Category Archives: I believe

The Practice of Exclusion…

Posted on by RJ

I have been thinking lately about the words of Jesus and how he interacted with those he came across. Except for some of those in the religious establishment I couldn’t find any instance where he chose to automatically exclude from his saving grace or the wisdom of his teachings. He treated men and women pretty much the same; he welcomed all to his ministry. The poor and marginalized seemed to be special targets for him to reach out. He just wasn’t one to exclude anyone, even tax collectors and Roman soldiers. The sick and the lame were often the center of his attention.

Fast forward to today and there seems to be a common thread in almost all the religious establishments who call themselves Christian. They in one form or another seem to be more inclined to exclude people from membership in their organizations as they are to include them.  If you can manage to jump through all the many hoops that they require and keep your mouth shut in regards to questions you might have of their doctrine and practices then you are welcome as a member. Just don’t ever step over the line.

This is especially true for those who have chosen to be ministers in their organizations.  Tow the line or else be called a heretic. Almost all of these groups  seem to be convinced that if they allow any level of dissent they are opening themselves up to falling down a slippery slope into Satan’s domain.  They, for the most part, view the world as completely dominated by the evil one and therefore everything and everyone outside their personal groups are to be viewed with skepticism at the least and evil at the worst.

I know from personal experience of perhaps the most moving Christian minister I have ever encountered who was personally chastised for joining those outside his denomination in a prayer situation. He was stripped of his preaching duties for a year; his sermons were by far his most dominant God-given ability.

I know from personal experiences that when I questioned the claim that the Bible was 100% literally true and without error a process was started where I was to lose my membership of almost ten years and thousands of hours of volunteer work for the group. When I professed that I believed that the earth is more than 7,000 years old the process was begun to exclude me. I am no longer part of that organization.

Jesus was all about inclusion. He went out of his way to bring in all those around him. Sadly today’s churches, almost all 39,000 versions of them, are  constantly looking for ways to exclude people.  I am greatly saddened by this ever-present practice and I’m sure Jesus is devastated by it.  What happened to his church of the first two hundred years? I will have some thoughts about that in a future post here.

Defining Evangelicals…

Posted on by RJ

I have had a Sojourners membership for a number of years now and enjoy the monthly magazine. One reason is that it shows me that I am not alone out there in believing what I do about Christianity.  Jim Wallis, who is the editor-in-chief of the magazine always has an editorial at the beginning of each issue.  This month is was about how the word “evangelical” means to the world in general.  In the editorial Jim opens with the following words:

Here we go again. Presidential elections are coming, and the role of ‘evangelicals’ is predictably becoming a hot political story. Voices on both the Religious Right and secular Left describe evangelicals as zealous members of the ultra-conservative political base.

Why? Perhaps because some conservative Republicans want to claim a religious legitimacy and constituency for their ideological agenda, and some political liberals seem determined to portray religious people as intellectually flawed, right-wing crazies with dangerous plans for the country.

He goes on to say that while there are evangelicals as described above they do not define the overall evangelical community.  He has been stating this view for many years. But from a personal experience I, like many others in this world,  have trouble getting the secular view of evangelicals out of my head.  For a couple of decades I was a member of an evangelical church and for the most part the majority of its members held radical right political beliefs. I always felt like the odd-man-out in our weekly bible studies especially when the discussions turned political in nature. It seems to me that the “social conservative” values of the these right wing political groups runs very counter to what I read in my bible?  I knew a few others in those studies felt as I did about being my brother’s keeper and doing good works but for the most part they sat silently while the majority, among many other topics, ranted about  personal responsibility and those lazy “freeloaders” who just need to get a job.

So, while I want to believe what Jim says I just saw very little evidence of it in the Christian world immediately around me. This is one of the reasons I have divorced myself from that group and no longer call myself a Christian but instead say I am just a follower of Jesus Christ.  I seem to be more attuned around the following message by Susan Isaacs (her message here also came from another Sojourners source)

While I may detect a difference between “evangelical Christian” (theological connotation) and “evangelical” (political connotation), a person outside the faith may not. Tell an agnostic you’re an evangelical — meaning you believe in the words of the Apostle’s creed — and he may assume you’re anti-gay, anti-Obama and pro-British Petroleum….I don’t know if we’ll ever divest “evangelical” of its political connotation. We might have to ban the word the way Germany outlawed Hitler as a surname. Which is sad, because the Greek root, evangel, means “good news.” – Susan Isaacs 

I like Susan think maybe it is time to ban using the word “evangelical” in a theological mode. It has just been too polluted by the political sphere and that is a terrible shame as the word actually means “good news”.  The words “evangelical” and “Christian” just don’t seem to mix together anymore. They are like oil and vinegar.

Not as Much as We Would Like to Believe…

Posted on by RJ

Dear R.J.,

“Jim, Christianity has nothing to do with racism.”

That’s what my church elder told me when I was a 15-year-old boy. Can you believe that? “That’s political, and our faith is personal,” he said.

That’s the night I left my church.

This kind of story is all too common. So that’s exactly why we founded Sojourners 40 years ago – to call Christians back to a radical Jesus, the one who called us to be with “the least of these,” including those people living with the realities of poverty, racism, and war.

Forty years ago, many Christians didn’t understand that we are called to the public meaning of faith, as well as the personal. We’ve come a long way since then …

Thanks for being a Sojourner,

Jim Wallis signature Blue

Jim Wallis

Above is a e-mail from Jim Wallis the founder of Sojourners. While Sojourners has done a lot to re-face Christianity from when Jim and I were in our youth in the 1950s in some ways Christian congregations are still much the same as mentioned in his letter. We have a long way to go to get back to the foundations of Jesus’ message about the “least of these”. It saddens me that so many churches are more like clubhouses than they are like the body of Christ.

I Don’t Care To Know Anything More About God….

Posted on by RJ

The title to this post certainly sounds like an ultra pompous statement doesn’t it?  But this is indeed what some Christians are saying when they cling to the “Sola Scriptura” doctrine. To say that God has nothing else to teach us besides what is contained the documents that were collected more than sixteen hundred years ago is depriving them of much needed help in living in the world today.  In that regard I feel deeply sorry for those that stubbornly cling to the concept of “Sola Scriptura”. They are depriving themselves of lessons God has been teaching the rest of us for so many years.

But it seems at least to my simple mind that Jesus told us something different in that same book. Why do some overlook those words? Let’s look at those red letters.

I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Jesus clearly told us in these and similar passages that God will teach us additional things when we are ready to learn them.  In my opinion we are still learning things from the Holy Spirit today and will continue into the future. To say that God finished giving us lessons and insight almost two thousand years ago is utter nonsense to me!  As examples when the Bible was compiled people were just not ready to hear that women were not property of men or that slavery was not an institution blessed by God. It would be many years before we were ready to hear those types of lessons. 

One of the lessons in the above text I still don’t really understand but maybe someday I will and that is why did Jesus have to leave in order for the Holy Spirit to come?  But I am certainly grateful for the messages that the Holy Spirit continues to give us generally and me personally about living our lives as Jesus expects.

Putting God in a Box….

Posted on by RJ

When we insist that our version of God is the only true one are we putting God in a Box?  That is are we limiting him to how we currently perceive him or maybe just want him to be? I think that is the case with many Christians today. Here are some examples of putting God in a restrictive box:

  • The Bible contains everything we need to know about God — Jesus clearly told us that we are not, nor in my opinion will we ever be, ready to know everything about God; he will wait until the appropriate time to give us additional information as we need it.  When we block out that new information we are blocking out God himself and limiting him to what we currently know about him.
  • When Jesus said xxx he was definitely talking about yyy — This is the practice of taking something that Jesus has said and turning it around to mean something else. This seems to be too common in some of today’s religious institutions.  When Jesus told us the story about doing for the “least of these” he concluded it by saying if you don’t do this then our father in heaven will not recognize you on judgment day.  Those are direct words from Jesus that seem to have been totally changed into something else today, particularly by those who deem “works” to be a totally unnecessary aspect of Christianity.
  • All we need to know about God is he saved us wretched beings from eternal damnation — Several Christian denominations today put all of Jesus’ messages to be centered around his coming to save mankind from themselves.  They fixate on our sinfulness instead of our potential.  In that regard they make God into our savior and for the most part ignore the he is also, and maybe more importantly, our Lord. They turn Jesus into a life insurance policy and ignore the other 90% of his messages to us.
  • God is only going to save people who believe as we do. Everyone else is damned to eternal agony. — If this is not putting God in a box I don’t know what is. The people who fixate on “everyone is going to hell except us” have made God into their own personal savior. They totally discount the possibility that God just may, as he said through Jesus, desire that all men come to know him. They don’t give God the power to do what he says.
The above examples are just a few that are around today where people fashion a god to meet their personal needs and then limit him to that task. It is ludicrous for us to limit God to what we want him to be based our current understanding. When we do that we are saying that we know the heart of God and there is nothing else to be learned about him.  When we say we know everything about God and what he wants us to know isn’t that to one degree or another  putting ourselves in God’s place.
God is who he is and that is something that none of us can ever totally fathom.  To try to keep God contained in your personal or even denominational vision of him is almost as detrimental as not believing in God at all. God cannot be contained in your versions of him nor can he be totally contained in a small compilation of words written by men about him.

The Nature of God….

Posted on by RJ

Trying to determine the nature of God is something many who are much smarter than I am have been doing since our very existence. I don’t pretend to have any answers that they have not considered.  But, I have been looking at a different understanding of God at least from a personal perspective. This new approach came from a comment on a previous post here on RLL.  In that post I was lamenting how I have  trouble reconciling the God of the Old Testament to Jesus Christ in the New.  To me these two faces of God have always seemed to be in stark contract to each other.

The comment I received on this post was to the effect that maybe differences between the Old and New Testament Gods is the difference in men and not in God? I have been living in the “literal and inerrant bible” world for so long that I never really considered this a possibility.

  • Could it be that the Old Testament writers just didn’t understand the true nature of what God was telling them?
  • Could many of the words that they recorded have contained some well-intentioned words of man and were not words from God?
  • Many of today’s evangelist, mostly of the TV variety it seems, say they have direct contact with God but then they say things that are contrary to God’s nature. Could this be the case with some of the Old Testament writers as well?

I cling to the idea that God is God and therefore infinitely more wise than any of his creations could possibly be. When we see differences in our written text of God those difference just might have occurred due to man’s inability to understand God and his messages to us. Are we are making God into our image of what we want him to be by believing everything the biblical writers thought (or maybe wanted) him to be?

To my “literal and inerrant” friend this idea goes against everything he believes God to be. As he often says that if the Bible contains even one error then the whole thing must the thrown out as we therefore cannot believe anything in it. This type of logic, which primarily has come in to prominence in the last century or so, has put a tight straight jacket on their versions of Christianity. To say that if somethings is not 100% pure then it is worthless certainly prevents them from gaining new insights of God.

So, here I am contemplating the idea that the God of the Old Testament is very much the same God as Jesus Christ portrayed Him in the New Testament. The only difference is that in the beginning man’s understanding of God was very hazy at best but has evolved over time. Do I cling to this concept the same way my “literal and inerrant” friend clings to the total purity of absolutely ALL Biblical words? Certainly not!  I only think of this as another  possibility.  As God permits me to understand him more thoroughly this concept may end up in the trash alongside the totally inerrant and literal Bible.   The Bible is absolutely the greatest document ever written by man but the total understanding of God is just too big for even those pages. As man evolves, God continues to give us increasing understanding  into his true nature.

So it turns out that this intended study of the nature of God is actually a continuation of the study of man. God is unchanging; our study and understanding of him is not.

The Nature of Man…

Posted on by RJ

Since this is my 300th post to this blog and as I am coming off a rather long hiatus, I thought I would handle an impossible topic and that is the nature of man.  I apologize in advance for this post’s length but describing the nature of man will take a few more than the five hundred words I try to limit my posts to. :)

The nature of man is to seek God -- Most of us are on this earth for seventy-some years and at least sometimes, and often many times, we have a deep spiritual urge to know where we came from and what it is we are supposed to do while we are here. Most of us believe that there is someone or something called God who brought us to life. What does this God want from us? Why did he give us existence? These questions have personally plagued me throughout my life but I am not alone in that regard. Seeking the meaning of life is built into the basic structure of us all.

The nature of man is self centered and self destructive– Some say that man’s self centered nature stem from the “survival of the fittest” attitude from our ancient past.  That is in the early days of man only the strongest survived; there was no place for looking out for others in that mode. As a history buff and someone who has seen man’s inhumanity to man it is obvious that the man is still a very self centered creature.  Jesus told us to love one another. That and to love God were the only two commandments in his new covenant that he brought to us. But as cited above the nature of man is contrary to Jesus’ command. The history of the world is, for the most part recorded in the histories of our wars. Just go to the history section of any modern library or bookstore and you will see that to be the fact.  We seem to define ourselves as to who we have killed; not who we have loved. Just look at the love affair with weapons of destruction among us, especially in the U.S. Our technology seems to advance first in our war machines and then migrate to other areas. We have become total experts in killing each other but total failures in loving each other.

The nature of man is to ignore the teaching of God --  Many of us who were brought up to be Christians, have been taught that Christianity is a “do nothing” religion. God has done it all for us and absolutely nothing is expected of us but to believe in him. With this mentality we are at least indirectly trained to ignore the teachings of God beyond this one thought. We were taught that God views us as nothing but poor miserable sinners and expects nothing good from us. This “do-nothing” attitude is the reason that many outside of Christianity feel Christianity as a false religion. Hindus have a rather strict list of requirements that are deemed mandatory by their religion. Of course the same goes for Muslims. They, like their Jewish counterparts are even told what they are allowed to eat and how many times a day they are to pray.  With 80% of those in the world today believing that God wants us to do certain things and act certain ways it is hard for them to believe that a god who says nothing is required is not a false god.

Of course much of this “do nothing” mentality comes from a few of the letters of St. Paul not from Jesus himself who many times said just the opposite. In order to maintain this stream of logic it is necessary to ignore much, and I would even say most, of Jesus teachings.  Of course, those of us who look at “all ” the words of Jesus know that he intended those who called themselves his follower to do and act according to his words. Being a follower of Jesus Christ is definitely not a “do nothing “ proposition. How did so much of Christianity get this so wrong?  So many who call themselves Christians have latched onto a scant few pieces of Jesus’ words and thrown out the rest. This saddens me deeply. The most glaring example of this looking past the words of Jesus come from the “Great Commission” contained in Matthew 28:19-20:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to obey all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

There are so many who quickly cite verse 19 and then go on to ignore verse 20 where Jesus tells us to do what he commands of us. This selectively choosing the words of Jesus seems to be so prevalent in today’s churches I at times refrain from calling myself a Christian. Instead I am beginning to simply say that I am a follower of Jesus Christ.

The next time in a corresponding manner I will be tackling an even more impossible task and that is to try to understand the nature of God.

My Rare Medical Condition….

Posted on by RJ

I seem to have a medical condition that is somewhat rare today.  No I am not talking about Cochlear Otosclorosis that caused my deafness  many years ago but one maybe even more rare. That condition is called a “Bleeding Heart”. I know this is a condition that my fellow Republicans loathe. Whenever they want to diss someone they call them a “bleeding heart liberal”.

But I have to admit that I can’t help having this condition. It is just part of who I am. My heart bleeds for those around the world and even in our own country who don’t get enough to eat or where the head of the household is unable to provide even the barest of sustenance for his family.  One hundred, or maybe more years ago hunger was a more common occurrence than it is today. Today we have the technology and know how to feed the world’s population but that doesn’t happen mainly because of politics.

While my bleeding heart might be a rarity now days the only cure I want to find for this condition is to find a way to eleviate the cause.  I will not likely die with my bleeding heart; the more likely cause of my death will the a broken heart in seeing so many people who call themselves Christians, and that especially includes my Republican friends, totally ignore these “brother’s keeper issues while thousands die everyday from hunger or poor drinking water.

If God is Love – Part 4

Posted on by RJ

This is the fourth post in the series on a book by Philip Gulley entitle If God Is Love. Here is the quote for this one.

This wrestling with our theology, though absolutely necessary to spiritual growth, often puts our lives out of joint. On several occasions, I thought, “Remind me again why I wanted to question and challenge the beliefs I was taught.” The answer, as with all change, is because what had once satisfied no longer filled me with joy and peace. This spiritual dissatisfaction is a divine gift. God loves us too much to let us remain less than what we can be. Life is designed to challenge our inadequate beliefs and behaviors. Fortunately, God also guides and directs us in new ways. I discovered different answers to questions I’d thought forever settled.

These words have had a profound effect on me the last few years. I was, in so many words, asked to leave my church of eight years because I had grown spiritually enough to know that some of the things they were teaching were simply not what Jesus intended. That discovery, and the sharing of it with some others did put my life out of joint. But as mentioned above this spiritual dissatisfaction was really a divine gift. I no longer found it necessary to believe that Jesus expected nothing from me while I am on this earth. I can now take his constant mantra about being my brother’s keeper more literally than before.  God just loves us too much to let us remain less than what we can be.

God gives us challenges throughout our lives. Sometimes, maybe most of the time, we simply ignore them and go on as we had before. But when we accept the challenge we grow in ways we never expected. Painful as it was at the time, throwing away the “poor worthless sinner” excuse for doing nothing in the life  has made it much more rewarding than remaining in that dulled state of existence I was in while a member of that congregation.

If God is Love… Part 3

Posted on by RJ

This is a continuation of my expose of the book by Philip Gulley entitled If God Is Love. In this post he talks about Dualistic Theologies.

Dualistic theologies reduce the questions of life to one: Are you saved? Nothing else matters. The purpose of life it to answer that single question. Of course, simply saying “yes” is not enough. You confirm your salvation by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, getting baptized, and receiving the Holy Spirit. Until you have done these things, your life has no meaning.

When salvation is defined so narrowly, it too easily becomes a status rather than a process. It becomes a contractual agreement between an individual and God….  Too often, God’s desire to transform us into mature, responsible, and gracious people was obscured. When religion factored in the fragility of life and the threat of eternal damnation, the product (a spot in heaven) rather than the process (becoming an authentic person) became the priority.

Growing up, I was asked repeatedly, “If you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?” I was never asked, “If you live tomorrow, what kind of life will it be?”

Some call this supposed contract between you and God fire insurance. We sign the papers and then put it on the shelf until it is needed. That is NOT what being a follower of Jesus Christ means to me nor should it to anyone else. Yes it is important that I know where I will be spending eternity but equally important, if not more so,  is how I will live my life tomorrow and all the tomorrows I have left.

The Least of These…. The Final Judgment

Posted on by RJ

Since judgment day seems to be on the short list of things Christians talk about lets look at the story about it as spoken by Jesus Christ:

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

(Matthew 25)

Many Christians like to quote the part here about separating the sheep and the goats. They take this separation to mean the believers and the non-believers. This is yet another example of Christians who take a few sentences out of a store and twist it to accommodate their version of faith.  If you read the entire store it is clear that Jesus is also talking about those who care for the “least of these” and those who don’t. Those who think of their faith as more or less fire insurance should be shaken by these words. It is not enough that you make some proclamation of faith and then go back to the way you were before. As James so directly put it, your faith must be backed up by action or you have no faith at all! Jesus made it clear just what a big part of that action is. Yes, faith in Jesus as your savior will be a critical factor on judgment day but it will not be the only factor. Many will have proclaimed “Lord, Lord” at some point in their lives but will not enter into heaven on that final day. That is what this story is all about.

Lessons Learned….

Posted on by RJ

I have been getting hit by some because I don’t quote the Bible often enough for them.  As I have stated many times before I am just not a “chapter and verse” Christian. I do read the Bible frequently but instead of memorizing the words I try to learn the lessons behind the words and then attempt to make those lessons a part of my daily life. As far as I am concerned there are just too many “bible thumpers” around today.  I will not be one of those.  When I was in my godless years the bible thumpers constantly quoting this sentence and then that one actually had a negative effect on me. I might have come to God sooner if I had not been exposed to them. When I accepted Christ back in my life many years ago I vowed to never be like them.

This topic also goes back to one a few posts ago about not being able to see the forest for the trees. If you are too focused on each of the words (trees) you lose site of the overall message (forest) those words are meant to convey.  And as I have also  said several times before anyone, if they look hard enough can find some “words” in the Bible to back up whatever circumstance they want to push.  By looking at the lessons the Lord intended us to discover we can apply them to our lives and therefore be more pleasing to God. I am not one of those who think that God views me a something less than a bowl of snot. Yes I am a sinner but I am also a saint. It is my job to make sure that I be more saint than sinner. If I do that I believe that God is pleased with the responsibilities he has put upon me. If I lay back and say that I can’t do anything because I am a poor miserable sinner then I must realize that I am  shunning the responsibilities that God has given to each of us. We are to do two things while on this earth, to love God and to Love each other.

So here I am as usual telling you that God loves you and wants you to take his message of love into your heart. Until you do that you will always be seeking something that seems to be missing from your life. Taking on the responsibilities that God puts on you is a life filling ambition.

Mining for Tidbits…..

Posted on by RJ

I was a fervent member of a church for most of the last twenty-five years. You could count on my being in a church pew almost every Sunday morning. Of course part of that time was listening to the current clergy leader give his sermon. After a while I tended to see a pattern to most sermons.  They would always contain at least a dozen different tidbits from Biblical text. Most often these tidbits were to reinforce the message he (no female ministers were allowed in my church) had chosen for the day.  Many times when I was familiar with the story around the tidbit I questioned , at least in my mind, what that had to do with that day’s message. Some of the words fit but the underlying message was just not aligned.

Many tend to think that it is acceptable to mine Scripture for these little tidbits that would fit a particular agenda we might have. We weren’t often shown the importance of appropriating the Bible holistically, of taking care to consider each and every part within its own context.  Of course with our Bible now accessible through computerized search engines this practice has become more dominant than ever.  I always wondered, but never voiced, why the sermon could not concentrate on one biblical story and carry its meaning to completion.

One only need to consider the haphazard way that Scripture mining is being used today by both the political left and right to understand that this is taking place outside the church sermon as well.   Pulling tidbits out of text and putting them into our dialog leads to an inadequate view of God’s messages as well as the politics supposedly being supported by it.

Now that I am no longer sitting in that pew I can think things that were uncomfortable then but enlightening now. It seems that no matter what your conclusions are about most issues of the world you can mine Scripture to find a small saying here or there when often taken out of context will back up your message.

  • If you want God to be on your side in your current war there are tidbits available to say that.
  • If you despise homosexuals or some other minority groups, you can find tidbits support your bias.
  • If you were a member of the KKK you could cite tidbits where God condones slavery and tells slaves to be satisfied with being owned.
  • If you were in many mainline protestant churches in the 1950′s and 60′s you heard many tidbits about civil rights for minorities being against God’s will.
  • If you were against women gaining the vote in the 1930′s you could cite tidbits about women obeying their husbands.

Maybe even more critical than Scripture mining is ignoring those “other” words that speak counter to your targeted message. That also seems to be in wide practice by so many today.  But that is for another post.

Two Issue Christians…..

Posted on by RJ

This is the second post in the series about how I believe today’s Christian establishments disappoint God.

If one believes that God is only really concerned with a couple of issues, it becomes easier to ignore others.  But human life and particularly the words of Jesus are just too complicated for this kind of reductionist approach to our faith and beliefs. How can we even think otherwise?  We must approach Scripture realizing that it is the story of God’s interaction with humanity, and this story constitutes the disclosure of God’s nature particularly through the words of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately I believe that the extreme right wing in today’s politics and that especially includes the recent Tea Party movement have kidnapped much of the evangelical vote using this reductionist approach. They deem that God is only interested in two topics: abortion and homosexuality. As long as they shout about these two issues frequently enough they expect, and mostly see, many evangelicals falling in line with all their right wing issues. They want us to believe that all other of life’s issues outside of abortion and gay marriage are secondary at best.

It is sad to see how many Christians fall for this two-issue mantra. Those that do totally ignore the fact that the only two laws as verbally stated by Jesus is to love God with all your soul and to love your fellow man. Jesus told us that ALL the laws of God are wrapped up in these two items.

If I were to be a two issue Christian I would latch on 1)loving God and 2) loving my fellow man instead of the ones currently fed us by right wing politics today.

So many of today’s evangelicals seem to totally ignore that Jesus told us to give the stranger the shirt off your back if they are in need. Instead they seem to actively support  via their votes and their donations eliminating all of the so-called entitlements such as food stamps and medical care and such to the poor and marginalized in today’s world. Instead they are inclined to  favor lower tax rates for the wealthiest among us at the expense of those needing “shirts”. Where are God’s words supporting that view!!

I am just dumbfounded at to how this kidnapping occurred!

Yes, God is certainly concerned about taking of human life and that includes those who are not yet born. But he is also equally concerned that every three seconds throughout the day some where in the world a child dies because of inadequate drinking water or not enough food.  He is surely  also concerned about how we manage to kill each other in our endless wars. He told us that the peacemakers, not the warriors were the blessed ones. We seem to have, like so many other things, gotten that message reversed. Why do so many evangelical Christians minimize the other causes of senseless deaths by putting almost total attention to the first? That minimization of God’s commands is certainly not what He intends.

This reductionist approach to our beliefs promoted by many of today’s Christian establishments greatly saddens me. Why do we allow secular politics to have such a strong hold on us?

If God Were To Write a Book….

Posted on by RJ

In a previous post I asked the question “why didn’t God write a book?”.  One possible answer to that question came from a Quaker friend. He said that if God had written a book then man would have a relationship with a book and not with God. God want us to come to him not to a book about him.  But that did not end my questions in this area. I still wonder what if God were to write a book what would it look like?  Here are some of my conclusions about that. Of course I am painfully aware that I certainly don’t know the mind of God. That is something that man can never really know. Our minds are just too puny for that task. But that doesn’t keep me from speculating some of the possible answers to my questions.  So here goes.

  • If God were to write a book there would be absolutely no mistake that it was from God…. With our current written text know as the  Bible theologians throughout the ages have constantly shown doubt about the authors of almost every book of the New Testament.  We just can’t seem to decide, and there seems to be little evidence, of the true authors of the documents that make the Bible.
  • There would be no hidden messages…. Compared to Him God knows we are all very simple minded people who need simple minded instructions on what God expects from us and what we can expect from God.
  • It would be a book that is constantly changing…. ( I can just hear the jaws drop on this one :) )It would be a changing book in that would it would give us different messages as we move along our road of life and our journey with Christ. It’s messages would be as clear to a four year old as they were to a life long follower of Christ.
  • There would be no need for all the theologians around today… There are literally thousands of theologians around today to help us understand the Bible. But, one of the problems with that is that no two seem to have the same answers. So it depends on which is our favorite flavor of theologian as to what we think the Bible says. If God were to write a book this field of occupation would disappear. There would be no need for us to rely on others to know the meanings of a book written by God.
I believe that the Bible we currently use to try to understand the nature of God is an awesome collection of works. Yes, they do give us a basic understanding of the nature of God at least from the perspective of those who penned the words.  And quite frankly, without that book we would be hard pressed to know much of anything about the mind of God. But being a book produced by inspired men and not God, the Bible is often misunderstood, misquoted, and misused. Being a collection of works written by different men at different times it is not a very unified document many pieces of text seem to say completely different things.  If God had indeed written a book none of these problems would exist. It would be perfect as God is perfect.

God did not intend us to have a relationship with a book but a relationship with him.

Disappointments about Today’s Christian Establishments…

Posted on by RJ

Before my “literal and inerrant” friend became frustrated and stopped dialoguing with me he often asked the question why I have so much an ambivalence towards today’s churches?  I repeatedly tried to tell him that it isn’t so much ambivalence as it is a disappointment.  I will use this post to explain one of the major reasons for that disappointment. Before I start I need to tell you a little about George Barna. He is as Wikipedia describes him as the founder of  The Barna Group, a market research firm specializing in studying the religious beliefs and behavior of Americans, and the intersection of faith and culture.

Getting back to the reason for my disappointments here are some of the words from a book I am currently reading entitled  Christians and the Common Good  by Charles E. Gutenson. These words explain my disappointment better than I ever could:

One of the major findings of his (George Barna)  research is that for the most part it is almost impossible to tell a Christian, by his actions, from someone who is not religious. In fact he often found that non-Christians are more generous in giving to the poor, are about equally engaged in extra-marital sex, and that Christians are more likely to have had divorces than non-Christians…..  the rampant materialism of our culture is no more apparent than in the parking lots of large churches on Sunday mornings. Quite simply, a major reason for the increasing irrelevance of the church in today’s culture is its inability both to envision and to demand an alternative way of being in the world. Why bother with church when it has come to understand Christian faith as little more than an addendum to an otherwise secular dream of the good life.

The Christian churches of today should be giving us an alternative to being in our own life. As Mr. Gutenson said they seem to be unable to both envision and to demand an alternative way to live. Since most Christian denominations seem incapable, or at least unwilling, to do that they deem themselves irrelevant in many people’s minds. It was totally obvious that the early Christians were living an alternative lifestyle to those around them. They were giving their wealth for the common good of the community. They were living by Jesus’ words to love one another.  What happened since that time? Why has the church not emphatically pointed this out to Christians today. Are they more concerned about attendance numbers than following Jesus’ examples?

I am not knowledgeable enough about church history to know where this change started. But I know from Mr. Barna’s surveys that it is pretty much complete today.  That is the major disappointment I have with today’s Christian establishments.  I have spent the last five years or so looking for any denominations who run counter to the Barna statistics. In that time I have only found scant evidence of any church establishment offering, let alone encouraging an alternative life style.   There are a very few out there but  they are rare indeed. Many seem to be more interested in proclaiming that we are all poor miserable sinners and therefore incapable of anything good. Putting Christians in this mindset enables them to follow the secular world in both their words and actions without a guilty conscience.

So, to close this post I am not ambivalent to today’s Christian establishments as much as I am just totally disappointed in them ignoring the words of Jesus to take up our own crosses and to love each other as God loves each and every one of us. If we really care for each other we should let our light shine in our lives so that it is obvious to others that we are followers of Jesus Christ. Sadly I find that to generally not be the case.

Another Sad Attempt….

Posted on by RJ

So here it is Monday and I am right where I was last week. What happened to the predicted rapture?  Of course this prediction that failed to happen is among a long line of similar predictions. Every time someone insists that they know the heart of God in minute details they tarnish Christ a little more. He seems to be very tarnished  lately. The only thing this latest rapture prediction has done is to bring out thousands of jokes about those “Christian wackos drinking their cool-aid”. Cool-Aid refers to one of the most gruesome Christian events where Jim Jones and hundreds of his believers committed mass suicide some years ago.

Much of these types of events are spurred by those who believe that every word in the Bible is directly from God and therefore must have meanings, and sub-meanings, and sub-meanings. If only we dig we can find those secret messages of God that they are certain are contained therein. I’m pretty sure that like many others before him the pastor in California was convinced that he was the one to unravel the rapture mystery that is “hidden” in the Bible. But then again maybe he was doing it to get more donations in the door. He did receive over $30 million last year. I wonder what he did with all his funds last Friday?

While trying to discover hidden mysteries in the Bible are good for all the conspiracy theory people out there and for an occasional Hollywood producer they do much harm to the body of Christ in general.  If only people would accept that the Bible was written by man with a certain amount of direction from God then maybe they would stop all these foolish things that put us in a bad light. God did not write the Bible and he certainly didn’t hide messages only for those who dig deep enough to find them. The Bible is an awesome book about Jesus Christ and the plain and clear messages he wants us to learn. The Bible is about God it is not God! The sooner all of us realize that the sooner we can totally concentrate on the messages that Christ meant for us to follow. That is what being a Christian should be all about.

Can’t See the Forest for the Trees…

Posted on by RJ

When it comes to the Bible some Christians seem to fall to the concept of  ”can’t see the forest for the trees”.  That is they concentrate so much on the words they totally miss the underlying messages. Some, at the drop of a pin, can quote chapter and verse for many of the sayings in the bible. I am definitely not one of those people. Yes, I have read the New Testament many times and when prompted I can cite some of my favorite verses but I spend the majority of my time looking for and trying to follow the messages contained in the words. I do not idolize the words themselves or the document that contains them.

When I was an information technology engineer more than a decade ago we had a famous saying and that was “drowning in data but starved for information”.  Given today’s technology it is not difficult to accumulate massive amounts of data but turning that data into truly useful information is where the value come in. That is where the true talents shine; I can say I had some successes in that area of my career.

I am currently reading a book by Richard Stearns entitled The Hole in the Gospel. This book is mainly about the forest/tree syndrome. Jesus’ opening words to his three-year ministry are contained in Luke 4:16. It is always available on the right side bar of this blog but I will repeat them here

Luke 4:16-20 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

It is interesting that as his first words he chose to talk about the poor, prisoners, handicapped, and the oppressed. But these are not  by any means the last words he said in this area.  The Gospels are overflowing with this message.  I believe that Jesus was years ahead of all of us in that he gave his mission statement up front and center at the very beginning of his ministry. This is the Christian forest.  Here is a quote from the above referenced book:

The Gospel Jesus described in Luke 4 is indeed something solid. If there is a hole in our gospel, in our understanding of the nature of God’s call upon us, His followers, it is not because Scripture is unclear about those issues. Rather it is because we have chosen to pay little attention to God’s unmistakable message  to bring the whole gospel to the whole world….

Don’t spend your life obsessed with the words of the Bible. They are just words. Make it your every effort to glean the underlying messages. There are a couple of saying that help me do that:

Keep your eyes on the prize

Just give them Jesus, everything else is just small stuff

About the Bible – Part 6 Closing Thoughts…

Posted on by RJ

This series was about looking at the Bible as a human document. That is, it was written and assembled by humans with different life experiences, viewpoints, and passions.  Much of their thoughts and words obviously came from inspiration from God. When I study the Bible I try to understand the reasons why some of the writers might have penned what they did.  Of course, I am also a human who has had unique life experiences and passions, part of which surely shaped by what I have studied. What I have said in this series is of my own understanding. But, what I have studied also very likely leaked through in some cases. If I failed to give some credit during these and other posts I apologize.

When we view the Bible as a document written by humans who were to one degree or another inspired by God it takes on a unique shape and understanding.  Those who insist that the Bible was, more or less, dropped down from heaven by God himself deprive themselves of this valuable view.  Understanding the background and circumstances of the writers helps us to gain a better understand the meanings behind their words. Every word in the Bible was not intended to be taken literally for all the ages. Much of what was written must be understood with first century eyes and then translated into twenty-first century circumstances where appropriate.

I will finish this series by saying again that I am not a trained theologian; I am just a simple guy who has studied the Bible and other related documents and come to some personal understanding about them. One thing I avoid in my posts, and I think I did a pretty good job here, is “theologian speak”. There seems to be a complex multisyllabic word to tag almost all studies of the bible. Although I am familiar with some of them I try to avoid them in my posts.

I hope this round of posts had at least a small amount of value for some of you.

May all the glory go to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Don’t lose your focus on him and him alone.

About The Bible — Part 5 Summary

Posted on by RJ

This is the fifth post on this series about the Bible. If it is not obvious by now I want you to understand that I put my Christianity on Jesus Christ not on a book about him. I will try to keep this brief as it is really a wrap-up of the past posts.

About the Literalists:

  • Panic - In some cases I see almost total panic in people when I say not all the words in the bible are literally true. This belief is so ingrained in the foundations of their faith they cannot imagine it could not be true.
  • Irrational - Some say if you doubt any words in the Bible are not literally true than you must doubt all of them and therefore the Bible would be worthless! Nonsense..Living with that sort of belief makes life itself totally unlivable. There is nothing in this life that man has touched that is 100% accurate. This is like saying that I must throw out everything I know about George Washington, and I have read a lot about him, because someone wrongly wrote that he chopped down a cherry tree.
  • Acceptance? – Eventually the literal and absolutely true belief will be totally disproved even to the current day doubters. What will happen to those who tied their Christianity on that belief? Will they lose their faith? I just pray that when that day comes they will realize that Jesus should have been their total focus all along not a book about him.  What would happen to me if the Bible proved to be totally inerrant as they claim? I would be very surprised but it would not cause me to take my eyes off Jesus as the absolute center of my faith.  
About the Bible:
  • At Jesus’ Feet - To be able to read stories from those who actually sat at Jesus’ feet is just so valuable in our walk with Christ. It helps us to understand that Jesus came down to earth and became one of us! Why did he do that? He did that to die for our sins and also to teach us how to live.
  • A Brother’s Narrative – There is one person who wrote part of the biblical text that most likely spent almost his entire life with Jesus and that was his brother (or maybe cousin depending on which theologian you might follow). It saddens me that James did not provide us more info about Jesus’ earlier years. But, then again maybe he did and it was not uncovered during the search or canonic documents. If not,  I guess he chose to concentrate on just what he thought was the most important of his brother’s messages. To hear James say that faith and works are one and the same and that faith without works is a dead faith is enough for me.
  • About the Founders - To be able to read all the stories in the book of Acts about the first few years of Christianity is very enlightening. It certainly helps us to understand how Christianity got started. But, all of those things that occurred during these early years were not necessarily meant to apply to future Christians. Some are just for lessons learned at the time of the writing and should be understood as such.
  • Early Conflicts - To see how Paul dealt with some many of the problems in the early church is interesting.  But again we cannot assume that all the resolutions he provided apply to all circumstances today. One size does not necessarily fit all.
Just give them Jesus:
  • Keep your eyes totally focused on Jesus. Everything else is simply a distraction.
  • Tell others about Jesus and how he lived his life.  That is the purpose of the Bible.
  • Tell others about Jesus and how he died for our sins. That is the purpose of the Bible.
  • Tell other about Jesus and how he taught us to live.   That is the purpose of the Bible.
  • Tell others about Jesus and what he commanded us to do.   That is the purpose of the Bible.
  • Use the Bible stories as lessons in these matters and don’t become fixated on the words themselves.  When you do that you may end up treating words as idols.

Never take your eyes off Jesus.

About the Bible — Part 4 .. Misguided Beliefs?

Posted on by RJ

This, the fourth post on the Bible centers around where I see some others may have gone astray in regards to their beliefs surrounding  the Bible.

  • Some have replaced the Holy Spirit with the book called the Bible... They put so much power in the Bible and so little in the Holy Spirit. Compared to the others in Trinity studies there is very little in-depth theological study about the Holy Spirit. The main exception to that might be  the Society of Friends otherwise known as Quakers. They treat the Holy Spirit as a very equal member of God’s team. Jesus had very clear words about just what the Holy Spirit was going to do for us after he left this earth. Many Christian denominations today seem to downplay our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
  • The Bible is about God; it is not a replacement for God...The Bible is a valuable document in trying to understand the nature of God but it was never meant to replace God. This idea goes back to a recent post with the question of why Jesus did not write a book? Jesus did not write a book because if he did then we lowly human being would end up having a relationship with the book instead of with God. God intends each of us to have a personal relationship with him. I believe that sometimes the Bible actually gets in the way of that relationship.
  • Every word in the Bible are Jesus’ words… This is just simply something that I can’t conceive. With my study of just how the Bible was assembled in the late fourth century by a council directed by King Constantine it is very clear that there is a very human element in the creation of this book. To say that every word written by the Apostle Paul came directly from Jesus is to deny some of the very words of the Bible itself. Paul states in some of his epistles that some words were simply his opinion and were not necessarily inspired by God.   I personally take some of the words of Paul to simply be that of a crankety old bachelor putting out his opinion. There is certainly nothing wrong with that since his letters were written to human beings with particular problems that Paul addressed.
  • Everything in the Bible is literally and absolutely true… This belief causes some to deny other aspects of God’s revelations. We can learn nothing in this world unless God allows us to learn it. And this includes scientific things like carbon dating and geological strata. Much of scientific discovery today adds weight behind one interpretation of the Bible in opposition to another interpretation.
  • The “Slippery Slope” is one of the most misguided beliefs… This belief goes like this.  If you can’t believe absolutely every word in the Bible then you must throw it all out as unbelievable. In other words if you can doubt anything then you will eventually fall down a slippery slope where everything is doubted. I have gone round after round with some on this topic. But, as the saying goes “you can’t reason someone out of a position that they never reasoned themselves into”.

About the Bible –Part 3.. Other Views

Posted on by RJ

This time I am going to go over a short list of things that are somewhat widely accepted by some twenty-first century Christian denominations but of which I basically disagree. Most of these topic titles are  from texts of discussions I have had with Christians on various topics. I put them in a special category here because they were so deeply felt by others.

  • All the words in the Bible are the words of Jesus (ie. every word punctuation mark, and space comes from God). This title came from a person fairly high in the LCMS Lutheran denomination. He used this statement to refute my belief that some of the Bible writing were not meant to be taken literally. To me instead of enhancing the rest of the Bible I think he was really degrading the actual words of Jesus. I don’t know if he included all of the Bible or just the New Testament in his statement. I am hoping he meant to only include the New Testament as there are many stories in the Old Testament that I most certainly would not put on Jesus’ lips.
  • Nothing is required of Man to be called a disciple of Jesus– Those who oppose this concept call this statement ”Cheap Grace”. Anyone who has read even a few of my postings here know that this is one of the very sore points for me. To the ones who believe this I often come back with the statement that if that is true then we should eliminate the New Testament almost entirely and simple jump from Jesus’ birth directly to his death and resurrection. If Jesus did not expect anything from us “poor miserable sinners” then why did he continue to teach his apostles and us through them lessons about living on this earth? To take any responsibility of our existing on the earth away from us is almost to say that God creating the universe was unnecessary. At the very least it is to say that Jesus wasted his breath during his three year ministry as nothing he said makes any difference.  Those are fighting words to me :)
  • One verse negates other verses.. For people who say they are literalist when it comes to the Bible to then latch on to one verse and seemingly negate others is a mystery to me? I take as an example the topic above. Most of the logic for “nothing is required” comes from one sentence in the letter of Paul to the congregation of Ephesus.  That verse Ephesians 2:8 is as follows: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast”.  These words with taken alone seem to be a powerful  re-enforcement of the belief that nothing is required of us. But if they are put in the context of many many of Jesus’ messages they take on a different meaning. And then there is James, the brother of Jesus, who makes if very clear that, from his brother he learned that faith without works is a dead faith. In the not too distant future I will be addressing the letter to the Ephesians in much more detail via a post to this blog.  But this is enough for now. When I look at all the words of Jesus I cannot negate them simply because of this uttered sentence in one of Paul’s many letters to troubled congregations.
  • My interpretation of the Bible is the only correct one…. In my opinion this is one of the most damaging aspects of biblical beliefs.  Some are absolutely convinced that they alone know the true heart of God and anyone who disagrees with them is simply wrong!! An example of this are those who believe in the 24 hour version of Genesis go on to totally disrespect those who believe in the day age version. The 24 hour believers go so far as to shun any believers in their congregations who differ from the literal belief. To some extent I am personally a victim of this practice. When we continuously divide ourselves over personal interpretations we do a great disservice to God!
Next time I will be talking about a group of beliefs of some Christians today that I think damage the word of God more than help it.  I try to  leave biblical interpretations up to the individual but there are some circumstances where it is necessary to take a stand. More on that the next time.

About the Bible— Part 2 .. What I believe (con’t)

Posted on by RJ

This is a continuation of the last post to finish up some of my fundamental beliefs about the Bible. I have not come to these beliefs on a whim. They are the result of many years of thoughtful prayer and study. I am also not trying to prove anyone wrong. Everyone should come to God in their own ways. So let’s get on with the final four areas of my beliefs on the Bible.

  • Some words of the Bible have much more significance to our lives than others– The words of God himself through Jesus’ lips are the most important. Every other word is secondary at best. This is a major sticking point for some. It has to do with a concept that I have coined “the slippery slope”. I will get more into that on the next post. It just seems like a no-brainer to me that the words from God himself should take front and center in the Bible text. To say that there are no words in the Bible that are any more important than others seem nonsense to me.
  • The Bible contains words from God —  But is not THE Word of God… Many call the Bible the word of God but I personally along with other Christians agree with John’s opening in his gospel.  Jesus is the word of God, not a book assembled by man even if much of its writings were inspired by God.  To give a book that status is making an idol of it.  To put every word and circumstance mentioned in the biblical text in the literal grouping just doesn’t seem to make sense to me.  When Paul insisted that women were not to be over men in any circumstance he was speaking first century words. When he told people to be happy as slaves owned by others he was speaking first century words. These words were not intended for eternity. Yes, much of the Bible was written under the inspiration of God but it is at the same time a very human document.
  • The Bible contains stories passed down from one generation to another, allegories, and parables. To insist that all the words in the Bible are absolutely without error and are absolutely literal is beyond my understanding. I am convinced that even the writers of the books of the Bible were not willing to put that status on all their own words. The Apostle Paul even made it a point in one of his letters collected in the Bible that he was speaking of his own accord. I wish he had done that more frequently. Since I don’t put much study on the Old Testament I will not be discussing those books here. But even the New Testament of which much was written up to forty years after the fact certainly contained things that were remembered but not necessarily totally factual. In many places Jesus himself identified his stories as parables. I believe that the use a parables and allegories was a very common occurrence in many of the biblical writings whether the authors said they were or not.
  • Not all the inspired words from God are included in the Bible. I have done some studies of some of the text that was considered but finally excluded from the official bible when it was formulated by King Constantine’s council. The books of Thomas and Barnabas in particular I am convinced were also written at least to some degree with inspiration from God. There are probably several others in that category. We Christians should consider all the writings of the time to see where we can deepen our understanding of God. I also believe that God continues to give inspired words through some of us Christians even today. All of us must constantly be listening for those inspirations in our daily lives. But it seems that “listening” is a difficult thing for many of us to do today. Moses in the Old Testament did not believe he was worthy to relay words from God but God used him as a mouthpiece all the same. So I believe that God’s continues to give simple men personal revelations from time to time.
Next time I will discussing some others beliefs when it comes to the Bible and where they disagree with my current view. May all the glory and power go to my lord and savior Jesus Christ.

About The Bible — Part 1… What I believe

Posted on by RJ

It has been a while since I have done any “deep” posts so this post will start a series on how I view the Bible and how that might differ from some mainline denominations today.  The first two post are about how I personally view the Bible and other related Christian text. The third post is about how some of these belief are contrary to how others, mainly evangelicals, view the Bible. I will finish up with some of the things related to the Bible that I feel are the most misguided and in some ways harmful to bringing other to Jesus.

I apologize in advance for the length of some of these posts. I try to keep all my blog posts below five hundred words or so.  I have failed to do that in this series. Before I begin I want to again tell you that I am not trying to prove anyone wrong by this series. I am simply reiterating what I believe.  But, I do think I have a slight understanding of what Luther might have felt when he went against the Pope and the Catholic Church.  I am just one very small insignificant person who happens to disagree with some pretty big Christian denominations today.

One of the things I have heard frequently from the comments on this blog is that others are relieved to see that they are not the only ones to believe things about current day Christianity. I hope this round  of discussions helps some in that regard.

Getting started the statement that gets me in the most trouble with some current day Christian denominations is that I believe that the Bible was written by men for men.  I have frequently been verbally chastised for those words. Some seem to even believe that I am not a Christian if I believe these words!  But I think the reasoning behind these words have a very sound foundation backed up by the words of Jesus. So let’s start there.

  • By Men — The Bible was written by men. In other words the Bible is a human document and is therefore not 100% perfect. Some say that God controlled every word written by the various writers of the contained text.  They believe that the writers could not possibly have written even a single word that God did not want them to write. If that is the case then why didn’t God just write the book himself and drop it from heaven. Of course this is what the Mormons believe about the Book of Mormans.  I don’t know of a single Christian denomination, outside of them if you consider them Christians, that does not adamantly think that belief is a very false statement.  By the same logic I believe that to say that God controlled absolutely every thought of the writers means that he took over their bodies and minds to accomplish that feat. God gave man free will to do and think as they desire; to me that includes even the biblical authors. So the Bible was written by men.
  • For Men -- The Bible was written for men. I don’t understand why this statement is controversial in some Christian circles. The Bible was certainly not written for God. He does not need a reminder of who he is. Jesus did not bother to write a book while he was on this earth; he evidently didn’t think that was the best use of his time. Instead he chose to spend his time “showing” us how to live.  With maybe the exception of Paul’s letters it was almost 40 years before the authors who ended up in the Bible even started putting down their thoughts. Part of the reason for this was because most of them thought that Jesus was coming back within their lifetimes so a written record of his work was not necessary. When they realized that they had misunderstood the time-frame they penned their various very personal versions of what they believed Jesus intended to teach us. I certainly thank them for not waiting too long to do this. Matthew, John, and Peter (through Mark) were among the select humans that actually lived with Jesus during the three years of his ministry. Their personal and very human insights into the nature of Jesus is invaluable to us today these many centuries later.
  • Inspired by God — After the shock is worn off from the first two things I always add but much of it was inspired by God. I’m sure that much of what the writer penned was inspired by God. But again, much of it was also personal words and views of the writers.  They might have been very heartfelt words but they were their words.  God did not totally control  their thought and minds. Having a human aspect to the Bible is one of the things that make it so interesting. To see these very different human views of God helps us to gain insight that just one author might not be able to provide.
Next time I will finish up my personal beliefs about the Bible. I will also be relaying some of the discussions I have had with others who oppose my views.

Taking Ownership of Others Actions….

Posted on by RJ

We Christians seem to like to take ownership of others actions.  If a missionary is killed in South American we say that proves that we are suffering and dying for Jesus Christ. Somehow or another that death gets attached to our individual selves as if we were the ones who died.

We just can’t live vicariously through other. We are each responsible for our own actions. The only exception to that is Christ being a redeeming sacrifice for all of us before God that is memorialized today.  As I have mentioned in the past I don’t really understand that idea but Jesus made it clear that that was one of the reasons he came to earth. I will take him at his word on that and mourn his crucifixion in my place and, of course, I will celebrate his resurrection on Sunday.

Just because some die in a foreign country trying to promote Christianity does not mean that we are likewise sacrificing for Christ.  We must all take up our individual crosses in the name of Jesus. There is certainly an enormous amount of work that needs to be done in this word in His name. He certainly gave us a multitude of possibilities and almost all of them revolve around being our brother’s keeper and loving even our enemies.  If you sit back and do nothing you are diluting what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Those are strong words but I feel that must be said.

God gave us free will while we are on this earth and part of that means we are responsible for our actions or inactions.