I mentioned this in a previous thread, but I think it deserves a thread on it’s own.
We read stuff. That’s what books are for. We read all kinds of books - a sci-fi book here, a romance novel, a science textbook there, etc, in our daily lives using the hours as we wish. It struck me that if someone told me I could read a book not by Dan Brown, or Isaac Asimov, or Einstein, but by the actual creator of the entire universe - THE one true perfect God who created galaxies, planets, suns, elephants, T. Rexes, viruses, quarks, redwoods, Niagara falls, Olympus Mons, Europa, Hale-Bopp, sex, myself, supernovas, languages, gamma rays, mangoes and flamingoes - then why would I read anything else? The all perfect creator of all that is knows a helluva lot more than the author of my textbook about electronic physics or metal recrystallization, and must be an infinitely better writer than a mere human like Tolkien or Tolstoy. I would read it over and over, and devote hour after hour to learning it. Even if I only had a snippet - lacking the whole thing, it would be a treasure worth more than countless mere human books.
Would I, faced with the wonder of our universe (not to mention the idea of a burning Hell or a blissful heaven), and offered a chance to hear from the very creator himself, waste even a minute watching a sitcom, or necking, or playing pool, if I could instead spend that time directly drinking in the words of the maker of all? Of course not - that would be a huge statement of what little significance I put on the word of God. Would I tolerate a human to change the word of God, from what God gave us to something that is more in line with what a human wanted, though it still seems to have the “general meaning” God intended? Of course not - every jot and tittle would be perfect, and changes would therefore be an insult to God and worse than blasphemy. To make even a small change would be saying that I either didn’t think much of God, or that I considered myself on par with or superior to God, or that I didn’t consider the rendition we have to be reliable.
Yet almost no-one, not even those who call themselves Bible-based Christians, acts as if they really believe their chosen Bible is the word of God (of course, that assumes one starts by picking one Bible among all the canons and translations, which differ by entire books worth of text). Most Christians haven’t even read it all (!). It certainly isn’t memorized and recited over and over, or used to wallpaper our homes, or played over and over on the radio, as would be the case if we really believed it was the actual word of God - at least, I’d be in favor of all those things if I took seriously the idea that it was the word of God. Instead, Christians treat it as “interesting” or “worthy of respect” or “occasionally useful”. The few who do seem to take this word of God idea seriously are the scariest of the fundamentalists - for good reason, since any Bible chosen has some pretty scary parts (it sometimes preaches immorality as morality, viciousness as kindness, and cruelty as love, of course, it does have good stuff in it too).
So - what would I do if they really believed a chosen Bible was the actual word of God? Here are some things that come to mind:
1. I would aggressively investigate any suggestion that translations differ or that changes were made to the word of God- (imagine a similar suggestion - that someone killed my Mom, or some such horror - I certainly wouldn’t gloss over it, and if I really thought my chosen Bible was the word of God, any human killing would be less horrible).
2. It would be a huge deal - I’d hit the roof - if obvious differences in either translation or transmission were found (there are tons of these, with new meanings introduced). Would not the person who was responsible be deserving of death?
3. Same for when whole verses are added or deleted, even the addition or subtraction of a word would be an unpardonable crime.
4. I’d listen to it constantly if I couldn’t read (like when driving) - wouldn’t we have radio stations that simply played someone reading it from beginning to end, over and over? Compare the drivel on most radio stations to the idea of the actual word of God - can there be any comparison?
5. I would certainly advocate it’s use in direct legislation - regardless of what the founding father’s said, since they are human, and I would be thinking that my chosen Bible is the actual word of God, not just some human.
6. Entertainment (if any were possible aside from directly reading the Bible), would be nearly or completely all Biblical - movies like Ben Hur (except I’d make them actually follow my chosen Bible instead of changing so much from it), kids movies like that Moses one, Books - nearly all would be Bible commentaries if not my chosen Bible itself, and on and on.
7. Would not memorizing my chosen Bible be a higher priority than any other subject in education? I guess after memorizing the Bible, math or physics could be studied. Or perhaps some very limited non-Biblical education could be justified on the ground that I had to be able to earn a living so as to eat and be able to read my chosen Bible more.
8. Wouldn’t I expect national priorities be based on the Bible? What need for another few atomic bombs or stealth fighters - wouldn’t my first priority be, say, funding biblical archeology or providing Bibles to poor Africans (or poor Americans)?
9. Wouldn’t I use it as a basis for naming days, months, and such? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, January February, March are all named from classical antiquity. Wouldn’t I divide the time of the day based on the Bible, like into 66 hours of 22 minutes each (66 books in the Bible), or if Catholic, 73 hours each 20 minutes long (since their Bibles have 73 books), instead of 24 hours?
10. Would I even consider advocating freedom for Hindus, Atheists, Jews, or such? Any chosen Bible seems quite clear on this, and so what if it goes against everything the founding fathers said - they are human, not God?
11. Wouldn’t I print my chosen Bible text on most any available surface? What could be better on the walls at home than the word of God, or on my car, clothes, buildings (outside of home), even tattooed on my skin?
12. Wouldn’t my chosen Bible be the FIRST place I look when any question comes up, whether it is about human relations, about how to invest, about stem cell research, about smoking, about legalizing aspirin, about what to set speed limits at?
13. Wouldn’t I have copies in every room of my house, one or two in my car, certainly a little one carried with me all the time, a walkman playing one instead of music (what could be better music to my ears?), copies to loan out to anyone who didn’t have theirs with them at the time, etc?
14. Wouldn’t teaching the whole, memorized Bible to my kids be my top priority - I guess after they are potty trained, but certainly more important than teaching them how to ride a bike, play soccer, play chess, learn a musical instrument, or such.
15. Wouldn’t I keep it close, such as keeping one under my pillow or such? Deut 6 says:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
15. Wouldn't I use cubits or some such instead of inches or cm, and invent units for everying instead of naming them after people or whatever? (Amp, Volt, pound, gram, second, Tesla, Ohm, Newton, mile, quart, etc?)
16. I’d certainly learn Hebrew and Greek so as to read it in it’s original language - in fact, wouldn’t these be taught to children before teaching that 1+1=2 (it would be a lot more important). Hell, would we even still speak English? Why not just speak the languages God used?
No one seems to actually believe their Bible is the word of God, whether they say they do or not. What do you think? How would you handle text that you really believed to be words from the almighty creator of everything seen and unseen?
-Equinox
For a forum, maybe Bible accuracy , Bible study or some other topic?
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