"The Bible Clearly Says..." What?



How could it be two issues which were the driving force in the past couple Presidential elections and countless elections in state and local areas were driving by a "Biblical teaching." One could ask millions of people I would guess if the Bible has a clear statement condemning these matters and they would say definitely it does.

Reading the Bible does not give us such a clear message and Biblical scholars remain in disagreement as to what the says or means. The issues, of course, are homosexuality and abortion. There is no clear condemnation in the Bible of either. It is amazing there would be so much agreement among a broad swath of Christians the Bible condemns both when it does not.

I've been though the arguments as to why people believe the condemnations and why they are not there so I will not go through them again today. But it is worth some time to speculate why people believe the Bible says some things when it does not.

The only explanation I know of, and maybe it is more simple than the reality on the ground, is that people are prejudiced against gays and women and twisting obscure passages in the Bible helps justify views that otherwise could not be justified. I wish this were not true but what other explanation is there. 

The Bible is ready and willing to provide justification for most any views on most any subject. On a parody site I visit often there is permanent insert which says, "You can kill most anyone and still get into heaven." 


This is humor but it is not far off the mark.

Comments

  1. Ardy BJuly 4, 2020 at 4:07 PM

    Jon, “The Bible Clearly Says..." What?”

    “The problem is not that the Bible is lacking in clear, definitive, categorical statements. The problem is that the Bible offers too many of them and they do not all agree.”(1)

    What a marvelous oracle this book of books. Someone can concoct a recipe of cherry-picked verses to support any religious or societal view they wish then declare, “The proof is in the pudding”. However, “Religious truth is a term frequently met in modern literature, but it has no sound basis in reason and it has none at all in the Bible.”(2). Whatever the original claim to truth by divine revelation has been diluted beyond detection. Yet, the faithful will pay for it, pray on it, and worse, act on it.

    Hope you are enjoying the Independence Day weekend. The power of the explosions from today’s fireworks have driven the family dog and I to the shelter of the basement. To an old infidel it’s all a bit overdone. Peace.

    (1) https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2014/12/29/the-bible-is-clearly-ambiguous-but-not-that-kind-of-ambiguous/

    2) https://biblehub.com/topical/t/truth.htm

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon LindgrenJuly 4, 2020 at 7:28 PM

      Thank you Ardy B for the good comment.

      We had a nice 4th. The fire works is a bit distant from us fortunately.

      Delete

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