Rev writes to faithinactiononline.com, in response to comments by E-Double.
The Bible was never written to be taken literally.
According to Tony Browder, author and lecturer, “the book we have come to know as the Bible is actually a compilation of 66 books”, “‘written by 66 authors over a period of 2000 years.”‘
Among the writers assigned to write one of the books was William Shakespeare. According to Tony Browder, Shakespeare was forbidden by King James to publicize his involvement with the writing project. He found a clever way of hiding his “signature” within the material.
If you look at Psalm 46 (in King James version), you will note the 46th word from the beginning of the psalm is “shake,” and the 46th word from the end of the psalm is “spear.”
One basic truth about the Bible is that it was written in code. These codes encompass allegories, symbolism and numbers.
Rev. C. Solomon Says:
E-Double,
Never was intended is a bit too strong from my point of view, and therefore I would have to take issue with your conclusion that the canon was never written to be taken literally’, although I agree with why you arrived at your conclusion that it should not always be taken literally. Among other things, it has been tampered with!
Most historical information to the contrary points to the fact that Emperor Constantine and others like him had a motive for expecting the canon to be taken literally within their universes. Constantine for instance would not have gone to all of the trouble to have the canon compiled and to have the original copies strategically placed as he did and taught to the people, had he not intended for it to be taken literally.
In fact, I believe that the word of God was intended to be taken literally. The real challenge for scholars and believers today is to determine what the word of God is and what was added, deleted, co-opted, copied…and left out in the sacrosanct canon!
Unfortunately, most believers have been and are still being taught that the indefensible canon is the unadulterated word of God from cover to cover. We know better, but most ministers are afraid to tamper with historical teachings that lack verity and in many instances manuscript support.
Isn’t it sad when we cannot have an open discussion about what someone wrote or claims to have been true! I subscribe to 1 Thess 5:21…prove it!
What is frightening is what happened to men like Galileo and Jesus for that matter when they dared to challenge the religious status quo. We need to be more forthright and say, you know a fuller disclosure has shown that…., so that people can get back to worshipping God and seeking God, and not the will of the canon or Constantine, Erasmus and others.
Unfortunately, many Christians have become what they have criticized in this sense. Christians have openly labeled the Jews, accusing them of being stuck in dispensational theology, in their case the Mosaic Law.
Christians are stuck as well in their own form of Dispensational Christian Law, I believe, having outsourced their responsibility for pursuing full disclosure and having leaned too heavily on unproven, outdated, unverified, conflicting…sources, source materials, conclusions and paradigms!
I believe that the scientific community will soon embarrass the church, debunk and disprove much religious dogma and overthrow the faith of those who should have believed in God instead of what someone who may not have spoken for God after all wrote! How about the ongoing study of endocrinology, genetics, epigenetics as they all relate to homosexuality and other human conditions, or people who were born that way, made that way or chose to be that way.
Get ready, for we are about to find out who did sin and who did not sin at all that has resulted in such conditions like intersex people! The belief of some Christians will be destroyed in an instance.
The upside will be that we can get back to learning and to release the former shackles. The old model was that there exists this great cosmic contest whose objective is to determine who can believe the most, based on what unknown and untested figures wrote! That’s not good! We all once believed in Santa Claus I suppose! I suspect that what we refer to as God, happens to be even bigger than the God of Christianity, Islam, Judaism….combined!
When will we simply learn to say that at times we are wrong, or that we didn’t do our homework and simply accepted what someone else wrote or said?
It would be grand if more ministers would participate in Reverend Brown’s blog, called Faith in Action and voice your opinion, it is truly inspiring!
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
Addenda: Jesus was controversial, don’t be afraid to ask, test or challenge!
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