Call me Heretic

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
Some snarky apologies to Herman Melville are probably due here. See title.

Get the pitchforks and torches boys!

Why? ‘Cause I am about to question. Some people will condemn me for what I write here. For that matter, I have relatives who will condemn me for what I write here.

Bring it.

Your opinion of me is none of my business anyway.

That outta the way, on with some heresy.

Is the Bible the inerrant word of God?

Got proof? I don’t mean tautological proof. I mean external proofs. Proofs which can be backed up and independently examined.

No? I expected as much. No worries.

But in a nod to the Christians, atheists can’t back up their rejection of a deity any better.

Ouch.

But what if I can give you proof that the Bible which exists today is not the same Bible which existed at the time Jesus walked on the Earth? What if I can give you proof that New Testament which exists today was not the same that existed in the first century A.D.?

Call me Heretic.

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/17/138281522/how-bible-stories-evolved-over-the-centuries

Telling quote: Warren points to another significant change in the gospel of John: In the earliest manuscripts, he says, John did not include Jesus challenging a mob that's about to stone a woman accused of adultery with the now-famous line: "Let any among you who is without sin cast the first stone."

And it's that easy!

Um. How about that? These guys at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary are going back and the finding the oldest records of the New Testament they can lay their hands on.

I hate Rubik cubes.

“For 11 years, they've combed through the earliest Greek manuscripts of each book in the New Testament and found more than 17,000 pages of variations.”

That’s a lotta variation.

For those of you out to hang me in effigy (or the south end of town where I live), lemme remind you - This is a study being done by professors at one of the most prestigious Bible universities in the nation. Hang me, hang them and hang the people who created the modern translations of the Bible (including the KJV), write Sunday School books and study guides.

After we tell you what we want you to know.

These are the very people telling YOU what to think about the Bible. Or are you telling me that you understand absolutely everything in the Bible? Are you telling me you can read ancient Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic?

Think about it. I’ll wait.

I also wonder about the Apocryphal books. I’ve read transcriptions of historical records dating back to when these books were removed from the Bible by the religious authorities. I’ve even asked modern ministers about why the books were removed.

Most modern ministers tell me to quit wondering about it.

Not gonna happen. Those ministers who do tell me that quickly find I no longer pay much attention to what they say.

A few have told me “Well, I don’t know.” I can respect that. A lack of knowledge is not a fault, unless you do not attempt to fill in that lacuna.

Yo. Galileo! Can I get a witness here?

So the question is, if the Bible has been changed and altered over the centuries (which is what the Muslims claim), is it accurate? Is it believable?

Is it inerrant?

More importantly, should people base their life around what the Bible teaches?

As to question 1, I say anything that man has a hand in will be changed. Man has tinkered with the Bible over and over and over. It does not surprise me that it has changed.

Man pretty well buggered up the Garden of Eden and has been on a downhill slide every since as best I can see.

As to question 2, I say yes. It’s just as believable as any of the other ancient records. More believable to me. YMMV

As to the third question, before I get to that, I have a bit more to say.

Pick one. Pick both. Pick neither.

The vast majority of “Christians” I know have never read the entire Bible through as a book. I have yet to meet any professed Christian who understands the entire book. Yet they are arrogant in their “knowledge.”

Yep. She said it.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

“How can anyone read the Bible when it is being shoved down their throat?” asks my friend Andrew.

So on question three I will allow a man wiser than me to answer: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Mohandas Gandhi

 

As for question 4, is it inerrant?

If you say yes, then by default you also accept that it is truth and must be adhered to. How well are you living up to the precepts listed in there? All of 'em. Especially the one which states in order to be forgiven you must first forgive, else you will not be forgiven.

 

That includes forgiving me, BTW.

If you say no, you may believe parts of it or none of it. If you believe parts, why? Which parts and why not others?

If you believe none of it, then I ask how you can prove it is wrong? If the Bible is inspired by a being far above the abilities of any human (except one) alive or dead, then how can you expect to fully understand everything in it?

Call me Heretic. Looking down the road of history at others who were called heretic, I'm in excellent company.