Not going down without a fight
Well, this thing on Christianity is killing me.
The more I read and listen to preachers, the more I get the sense that you honestly DO need to believe the Bible literally and completely to be a Christian. Well, I can’t. Here’s why:
The only way it could be accurate in its current form is if the thousands of scribes and verbal communicators and everyone else who ever laid hands on transmitting books or passages of the Bible could only transmit with divine inspiration. In other words, God would have to move every piece on the chessboard, every moment.
But this is in direct conflict with Free Will, a necessary tenant of the faith – AND is pretty contradictory to the God I know. He can’t MAKE you do anything. So the Bible cannot be 100% accurate, or He is 100% controlling.
I’m not going to go as far as to say “erego Christianity is wrong”.
But I’ve been listening to some respected preachers and they have taught things I believe and sense in my gut to be dead wrong.
For example, evolution – which I was taught in Catholic school, it was no big deal back then – is racist. (I must have been absent the day they taught that one.) Oh yea and Darwin was a racist. Because, ya know, most of the people living in 19th century were forward thinking, civil rights activists. YEA.
And here’s one that from my own experience is CLEARLY not true: “It’s as if God had His back turned on us UNTIL we accepted Christ as our savior.”
Well, since I’ve been walking in step with God since 1993, AND since I really still don’t have a handle on the whole Jesus thing (I don’t FEEL Him personally like I do God or His Holy Spirit), this is flat OUT WRONG.
Don’t even go down the road that these things I’ve learned are not of God, that it has not been the Real God with me, because I specifically and to the point asked for HIM. It would be wrong of HIM if he allowed anyone else to show up.
That is where I am at. It is miserable and painful, but I cannot make this final leap. I try, I leap, I jump, I miss. I pray, I study, I hope, I miss. I accept, I speak the words, I think the thoughts, I miss. The belief is not coming. I cannot push it any other way. I am doing my best with this, but if evangelicals are too be believed, it looks like Hell for me.
Now THAT would not be just in the least.
Maybe you’re listening to the wrong preachers, reading the wrong things? For you, anyway. There are more liberal, less literal-minded Christians and Christian ways of thinking out there, even still.
Let me share a few snippets from my current reading, “Discovering God: The origins of the great religions and the evolution of belief”, but Rodney Stark.
“. . . one of the most fundamental, yet remarkably neglected, of all Judeo-Christian premises, that of Divine Accommodation, which holds that God’s revelations are always limited to the current capacity of humans to comprehend. . . .”
“John Calvin (1509-1564) flatly asserted that God ‘revelas himself to us according to our rudeness and infirmity.’”
“Calvin said straight out that Genesis is not a literal account of the Creation. . . ”
“So, it is at least plausible tat many religions are based on authentic revelations as God has communicated within the limits of human comprehension and as his message has been misunderstood and eroneously transmitted. Moreover, if humans have been given free will and thereby put mostly on their own to develop their capacities and culture, that also places restrictions on the extent to which God will reveal himself. From this perspective, God asks for human assent and will not force conformity. . . .”
It is clear from elsewhere in the book that Stark believes in God and regards Christianity as the best source of revelation about God. The book is history, sociology, anthropology, not theology; I quote it mostly to demonstrate that you are not alone and that one really need not check one’s mind at the door–or try to believe in someone’s version of a “literal” interpretation of the Bible– in order to be a Christian.
Hang in there–and Merry Christmas (one day late).
Thank you Addofio, what clear-minded and lucid logic!
My days on the Path taught us that – that God sends messengers when humankind is ready for the next message. In other words, Jesus came when he did because it was only at that time that the message of sacrifice, servitude and forgiveness could be understood. To be frank, in terms of Christian evangelicism, the timing of Christ doesn’t make much sense – rather, it’s not explained why then, and what happens to souls that lived before. Or even souls that lived then but could not possibly get the message of Christ for centuries afterwards.
I’d like to look into this book more, and I’d like to find more people who I can commune with.
Thanks for coming by my blog. I’d like to link you if I can. Much of what you think, I also think and it’s nice to know I’m not alone. Thanks for that recommendation of the book by Karen Armstrong. I will get it. One I recommend to you is A Path to Wisdom: A Reading of Genesis by Leon Kass. He is Jewish. It has influenced me greatly.
Thank you, Enemy, you certainly can link to my blog! Yea, I always feel alone on spirituality, since I lost a relationship with a long time friend more than a decade ago. It IS nice not to be alone.
I will look it up, certainly! I’m interested in K.Armstrong’s book on the Bible as well. And I greatly enjoyed Misquoting Jesus too.
Interesting. It has long been my opinion and I stress that – in my own understanding of “The Bible”, I believe that “religions” make Christianity much more difficult than it is! Adding rules and regulations, always adding their own interpretaions of what they read – like the pharasies maybe? Or like what I am about to do, this is my understanding and I pray as I write this that God keep me from botching up someone elses path to Him – or being a stubling block to anyone because of what I believe. Nember 1 below is the most important thing to read and nothing else if you have a short attention span like I do sometimes.
1) No one comes to the Father but through me – Jesus speaking in the Bible. Accept Jesus as God’s only begotten son, ask him into your heart and to forgive any sins in your life(from the Bible). Thats it – Then I suggest you live by faith and grace and stay in communication with God through Jesus and His words (in the BIBLE), for your own good and curiosity bedcause you are hhuman and do have lots of questions!
I think Jesus was the way for God to make humans uderstand sacrafice of self and life beyond death and his ability to particpate in our lives. I don’t think the majority of people could accept/comprehend going right to Yahwea/God before and when Jesus walked the earth – right up until the curtin in the Temple was split and he died on the cross. God’s Son lived with humans and was killed by humans.
Jesus having experienced humaness and having had a mother and women friends that he spent time talking with, experiencing us first hand – is a great – a perfect intermediary to go between people and God. He understands us first hand – what goes on here for men and women and children – Jesus is someone that people can accept and understand and not be afraid of, someone for people to go to as an intermediary to God and God’s own son! So he has clout! You can’t say God doesn’t understand because he isn’t human – well he gave his Son the human experience and I am sure he got an earful from Jesus while Jesus spoke to him from earth and when he got to heaven.
2) Confess me before men and I will confess you before my father (in the Bible) 3) By faith you are saved & by grace you live each day – with him understanding every decision you make – right or wrong
3) Many people you think to see in Heaven won’t be there and many you think will not be there – they will be there (from the Bible), and perhaps God’s meaning of this is not our own human meaning – I refuse to put God in a box on this or pretty much anything. Only he knows the hearts of man and whether someone has accpted Jesus or not – maybe you will find that even in your heart you believe in Jesus but don’t say it and God says you can’t fool me I know you believe in my son Jesus and maybe in another country Jesus has another name or life story. I guess I try not to stress on the fine details and lean not completely on my own understanding (again from the Bible), I could be wrong. Thank goodness for faith and grace again!
If you say you beleive in “Jesus”, and confess it then God and Jesus both acknowledge you into heaven and an afterlife with them. I prefer to have Jesus on my side though – I think I make mistakes and having Jesus on my side helps me live by grace easier.
4) I believe God will write his words on your heart and in your mind and give you understanding (from the Bible), that you need on your path to God and Heaven – ask for it, pray for it – he tells us to do that (from the Bible), once I was reading and praying and wondered what God’s throne looked like and then later, just later another day when I was reading I came across that very scripture about what God’s throne looked like… in the Bible! He answered my question! Not exactly when I asked it but he answered even a curious question like that – and that is only one example I have experienced first hand of prayer or a just a question answered just like that! And the times I’ve called on Jesus to protect me and it was very obvious he did!
5) I do believe God has intervined enough through the ages to keep the most important of his words in the Bible so that you might begin your journey of understanding and communication with him and yest through Jesus (see #1). I believe the Bible is a manual, a guide. Of course it is subject to the interpretation of the reader! Ask God in Jesus name to help you understand and make sense of what you read and how or if it applies to your life and He will.
6) Don’t sweat the philosopy or details – its not that hard – leave the details to God! Come to him as child would (in the Bible), as he asks us to – through Jesus (in the Bible), just because he said so.
7) Sometimes you will feel led to share what you believe and sometimes what you believe will help others on the path to God and heaven and an awesome afterlife – go through Jesus – God let him live and die here on earth so you can get to him without all of the requirements and ritual of “religion”. I leave your understanding to you and God but don’t discount the tools he has provided – his son Jesus, and his words in the Bible (yes the ones you need are protected by him!), and the Holy Ghost to always be with you – the symbol and existance of life after death.
7) I believe the requirements and rituals God gave his people in the Old Testament of the Bible where so given so that people – particularly Jewish people that were the ones willing to accept the rites and ritual would stay healthy and survive their time on earth and as there became more of us humans/gentiles seeking communion with him( God), and having difficulty with the requirements and rituals of his people the Jews and God wanting to communicate with us too – He had to find another way – Symbolic self-sacrafice of his son Jesus on the cross to amend the rules and rituals to include us Gentiles, all people as his own, acceptable to him through acceptance of his son.
I think I’ve said enough, maybe too much – bla bla bla. Go back to number 1!
Hi S, thank you for your post. I did read the whole thing – I’m not intimidated by long reading – and I appreciate the time and effort you put into it. My problem with your kind advice is twofold.
You say, “Accept Jesus as God’s only begotten son, ask him into your heart and to forgive any sins in your life(from the Bible). Thats it”
Been there, done that, got the Tshirt. Did it as a kid, as a preteen, as a teen, a young adult, and more recently several times. It’s just that, I do it and I don’t believe it. I don’t really believe that you can say something UNTIL you believe it. Belief,in my opinion, is somewhat and partially based on evidence – although not all that evidence comes from our external senses. I have prayed for this, prayed to believe, tried to believe it, tried to let it alone and let it come, etc etc etc. I just can’t get there.
God know this about me, and knows that this is how HE created me. Only HE can change this, and He hasn’t yet. So either it will come or it’s not the one and only way to God or God is cruel.
Secondly, the Bible is much sullied by human hands, experience, translation, corrections, word of mouth, and of course, our complete and total lack of understanding of what a person living 2000 years ago could possibly be like, think like, and mean. There may not even be words in English (or Greek!) to express all the subtleties – and since words are my calling, i know that the subtleties can be everything.
Questions? Oh, yea, got a ton of them: what does “Son” mean to an omnipotent God? This is a metaphor, right? Jesus = God, yet does not know the day and hour of his own return? Hm, that doesn’t add up. Before Jesus, those people did what? 99.9% went to hell? Really??
My former pastor was once doing a class that involved proofs of the truth of Christianity and it included one about that Bible, that is has a “ring of truth”. That is true, but it is ALSO true that somethings have a ring of untruth. It’s also fraught with contradictions, and no, I don’t just mean the change from OT laws and rules to NT grace.