The Bible, as a source of spiritual truth, I find to be pretty much useless, outside of the gospels, which I don't find to be containing the fullness of said truth.
How truth is discerned is a personal matter. I go with my intuition and my heart. Others go with the Bible itself, but I see no reason for it personally. Still others go with a churchly authority, which I've tried time and again and I just can't fit in that box.
Most define Christianity in some way in relation to the Bible. Me, I'll take the four Gospels, but I won't take them 100% literally, because I don't believe Jesus tossed demons into pigs (for example). I'll also consider the non-canonical gospels. And Tarot cards. And the Qu'ran. And the Tao te Ching. And and and ...
The church is the candle before me, the books beside me, the heart within me, and you, and me.
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I've been thinking a lot about this very topic. Well about the bible anyway. I was listening the tail ending of an interview Thom Hartman had with some evangelical Christian. The "Christian" was making a point and quoting a verse from the bible, and Thom pointed out that it was Paul who said it, not Jesus. And he said something to the effect that all scripture was the word of God and it was all equal. And I realized, that I don't believe that at all. I don't think all parts of the Bible are equal. I think that the Gospel comes the closes to Jesus' message, but even that has been diluted some by man's ego, because it wasn't actually put to paper for approximately 400 years.
ReplyDeleteSo sometimes, I look at Christians, and think they are breaking the number one commandment. They put a book before God.
-Seana
I like our rabbi's take on the bible, which is that it's the family's stories, which have been told and retold a million times and each time they change a little or get enbroidered on or exaggerated to make a point... and they are great family stories, but nothing more than that. They tell us a lot about who we are and where we came from. Great-great-great-great grandfather Abraham did this, and cousin Miriam said that racist thing about her brother Moses's wife and got leprosy for gossiping, and those other cousins tried to play high priest and threw something on a grease fire and it blew up in their faces and killed them...and...
ReplyDeleteJesus was the first Reform Rabbi.