Where we are ~ where I'm going

Part of our situation at the moment in the Christian community is a misguided understanding of belief. The Bible is a book. It is a very good book which can secure eternal salvation for anyone who follows its tenants and save them from a lot of grief in life. The reason it works like that is because the one who created us is also the ultimate inspiration of the book. But in our lives the book has to remain secondary to our relationship with the inspirer. I use the term inspirer rather than author because of the connotation author seems boxed into today. I don’t believe that God spoke the words of the Bible as they appear. I really don’t believe he even inspired some of what is included in the Bible. But all of that is of no great significance to me. It certainly is to most Christians. In fact, to disbelieve even the most minuscule part of scripture is grounds for hell in many Christian’s eyes.

What every person has to come to terms with is the fundamental fact that we didn’t just somehow get here. We are here by divine plan and orchestration. I would be stupid to ignore the master behind my own creation. Having secured realization that regardless of what was written by peoples of the past, I am more bound to the one who created me than to what those peoples say the creator said.

It is possible to live in a right relationship with our creator without the aid of the Bible as we know it today. It is my sincerest contention that it is just as easy to live in a right relationship with our creator without the Bible as with it. The concept and legitimacy of pastors, priests and clergy in general comes from the period of time in history when the clergy were the only one’s who had access to scripture. In an age when everyone has the same access, depending on the clergy for one’s right relationship with a creator is paramount to spiritual laziness.

I am very thankful for the Bible as we have it. But I also realize the Bible’s inherent limitations. I have said this before, probably in a blog but definitely in writings somewhere, that the Bible is not a history book. Its history only parallels other sources of history in very small slices of time, generally not at all. The events and peoples mentioned in the Bible are mostly unknown outside of it. Other groups, nations and peoples record keeping that we have found and that has been carefully deciphered do not mention the events peoples even when those events and peoples impacted the lives and events of those groups, etc.

The Bible is not a science book. Science as we understand it today was unknown in biblical times. By general consensus Ibn al-Haythan is considered to be the first scientist to have ever lived. He did not live until over 1000 years after Christ was on earth. All of the disciplines of science are relatively new to mankind’s history. There is nothing within the Bible that tries to explain the earth or living things in scientific terms or time lines.

The authorship of the Bible as we know it today has been in question for at least 150 years. In a short while I am going to revisit and chronicle what most biblical scholars today believe were the authors of the “books” of Bible. Also I am going to write about some of the major events and characters of the Bible that many biblical scholars believe were fabricated either fully or partly or are a combination of events and characters from non related times and places.

If you are afraid of what I am going to say, then your faith isn’t worth relying on. If your faith can’t take questioning and close examination it isn’t going to keep you when you need it most. I place my complete trust and faith in the God who created me, the Christ who atoned me and the Holy Spirit who guides me. Nothing short is good enough to bring me into an eternal existence with the creator.