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Give Me That Old Time Religion
On what do we base our orientation toward God? How do we choose to interpret the experiences we encounter? Should we base the answers to such questions on what others have discovered and written about in our past? Or, is there a consciousness within each one of us when we are born, a consciousness that gave rise to all the religions in the world as people began to engage their environment with more creative responses? Where did these responses come from initially since there were few teachers and a very limited amount of material that was written when religious thought began to flourish? In considering your response, remember that John Wesley developed his faith from what he described as a quadrilateral: Scripture, Experience, Tradition and Reason. As we discuss the origins of our personal faith journey, consider the following letter that was created to suggest a different point of view to those who base their religious orientation only on what they consider the Word of God. Hi Tim,I do not want
to be overly cynical about your biblical approach to explaining
theological issues, but as I have contended before, people can do
whatever they wish with the Scriptures and pretty much get away with
it. Everything depends on how
we interpret the words and some evangelists can be very charismatic
and persuasive in their interpretation of those words.
We have been
so indoctrinated by past teachers that we seldom do any original
thinking. We don’t feel secure enough to debate anything or confront
anything in the Bible after the Council of Trent in 1546 made the
proclamation that the Bible is
The Word of God. This was
done politically to give priests the power to interpret what God has
to say. The common
people could do nothing more than believe the priests.
In those days no one could read the Scriptures and thus for
centuries the Latin Vulgate was all there was.
I am going to play The Devil’s Advocate for a moment to illustrate knowing how and why the Bible was created is central to our understanding of what we have. When we know the history and the primitive beliefs handed down in oral tradition, these were the ancestral stories about which ancient authors wrote. For example,
before God matured, he was very short tempered with very little understanding
and forgiveness. According to
God's Word, he killed
people indiscriminately because they displeased him. (Gen.
38:7, 10) And even though he called Moses to lead his
chosen people out of The Bible
teaches that there were times when God chose sides and fought
against some of his children. (Exodus 14: 25-27) God
occasionally used his power to spread disease to kill people.
(Exodus 15:26) God once ordered Moses to execute the leaders of In God's infinite wisdom and to show his faithfulness and love to his chosen people, he ordered the Israelites into a land that he had promised to give to their ancestors and during their invasion, God invited them to destroy everyone who lived there. (Joshua 1:3, Joshua 3:9-11) Was God an advocate of genocide? Just look at his loathing of the Amalekites where he wanted everyone, including infants and children, and every animal murdered. (I Samuel 15:3) There was a time when Moses used his own astute wisdom on God and it prevailed over God's intention to kill the Israelites for their disobedience. (Exodus 32:10-14) It is absolutely amazing how the compassion of Moses helped God to remember his. Somehow along the way, God grew up emotionally and learned that it is far wiser to send his Son to deal with people whom God failed to perfect at creation (Gen. 1:31) and Jesus taught that it is best to radiate forgiveness 70 times 7, a trait that God apparently did not possess himself until he matured in his understanding. Yet even Jesus often could not refrain from his often frustrated and judgmental attitudes toward the righteous even though he taught his disciples not to judge. His teaching should have been, "Do as I say, not as I think." Was the entire chapter of Matthew 23 dedicated to what was truly inside of Jesus' heart? Well, enough
of this. You get my point. Anyone can put together a
thesis that is counter to what many of us believe.
They can thoroughly ground it in Scripture and defend it with
dozens of references that are not taken out of context. What I've
learned about the Scriptures is that more often than not, they
reveal the spirit of the scholar, student or pastor who is
interpreting them. People are
beaten up enough in the world and they do not need to come
to church to hear appeals to their fears in order for them to shape
up or remain lost. I would prefer my children love me because
they want to, not because they are afraid of what will happen to
them if they do not. God is the same way. God gave us free
will and that does not mean “my way or the highway.”
So many
Christians have made the Scriptures an idol that they worship rather
then understanding that many of these images of God come from the
minds of primitive authors who were only doing the best they could
with what they knew and had been taught at the time. Today, our
understanding of God and the potential of humankind is far greater,
but few will let go of the interpretation of
God’s Word that they cling
to. That is truly a pity and freezes them from continuing their
growth spiritually, a growth that implies taking risks. They prefer
to stay with what they know rather than risk being wrong.
They simply do not understand that God does not
possess the emotions of our species.
Until they achieve that understanding within them, they will
live in fear of our Creator. There clearly will be an end-time, Tim, but to spend even one moment worrying about it is also to go against another teaching of Jesus. (Matt. 6:34) People who are overly concerned about the state of their soul have just a tad of self-interest at the heart in their desire to serve God. What I would prefer that people do is trust that God's will is unfolding in God's time not theirs. There is peace when we trust God for the outcome of all things. Quality of life and living with joy is all about God's grace and not about what we think, believe or do. We cannot earn anything by our beliefs. (John 6:63) Yes, the
end-times will come – perhaps by a nuclear holocaust, perhaps a
major polar shift, perhaps the sun will nova -- who among our
species knows? My belief is that love will trump fear
any day of the week (I John 4:18). My
end-time will come when I transition from my solid form.
If you want to
have your faith challenged, read two books by Bart D. Erhman.
(1)
Misquoting Jesus, (2)
Jesus Interrupted.
Bart is the Chair of the Religious Studies Department at the Blessings on you, Tim. Dick |