The Bible as the Infallible, Literal Word of God
The slippery slope began with a religious studies class that Optimus Prime took in University. He learned of alternative ways of interpreting Jesus and His death. And he stopped believing in atonement.
He shared this with me one evening during a youth group meeting. Pointed out things in the Bible, but I couldn’t accept what he was saying. If I did, it would start to unravel everything.
Prime also began taking on Fundamentalist Christians who believed that the Bible was the unfaultable, authoritative word of God. He did this mostly on the internet. He had excellent arguments, but when it finally came time to talk to his family about it, he relented. He was better than I, in that, he actually talked to them about it. Used the same arguments he did with the nameless, faceless internet people, but he didn’t push as hard and gave up when he saw his parents and siblings becoming upset.
Then I took my won class. The Bible as Literature. We looked at scripture through the eyes of an English student. Point of View, language differences, theories on origin, stylistic difference… and all of a sudden it became impossible for me to see the Bible as fact.
I think the kicker was the stuff about Abraham and Sarah. There’s some verses in there about what Sarah did in her tent, alone, and didn’t tell anybody. How did the author know for sure what happened in that tent if Sarah never told anyone?
Sure, you can use the argument that God revealed it, which is always the fall back. But put it together with certain inconsistencies in the Bible (numbers, geography, etc.) and it is hard to believe that God revealed everything and that it was recorded perfectly in the Bible and handed down to us through the generations.
When I mentioned some of this to my father, his response wasn’t to argue the reasoning behind continuing it to believe that the Bible was the infallible Word of God, but to point out the consequences.
If I didn’t believe the Bible, my faith would unravel until there was nothing left.
And that’s almost what happened.
He shared this with me one evening during a youth group meeting. Pointed out things in the Bible, but I couldn’t accept what he was saying. If I did, it would start to unravel everything.
Prime also began taking on Fundamentalist Christians who believed that the Bible was the unfaultable, authoritative word of God. He did this mostly on the internet. He had excellent arguments, but when it finally came time to talk to his family about it, he relented. He was better than I, in that, he actually talked to them about it. Used the same arguments he did with the nameless, faceless internet people, but he didn’t push as hard and gave up when he saw his parents and siblings becoming upset.
Then I took my won class. The Bible as Literature. We looked at scripture through the eyes of an English student. Point of View, language differences, theories on origin, stylistic difference… and all of a sudden it became impossible for me to see the Bible as fact.
I think the kicker was the stuff about Abraham and Sarah. There’s some verses in there about what Sarah did in her tent, alone, and didn’t tell anybody. How did the author know for sure what happened in that tent if Sarah never told anyone?
Sure, you can use the argument that God revealed it, which is always the fall back. But put it together with certain inconsistencies in the Bible (numbers, geography, etc.) and it is hard to believe that God revealed everything and that it was recorded perfectly in the Bible and handed down to us through the generations.
When I mentioned some of this to my father, his response wasn’t to argue the reasoning behind continuing it to believe that the Bible was the infallible Word of God, but to point out the consequences.
If I didn’t believe the Bible, my faith would unravel until there was nothing left.
And that’s almost what happened.
posted by deadwriter at 5:37 p.m.
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