GuerrillaPack said:
smitt86 said:
No, my church definitely doesn't tell me God wrote the Bible or that everything in it was directly from his word/hand. Our church talks openly about all of the various authors that contributed to the Bible and how they were cobbled together well after they were initially written, and not in a chronological order or order divined by God. Also, I understand that there are multiple translations that have occurred from that original writings to what is in our current versions of the Bible.
If you're going to swear and live entirely by the Book, as an unequivocal absolute divine truth, sure hope your wife has never had a job or tried to teach anyone anything(Timothy 2:11-12) or that you've EVER eaten anything pork in your life(Leviticus 11:7).
Can't pick which pieces work the best for you, can't tell me a woman should be able to be a teacher or hold a role in the church or that you should be able to enjoy some good NC BBQ, BUT, the earth is 100% flat, because, you know, a 2000 year old book and what someone wrote in a poem they chose to include in it.
But YOU are picking and choosing yourself which things in the Bible you want to consider as valid, as you just admitted. Are you picking God's commandments against murder, stealing, and lying as still "valid"? Are those divinely inspired commandments?
I actually reject Saul of Tarsus (aka "Paul") as a false apostle, and do not believe his writings (such as Timothy you mentioned above forbidding women to teach) should be included in the Bible.
I believe that the old testament dietary laws are still in effect, and were made for good reason...for our benefit. Pork and other unclean foods are unhealthy and cause diseases. That said, of course you can be forgiven if you've ever eaten pork in your life -- just like you can be forgiven of any sin.
But I'm not. I'm not going to the Bible for any sort of scientific data or evidence, heck, we celebrate Christmas on the wrong date, haha. I'm able to put things in context, and especially in terms of time and culture.
It would be like saying we wrote the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, but we should NEVER be able to amend or update them, because folks in the 1700s could really predict what the world would look like in 2024.
I believe a lot of the lines written in red, but I understand these things were written, and stories told, OVER two thousand years ago, and I've played "telephone"/"password" before, and understand how oral stories change every single time they're told. Also, we have humans saying what they were told and then recanting their memory on paper, then put in the book, translated multiple times, etc.
If you want to believe the earth is flat, by all means, believe whatever you want. I just don't think the Bible should be the evidence presented, because even as a Christian, I immediately disregard the rest of the argument. It would be like me trying to convince someone to get a lobotomy today because I found a novel from 1895 that said a doctor in the book swore by them and talked about how great they were at helping people. Don't understand why you can't be a Christian but also appreciate science.