I reached young adulthood believing in the young earth

(8000 year old earth) and in a worldwide flood. My science fiction book, Doors posted on

Scribd and for sale through Amazon and other sources has pink skies due to the fact that whenI asked my mother what color the skies were on earth prior to the flood, she answered, without

hesitation, Pink. The Creation Museums contend that the earth was a terrarium with a layer of

water in the atmosphere prior to the flood. At the time of the flood, there were volcanic

erruptions that broke the earths crust and released subterranean waters and also changed theconditions so that the outer ring of water, that protected the earth from UV rays and led to the

long lives of the patriarchs, was released and flooded the earth.

I joined a scientific affiliation of Christians who contended that this ring of water would havecaused so much atmospheric pressure as to raise the temperature of the earth above the point

where life can exist. I hadnt gotten that specific in my book, so I left in the pink skies.

Further research yielded a number of interesting facts:

1. People in the Biblical lands, even as late as the 20th century, portrayed numbers loosely.Asking someone how old they were and then asking them in what year they were born

relative to current events at that time resulted in vastly different answers. Storytelling is an

art that permeates much of certain societies. Altering facts to improve the story is expected.2. The Bible was a continuing work until the time of Jesus. At that time, a Jewish group met

and threw out the later books in order to cut off the Bible prior to the time of Jesus andkeep Him out. The early Christian churches had a wide variety of books that were pareddown in the 4th century. The rejected Hebrew literature, now considered the Apocrypha,

was included in the early Christian literature. It was much later that it was given a second

tier ranking and even later that certain Christian denominations rejected it. The basis of therejection was largely the fact that the Jews didnt consider it scripture but they most

probably rejected it for solely political reasons. This Apocrypha is still included in the

Catholic Bible. It reads like scripture to me.

3. Jesus and Joseph may have been construction worker carpenters instead of furnituremaking carpenters. It would fit with history.

4. If someone says, Are you coming with? One would expect that they might be a German

speaking English. In the same way, the Bible can be tracked and found consistent orinconsistent with certain times. References to historical events, ways of socializing,

wording of contracts and many other factors can place the time of the writing which is a

separate issue from the time of the occurrence. The Bible is amazingly consistent.5. Several Philistine camps were unearthed by a woman archeologist solely using the Bible as

a map. I find this amazingly impressive given the relative brevity of Biblical accounts. Up

to that point, many historians didnt even believe the Philistines were even real.


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6. Same with David. But proof of his existence has been unearthed. In fact, the more we find

out, the more of the Bible gets confirmed. (By the way, as near as I can tell, the Quran fares

pretty well by various tests as well.)7. Jesus spoke in parables a lot. His point wasnt to tell you how great Joe Schmoe was it

was to illustrate concepts and teach how to live. So, why cant Old Testament passages

have a similar purpose?8. According to some very excellent biology I have read by Robert Shapiro, life cant exist.

He is skeptical about the Bible and every other religious source. So, following his logic

through, we dont exist. Heres from one figment to another. I always rejected evolutionmathematically. Devolution I could accept. I guess that biologists have actually tracked

evolution but the time it would take to get to where we are contradicts other facts. And

that is assuming the original existence of life. Basically, I believe life is God breathed.And I accept the analogy of the watchmaker.

9. Jesus hated religious hypocracy. Unfortunately, religious hypocracy appears to be

ubiquitous.

10. The Bible says that there is a father, a son and a Holy Ghost. What in the world does this

mean? Multiple Gods? I picture this more as if the one God, who is great and complicatedbeyond our comprehension, broke off his finger (which of course isnt a finger at all) and

made it into a man in order to have similar form with man to communicate better.Personally, I dont get the word Trinity. A finger isnt equal to a whole person. And who

says that there are only three parts? Why cant God be a quartet or an orchestra? Theres

this Priest called Melchizadek in the Bible. Couldnt he be the fourth member of thequartet? I think that this whole Trinity thing is an effort by man to define Gods

complicatedness in such a way that people can wrap their mind around it. One cant wrap

ones mind around God! Common!

What is my conclusion? The Bible says to love about a bejillion times. And it says to notjudge almost as often. That alone is my main conclusion.

The Bible says that everyone has to serve Jesus before entering heaven. But, lets see if a

devout anybody, Moslem, Jew, whomever was welcomed into heaven by a ginormousglowing person who looked right into their hearts and warmed them through and through and

then interviewed them ummmm, well, wouldnt that change a lot of perceptions? On

everybodys part? I can just see the evil thinking Christians on the sidelines pursing theirfaces so hard that they are turning inside out and then Jesus walking over and telling them to

get over themselves. That theyve missed the point. What did they think God is love really

meant? And what did Judge not lest ye be judged seem to mean to them? And the parable

of the Good Samaritan. What were they thinking? And then the scene changes and the pickle-mouthed Christians are in court with this gigantic movie showing every mean, or shameful or

icky thing that they ever did. And Jesus is there saying, If you hadnt been judgemental, I

wouldnt be showing your home video to the whole world. Have you decided to choose loveyet? But the kind and loving non-Christian lover of God is introduced around with smiles

and charity and no home video.


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I also believe that this life is school. And if we accept Jesus as our guide, then we have a very

real advantage in terms of being guided in order to get the most we can out of this existence.

Life isnt all about being saved or not being saved. Accepting Jesus as Lord should meanaccepting Him as boss and guide. If it doesnt, then is salvation real? And once saved the

learning is just beginning. The Bible talks about races, and earning the prize and crowns

that isnt talk consistent with just receiving the ticket of admission into heaven. Religion ingeneral and Christianity in particular has a lot more to it than that.

I do believe in the Bible and in salvation and baptism. I do believe in the Apostles Creed andthe Nicene Creed. I also believe that much of this is only part of the story.

I really love the parable of the blind men and the elephants One blind man says that an

elephant is very like a rope, another like a sail, another like a sword, another like a snake,another like a tree, and another like a wall. I add the blind men who say there is no elephant

because they cannot see it. The Bible says we all see through a glass darkly, but then face to

face. I taught math for years I can tell you that you can teach addition and subtraction at

every level from Kindergarten through Grad school. Whole numbers, natural numbers,rational numbers, irrational numbers, imaginary numbers infinite spaces countably

infinite and non-countably infinite.

We dont know much we really, really dont. What do we know? Love God, Love each

other and dont judge. What you know to do, do. If you think it is a sin, dont. God judges

the heart. We dont. Love. First, last and in between: Love.

I havent really learned how to do that yet. My enormous id gets in the way. Id, ID, Ego

Jesus washed feet. Jesus walked the extra mile. Jesus served.

And we have a great cloud of witnesses. And there are quite a few in your neighbors religion

that arent in your own. The Bible says that those who do right without the law exceed thosewho do wrong with it. It says it a number of different ways.

I imagine Ill add on to this monologue too. Just thoughts for right now.

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About the Bible and Christianity