What If There Had Been no Paul in the Bible



We all know lots of the New Testament writing is attributed to Paul. Thus, Christianity is supposed to be about Christ but those in the faith buy this Paul guy completely.

There is so many in the faith vacating its denominations today. A good portion of these people latch onto an emerging part of the faith that focuses only on Jesus. That is, it focuses on what people want to believe Jesus was about. Is abandons most of the Bible. Or, as advocates say, frees Christianity from the Bible.

One of the figures in this change lays out what the new Christianity advocates. This author, Ken Giles published a popular book with the controversial title, Jesus Unbound; Liberating the Word of God from the Bible.

From a review, I gathered the theology of this movement is that Jesus does not judge people but accepts them as they are. It's a Jesus who mixes with the poor and unwashed and does not hate his enemies. Certainly there are places in the Bible that claim this. Then, there are places where Jesus seems like a cranky self centered person we would not like if we knew him. He killed a fig tree when is did not have the figs he wanted.

These inconsistencies surrounding what may well be a fictional character, Jesus, are the logical outcome of different writers in different countries many years apart writing about someone they had never met years after he was supposed to have been alive. Nevertheless, focuses on the parts of Jesus people like and not on the writing of Paul makes for a more modern and appealing religion.

The Christian faith would do well to ignore the parts of the Bible that are clearly about matters of the ancient world and focus on interpretations that appeal to people today. If current denominations do not do this the public will make up new denominations.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maybe the "Original Sin" Should be Reassigned

Image
We can all agree most Catholic priests are fine people and not guilty of sexual abuse. What Catholics must face, however, it that their church harbors executives who are dishonest . There is an incredible story about the Argentine Bishop Zanchetta. The Pope worked with him in Argentina and they are considered friends. Around 2015 Zanchetta sent nude pictures of himself and they began circulating world wide. He also was too friendly with young seminarians and some left because of him.  Three different officials say they made formal complaints to the Vatican about Zanchetta between 2015 and 2017. Yet, in 2018, the Vatican claimed it was unaware of any complaints about Zanchetta. This might be a good time to repeat the Catholic hierarchy claims to have the sole authority handed down from Jesus to what the faith stands for. It condemns as sinners those who practice birth control, have abortions and gay sexual relationships. Handing the hierarchy this responsibility would make som
Read more

The Religious Capitol Invaders May Yet Win

Image
So much about U.S. society and religion can be learned from the Civil War and what happened afterwards. After its defeat, the South started a myth about the unethical soldiers from the North. The South fought for principles of God and states rights. The North did not. It was the South, this propaganda told the country, that had the high moral ground.  The Capitol invaders, encouraged by Trump, swallowed the myth that Biden's election was stolen. Thus, they think they held and still hold the high moral ground. This was reinforced by the cross and prayers during the invasion. Even with Trump is gone, we will see political opportunists like Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley stroking crowds and feeding the same lies as Trump. Like "the South will rise again" these gullible followers will talk of victory over the unclean. After the Civil War the South rallied around the phrase, Lost Cause. For decades, and maybe to this day, there are ceremonies remembering fallen martyrs, Re
Read more

Father Frank Pavone, the Ultimate Crook

Image
Recently, the Vatican defrocked Frank Pavone. His diehard fans are outraged. This is because he cleverly manipulated his fans and the press all the while living well from donations and, apparently, abusing some women. By making abortion the "sin" of the century, and himself the main opposition to this one sin, he himself could get away with any sin he pleased.  As the link points out, Pavone was the perfect priest for the Trump era. Trump is so self-important laws have no role in his life. He felt accountable to no one. Women were there to be had. Pavone and Trump are interchangeable.  Pavone was very successful raising money. In his mind, abortion was so important in Catholic beliefs and he was so important in anti-abortion the money he raised opposing it was his to do with what he liked. The Catholic Church, the brand name he used to raise this money, thought the money belonged to it. When he gave the Vatican the bird, it gave him walking papers. With polls showing the majo
Read more