I certainly understand the anger, the bitterness felt by many Christians who have grown weary of the polarizing visions of Jesus as articulated in the various mainstream churches. This is especially true in American culture, where a schizophrenic god, part wrathful judge and part self-help guru uneasily coexist and compete for our attention. I’m inclined to believe that this reflects the nature of the person hearing, more than a reasonable and coherent view of God. It becomes, by necessity, a highly specific and personalized form of bible worship.
This is made a good deal more complex by asserting what are primarily supernatural methods of "Knowing". All of which are subject to the individual's interpretation. This makes it impossible to find external evidence, since evidence requires facts, and facts are, in the forensic sense, tangible things like; fingerprints, blood type, etc.--and it's forensic evidence that separates the bible from most other ancient, religious texts.
Stating that the bible is infallible, is likewise, so broad a statement as to be meaningless. How is it infallible?—and what does that actually mean? These questions should be the starting place.
We can answer them by cobbling together disparate strands of existing thought, as though we’re dining at an all you can eat restaurant—“I’ll take some of this and a bit of that”! We can abandon the tradition altogether and do the same thing with pop-psychologists and get rich quick schemes framed in the language of the Gospel, without any of its substance, mind you. Unfortunatley, that’s already happened.
There is, however, another way.
In the past fifty years our knowledge of the 1st century world of Jesus and his followers, its language and customs has radically increased. That increase has come from genuine scholarship. From archaeologists, linguists and historians, most of whom are agnostics, not true believers. They've shed new light on the meaning of Jesus’ words, his actions and the geopolitical environment that shaped his life and that of the Jewish people.
They've also shown the profound relationship between the geography of the region and its impact on biblical history.
Separating Jesus from his culture and the land that is central to virtually all of the biblical writers, would be no different than trying to teach American history without understanding the uniqueness of the land that shaped us as a people.
The prior history of England and its long march out of the ashes of the Roman Empire, including the denuded period of the "Dark Ages" too enlightenment super-power, would also be intrinsic in the search for America.
Understanding the history of the Jews and the extraordinary military and political forces that shaped them, would be no different. The bible, by the way, records all of theses changes, it simply does it the way that an ancient, Near Eastern people told their own story. Not the way that a modern, post enlightenment European would.
You’re probably not going to hear these things in your local church, at least not much of it. But it is readily available. If you want to “Know” you can. If you don’t, you can ignore it.
What we don’t need is a "New" dogma—and anytime someone says emphatically “This is the truth”, it quickly becomes the new dogma, same as the old dogma. Or, just another case of the “Dogma chasing its tail”.
Mark Magula
This is made a good deal more complex by asserting what are primarily supernatural methods of "Knowing". All of which are subject to the individual's interpretation. This makes it impossible to find external evidence, since evidence requires facts, and facts are, in the forensic sense, tangible things like; fingerprints, blood type, etc.--and it's forensic evidence that separates the bible from most other ancient, religious texts.
Stating that the bible is infallible, is likewise, so broad a statement as to be meaningless. How is it infallible?—and what does that actually mean? These questions should be the starting place.
We can answer them by cobbling together disparate strands of existing thought, as though we’re dining at an all you can eat restaurant—“I’ll take some of this and a bit of that”! We can abandon the tradition altogether and do the same thing with pop-psychologists and get rich quick schemes framed in the language of the Gospel, without any of its substance, mind you. Unfortunatley, that’s already happened.
There is, however, another way.
In the past fifty years our knowledge of the 1st century world of Jesus and his followers, its language and customs has radically increased. That increase has come from genuine scholarship. From archaeologists, linguists and historians, most of whom are agnostics, not true believers. They've shed new light on the meaning of Jesus’ words, his actions and the geopolitical environment that shaped his life and that of the Jewish people.
They've also shown the profound relationship between the geography of the region and its impact on biblical history.
Separating Jesus from his culture and the land that is central to virtually all of the biblical writers, would be no different than trying to teach American history without understanding the uniqueness of the land that shaped us as a people.
The prior history of England and its long march out of the ashes of the Roman Empire, including the denuded period of the "Dark Ages" too enlightenment super-power, would also be intrinsic in the search for America.
Understanding the history of the Jews and the extraordinary military and political forces that shaped them, would be no different. The bible, by the way, records all of theses changes, it simply does it the way that an ancient, Near Eastern people told their own story. Not the way that a modern, post enlightenment European would.
You’re probably not going to hear these things in your local church, at least not much of it. But it is readily available. If you want to “Know” you can. If you don’t, you can ignore it.
What we don’t need is a "New" dogma—and anytime someone says emphatically “This is the truth”, it quickly becomes the new dogma, same as the old dogma. Or, just another case of the “Dogma chasing its tail”.
Mark Magula
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