I have been writing Fire & Grace for many years; in fact this is my 600th post. in that time I have only had one guest blogger. (Well, I had some on my 500th Blog-a-versary). As I am recovering from all this heart stuff - actually I am feeling pretty good - I need some time to spend on other things. Therefore, I am inviting you to do a guest post. Yup, that's right. I'd like to feature them once a week, maybe twice of they are really good. They can be fun, testimonies, teaching in nature, or politics. Just leave a comment with a way to contact you. (Comments are moderated, so I don't have to post them!)
The Bible is a good book, don't you think? Or, maybe you don't, and think Ex-Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards is a saint. It doesn't matter. The fact that this very blog might be about the Bible may already have you thinking "I'm bored," or "religion is not for me." If it was my kid listening to this, she might slip in one earphone from the iPod as she was talking to me - or disappear into a text message frenzy ending with a one word sentence, "Huh?"
The Bible is a good book, don't you think? Or, maybe you don't, and think Ex-Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards is a saint. It doesn't matter. The fact that this very blog might be about the Bible may already have you thinking "I'm bored," or "religion is not for me." If it was my kid listening to this, she might slip in one earphone from the iPod as she was talking to me - or disappear into a text message frenzy ending with a one word sentence, "Huh?"When a message is not received, it doesn't always mean that the message is flawed - but it might be the messenger is - I'll take my chances.
Have you asked yourself if you really believe the Bible from Genesis to Maps - and why? Do you think that Adam and Eve were real people? How about that Noah fellow, did he really build an ark that housed two of each? Do you think the ark smelled after 40 days? I do. And the Gaterenian Demoniac, was he just mentally ill? Then how did Jesus heal him?
It's hard, isn't it, to read the Bible and understand it? But you know it's the truth - and if God said it, you believe it, right? Or maybe you think it is simply inspired writing, a collection of history, poetry, allegory and crazy prophetic visions written by religious folks to inspire people to do good.
Do you have an authorized version of the Bible or GAK! an unauthorized version? For some The Message is absolute blasphemy, for others the NIV, written on a 6th grade reading level, is inaccurate.
How authoritative is your Bible? Has it changed your life? Tell us how in the comments section.
How authoritative is your Bible? Has it changed your life? Tell us how in the comments section.
Do you bring your Bible to church? I don't. I kept losing them. They are not very authoritative if you can't find them. And my pet peeve is people that found my bibles, which were inscribed with my name and phone number, and never returned them! Some Christians need to be whipped.
I used to be a religious underliner - well until someone gave me a Sharpee marker that bled through 18 pages of John, obscuring the odd chapters, starting with 3.
Do you share what you know about the Bible with others? I try.
Jonah had a real struggle with getting the word of God to needy folks, and God slowly but surely narrowed his pathway to success until he got it. Do you think that is a historical account? HERE is a great blog about Jonah by my friend Joyce Lighari.
Jonah had a real struggle with getting the word of God to needy folks, and God slowly but surely narrowed his pathway to success until he got it. Do you think that is a historical account? HERE is a great blog about Jonah by my friend Joyce Lighari.
In light of John Edwards admission of guilt for fathering a child with his mistress a few years back, do you think that matters to God? Can God forgive him? How about David Letterman? What about the Oslo killer?Osama bin Laden? Barrak Obama? What does the Bible say about it?
If we're honest, most of us don't have all that much time for Bible reading. Many of us probably spend more time brushing our teeth or putting on make up - even spending more time wolfing down lunch or breakfast at a fast food joint, then we do reading the Bible. Hopefully we do make time every day - at least read a chapter or look for a juicy verse to post on Facebook or Twitter so people know that we are religious folks.
I have met a lot of people that believe the only will of God is in the Bible, so I looked in there to see which job I should take when I had two offers. It didn't help! I thought about putting out a fleece like Gideon, but is that really faith?
And all those supposed biblical errors - I don't know what to do about them. Do you?
I once went to a church that worshipped the Bible. The sermons were filled with proof texts and little else - they called it the truth. So, I asked them about John 14:12, "doing greater things than Jesus." It was puzzling because if Jesus was limited to only the very things we see in the pages of the Bible, then how could we do something greater?
I further inquired (read that , blasted them) regarding John 21:25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
For fun I asked them to tell me what the unforgivable sin was.
Tell me, what do you believe about the Bible? Are their parts that are not true? I'm hoping for a lively discussion. But don't give us any BS (Bible Stupidity).
3 comments:
Well, The bible itself says that it is inspired by the spirit of God.
Overall as a whole...it does not contradict itself from the writers main point...
think about it... most of them didn't even know each other....
All the prophets, even.
so that to me is great evidence to believe the bible...
I also believe it to litteral...
If Jonah went a big fish for a couple of days...then he did just that...
I'd love to guest post here...let me whipp up some thoughts! lol..
@Arny - sure, Facebook me the details.
“The Bible is a Good Book!”
Except that it’s not. A book, that is. The Bible is a Library of books – the name “Bible” comes from the Greek word Biblios, which means library. And that’s important because there were conscious decisions made as to which books went into that library. You may know about some books which were considered worthy of study, but not absolutely Holy enough to become part of Canon. Those were termed “the Apocrypha”. There were other books which were destroyed during the Roman Christian persecutions. Those never made it into the Bible. The Book of Revelations had quite a harrowing experience – it was judged both blasphemous and Holy for several centuries, before finally making it into the library of books which make up the Holy Bible.
It’s not just books that make up the Bible. It’s also versions of books. There’s a belief that the Bible emerged holographically, composed and written and printed all by one hand. But when you read the Bible, there are only two references to the Lord actually writing. One is in Exodus, where the Lord presents Moses with an engraved tablet. The other is in John 8.
“This they said testing Him, that they might have cause to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not.”
The oldest existing copy of the Gospel of John dates to about 200 AD, and is part of a set of documents known as the Bodmer Papyri. The oldest copy of the Gospel of John, the one closest to the events of Our Lord among us lacks the story of Jesus writing. In fact, the entire story of the woman taken in adultery is missing from the earliest version (John 7:53 – 8:11). That means that someone added this to the Gospel of John. Someone more than 200 years removed from the original chroniclers of the Good News.
There is another belief that the Bible contains all Truth within its pages. The books of the Bible do contain a vast, perhaps infinite amount of wisdom. I grew up loving Genesis as child, Revelations as a teen, and Job as an adult.
So let’s ask the Bible a question. Who were the people in Jesus’s family, and what was His relationship to them? We can begin with the Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, confirmed by Matthew and Luke. Mary, a virgin, was married to Joseph. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew tell us that Jesus had brothers and sisters, and name James, Joseph, Judas and Simon.
But what was their relationship to Jesus? Were they the younger siblings of Jesus, a Blessing from the Lord on a perfect union between Mary and Joseph? That would well embody the spirit of the Jewish Testament, which considers marriage and a family a blessing, and even obligation. That would also imply that Mary’s virginity was not perpetual.
Or were these the older siblings, from a widowed Joseph who in his grief sought a virginal young bride in Mary? And who, upon receiving the Divine Word that the Son of God would be borne by the Holy Virgin, chose to respectfully keep that Virginity Holy and Intact? That would well embody the spirit of Saint Paul, who viewed marriage as God’s sop to those too weak to maintain chastity.
The books of the Bible do not give us an answer.
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