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Wednesday, May 17, 2017

The Bible: Which Parts To Believe?


I recently heard the question asked:
"How do you decide which part of the Bible you believe in and which part you don't? Because from my perspective God doesn't lie and the Bible is God breathed."

My response would be:
The Old Testament is basically a latter day finally writing down of what had been passed down orally from generation to generation for hundreds of years before Jesus was born. The New Testament is of a different origin though / and is well documented.

If you take the Bible too literally, it becomes problematic. For example, there are two different creation stories in Genesis. Other problems are caused by mistranslations of older texts into newer and different languages (Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, etc.). For example, the original text did not say to 'fear thy God'. It said to respect and hold in awe God, but the translator either did a poor job or interjected his own desired meaning.

Also, the Council of Nicaea left out many books from the Bible. Some held women in higher regard than what Paul believed. Culture and politics interfered.

Anyway, faith in God does not depend on faith in the Bible being literally true every step of the way. The Bible is full of riddles and mysteries. Even Jesus' parables are designed to make us think deeper and deeper. 

In answer to your question:
I believe in God and that Jesus came to show us the way to God. The earliest Christians called themselves "The People of the Way"."

Note: Over the years, I've posted a variety of blog entries relating to the Bible. This particular one most directly to what I was saying earlier.
http://samslair.blogspot.com/2016/08/symbolism-in-bible.html?m=1
Some other postings:
http://samslair.blogspot.com/search?q=+bible&m=1