Every word of the Bible came from God and is 100% true.
Except for the parts we want to ignore.
Anecdotal. A rabbi put it this way; the Bible is a lot like the daily newspaper. If the paper says that the President was in Chicago last night you know it’s absolutely true. If the paper says that it will rain tomorrow you can accept it as a reasonable prediction. If the paper says Charlie Brown has a talking dog you have to consider it a metaphor for a greater truth.
The text of the OT and NT both are attributed (often falsely, per general consensus) to specific authors. King David, Peter, Paul, etc. Whole lot of Paul. Most of the New Testament claims of divine inspiration or revelation come from Paul claiming he was inspired by visions of Jesus (Galatians 1:11, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, etc.). And if we go back up to the various male supremacist stances in the NT, Paul also wrote most of those. Really begs the question, is this Christianity or…Paulianity. Reminds me of the Sunni vs. Shia difference on the significance of Ali, except we barely have the controversy, Paul’s huckster take on Jesus is basically the universally accepted norm. In many cases it seems to be completely at odds with Jesus’s teachings recorded elsewhere. It’s really crazy.
Someone else pointed out that the Middle East was pretty illiterate circa 1 AD. Meanwhile, China had a high literacy rate. If God had wanted his book widely distributed, he sure picked a bad place to have it published.
Every word of the Bible came from God and is 100% true.
Except for the parts we want to ignore.
Anecdotal. A rabbi put it this way; the Bible is a lot like the daily newspaper. If the paper says that the President was in Chicago last night you know it’s absolutely true. If the paper says that it will rain tomorrow you can accept it as a reasonable prediction. If the paper says Charlie Brown has a talking dog you have to consider it a metaphor for a greater truth.
The text of the OT and NT both are attributed (often falsely, per general consensus) to specific authors. King David, Peter, Paul, etc. Whole lot of Paul. Most of the New Testament claims of divine inspiration or revelation come from Paul claiming he was inspired by visions of Jesus (Galatians 1:11, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, etc.). And if we go back up to the various male supremacist stances in the NT, Paul also wrote most of those. Really begs the question, is this Christianity or…Paulianity. Reminds me of the Sunni vs. Shia difference on the significance of Ali, except we barely have the controversy, Paul’s huckster take on Jesus is basically the universally accepted norm. In many cases it seems to be completely at odds with Jesus’s teachings recorded elsewhere. It’s really crazy.
Someone else pointed out that the Middle East was pretty illiterate circa 1 AD. Meanwhile, China had a high literacy rate. If God had wanted his book widely distributed, he sure picked a bad place to have it published.
As per ‘Life of Brian.’
Blessed at the cheesemakers…
Reminds me of Mormonism and Joseph Smith.