The human authors of the Bible disagreed about nearly everything: language, content, translation, intent. 

They disagreed about Jesus’s lineage, his kingship and his rank in the Trinity. Contrary to popular belief, the Bible does not contain the literal word trinity nor a solid concept of it!

Many modern Christians don’t realize that most of the Jewish community does not condone Biblical literalism. According to many sources, such as John Barton, author of A History of the Bible, most Jewish people consider the Bible to be alive and open for interpretation, constantly growing. 

The Bible books began as an oral tradition. Hundreds of different people later wrote and recopied them over centuries and interpreted in thousands of different ways.

That’s not a bad thing! 

But unfortunately, a majority of people’s faith in Christianity relies on the Bible not just being a good book, but on being a perfect, inerrant, literal book. 

To Biblical literalists, the Bible can’t be both/and. Black-or-white, all-or-nothing, the Bible must be all true and totally accurate, or else the baby gets thrown out with all the bathwater and the tub, too. 

Of course, if you’re just a gal who takes the human, imperfect preacher at his word on Sunday; if you’re a woman who reads the Bible at surface-level but never really digs into the history of it, well you’re probably fine with that. It’s easy for you to accept its “inerrancy” because you refuse to ask questions. 

But some of us women are inquisitive. Dare I say, we might even be a little cynical. We ask questions like this:

• Who populated the Earth along with Adam and Eve? 
• Why would God command His people to kill, pillage and rape nations?
• How could God send Judas to Hell if He needed him in order for events to be fulfilled?
• Why can’t we talk to animals like we used to?
• How could people audibly hear God then but not now?

And unfortunately, we gals have to put up some serious mental blockers to end up with the answers that most Evangelicals give. 

Study the following quote, and think about what you the reflection you wrote yesterday:

“The trustworthiness of the Scriptures lies at the foundation of trust in the Christian system of doctrine and is therefore fundamental to the Christian hope and life.” 

~ Benjamin B. Warfield, 20th century theologian (bold italics mine)

There are two words that jump out in this quote: system and doctrine. 

*****

[Romans 9] 6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! …11 But before [Jacob and Esau] were born, before they had done anything good or bad, [Rebecca] received a message from God…12…She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” 13 In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

14 Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! 15 For God said to Moses,

“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,

    and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

16 So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it…

19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? … 

Romans

It’s always been past behavior and a fear of what could happen in the future that forced us to set laws in place to curb undesirable behavior in the present. 

It’s not so much that humanity has changed–that we were once icons of perfection and are now a bunch of heathens–it’s that what we show the world has changed. 

What we’re comfortable publicly flaunting has changed.  

We are living in a day and age where people are getting super-honest about their hurts, habits, hang-ups. Trying to figure out who we are, we invite others into that same space.

We are challenging the status quo because it’s done us no favors, celebrating imperfections because we’re developing empathy. 

This makes many people, especially those who have lived rather comfortably, uncomfortable. Therefore, within certain generations, geographical areas, or belief systems you’ll hear things like, “People don’t fear God anymore,” or “There’s too much lawlessness and licentiousness these days.” 

These same people often use Paul’s sermon on “the last days” and apply it to now, when Paul thought “the last days” were his days, not ours. 

People have always done whatever they have wanted to do. “Bad” behavior has always existed, and what we consider bad often changes. 

For example, you probably learned in school that medieval marriages allowed for side chicks, or that at one time we wouldn’t allow students in American schools to use their left hands to write. 

Any abnormality for centuries upon centuries kicked you out of the kingdom. Whole institutions developed to house people with disabilities so that the “normal” people wouldn’t have to deal with them and could comfortably pretend they didn’t exist. 

It’s not society’s fear of God but of other men that keeps behavior in check, not the other way around, and we are currently living in a society in which that fear of other men has taken a back seat to more pressing issues of the day.

It’s as if being “good” has almost always been less about our desire to behave and more about a fear of the system.

So many people cringe when they hear laments of returning to the “good old days.” The good old days weren’t good for a vast majority of people. They probably weren’t good for anyone; we just see the olden days through our own innocence and the black and white movies and television filmed in an era when Hollywood placed strict morality clauses on what they could show. Meanwhile, the actors and actresses themselves were taking part in all manner of licentious activity in their personal lives!

*****

[Ecclesiastes 1] These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem.

2 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

3 What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. 6 The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. 7 Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. 8 Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.

9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. 11 We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now…

[Chapter 7]

10 Don’t long for “the good old days.”

    This is not wise.

11 Wisdom is even better when you have money.

    Both are a benefit as you go through life.

12 Wisdom and money can get you almost anything,

    but only wisdom can save your life.

13 Accept the way God does things,

    for who can straighten what he has made crooked?

14 Enjoy prosperity while you can,

    but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God.

    Remember that nothing is certain in this life. 

Ecclesiastes

Just a heads up, Evangelicals have this super-weird way of meshing apocalyptic fear with toxic positivity. It’s a strange concoction of Worship a Good and Loving Father! and Fear Burning in Hell for all of Eternity! 

I say this because often a person will read Ecclesiastes and think, “Heck yeah! I can get behind this guy,” only to find that Evangelicals see Ecclesiastes as one of those books you’re not actually supposed to like or follow. They want you to view it as a cautionary tale as opposed to a mandate proclaiming eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.  

The Bible is patriarch-focused and full of men who lead far less than perfect lives. 

Solomon is but one of them. Repeatedly, the Bible tells stories of men who find themselves in a plethora of predicaments, often caused by their own dumb choices but almost always blamed on women. (Solomon hands women the blame for most of society’s ills in many of his proverbs.)

Even John the Baptist, precious though he is, is a flipping weirdo who lives out in the wilderness and eats bugs. 

Likewise, the men Jesus rebukes are a bunch of hypocrites who think they’re higher on the God-chain than anyone else. 

Not until Jesus do we find perfection. 

Everything Jesus did and said was without flaw. When he was angry, it was justified. When he was confusing in speech, it served a purpose, and when he was just being plain old him, he was full of love and healing. 

He even had the power to kill off old, raise the dead, and make all things new. 

Still does.

See you soon,

Toni