The Bible is by far the most influential collection of writings in the history of mankind. Literature of this magnitude explains why the Bible is also the most complex, misinterpreted, misused book of all time. Not only does the Christian religion have a multitude of denominations but numerous cults have been conceived from the same book. Also basically every religion other than Christianity has borrowed or used parts of the scriptures to make their religions somewhat believable. So how does one go about the daunting task of interpreting God's word the right way? Its quite simple actually, read the Bible with the motive of letting God explain to you what his word means. The only reason why the Bible has caused so much confusion and division is because people read it with the motive of advancing their own agenda. Jews interpret Christ as being merely a prophet, Muslims interpret Christ as a great teacher, Mormons interpret Christ as coming to America to rescue his "other sheep", while evangelical Christians interpret Christ as Peter did being the son of the living God. Interpretation is relative, which is why we must remove our bias and replace it with an innocent child like curiosity where we do less reading OF God's word and more listening TO God's word.
I mention child like because Jesus himself commended the youngsters of his day saying that unless you become like a child you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. This leads me to believe that spiritually we must humble ourselves before an all powerful God like children submitting to their parents. In this sense when we begin reading Genesis 1:1 let us not interpret the words before us, but listen to them.
Also, we must keep in mind that all scripture is inspired by God (2nd Timothy 3:16) therefore we know for a fact, that contradictions do not exist in the Bible and man's opinion was never meant to be a part of the Bible. So if you look at your faith, and you constantly struggle with pressure from society to conform your beliefs to current human opinion, DONT DO IT. I come across too many Christians who have lost all confidence in the God of the Bible because they have been manipulated to believe that the Bible is outdated, faulty, or simply mythical. Folks, none of that is true! Its only true if you use man's opinion to interpret the Bible rather than the Bible to interpret man's opinion! The more we add faulty human reasoning or opinion to the holy scriptures the more we corrupt and kill the credibility of the Scriptures. But the more we use the Scriptures as our basis of knowledge then and only then can we begin to purify our own lives and the lives of others.
So take courage my friends and keep the faith. The Bible was meant to be listened to as teachings from God himself. These teachings aren't up for interpretation. The next time you crack open your Bible, listen to what God is telling you off those pages with a motive of child like submission letting God do the interpreting for you.
So you tell the people who are Christian, to not read but interpret the bible in their own way?
ReplyDelete'teachings aren't up for interpretation. The next.....letting God do the interpreting for you.'. So, your god will tell you how to interpret it? Or do you go to someone higher in the Religious order to do the interpretting of that god for you?
Basically you say: Don't whine, don't question.
Simple analysis: Do you believe Genesis to be from one source? Do you believe it is the unanimous written word of your deity?
If your answer to question 1 is yes, then you are already wrong and can't defend any claim about whether or not people can interpret the book, as it is written by several people (Yawehist, Priest source, etc) in different times.
If your answer to question 2 is yes, then you are just as wrong, for the fact of the answer to question 1 above. Besides this, the fact remains that the text is (at best) an interpretation of some sorts (especially as it is re-translated several times), so where comes the permission from, that you have to say one should NOT interpret?
The only reason exists to tell someone how to use a 'teaching', that you want no diversion. Basically you are acting as a god: Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If you do you will surely die..
Was it true? When the 'serpent' said it wasn't true, he was right, wasn't he? The parable goes way beyond what YOU and I think it means. Why? Because we don't live in the age when it was written. And yes, therefore it is mostly outdated.
Certain stories are included for an example that is less than positive. For example, the disciples fighting amongst themselves and these things. We are not called to follow their example, but see the frailty of their humanity. In telling Church history, God is not necessarily telling us "this is the ideal model". God shows us the departing of His Spirit in covering of the Church as it was on the Day of Pentecost, for example, and rising institutionalism. The more the Spirit departs, the more flesh moves to fill the void in institutional organization with schisms resulting etc., etc. In other words, Paul's letters are real for the times in addressing the churches, but the goal is the ideal not the real when dealing with unrevived persons.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp6b-yFtqpM
ReplyDeleteYou might want to watch this video. From your logo picture I can tell you think you have enlightenment, yet you were blindfolded and risen into more darkness which dose not allow you to question or afford you the ability to be a free-thinker. In other words you are a puppet who cannot see his own stings or ever be allowed to speak to the puppet-master.
Could you do a post on who God is? or the attributes of God?
ReplyDeleteI believe the greatest problem we have today is the lack of the knowledge of God.
What are your thoughts on this matter?
Thanks.