September 19th, 2020
I have finally finished reading the Old Testament. It’s been a while since my last post, but that was because I hadn’t had any significant revelations for a while and I wanted to finish reading the Old Testament before writing about it. The last part of the Old Testament after the Books of Wisdom are the Books of the Prophets. I found it a bit difficult to get through these books as it was difficult to get a sense of what and when everything was taking place. I know that they correspond with various points in Israel’s history Pre and Post Exile, but they seemed to jump around a bit. What was more annoying was that I had read about the exile and post-exile in the earlier books so it was harder to pay attention to the prophets. It seemed that the Books of the prophets were like biblical op-ed pieces focusing on moral reform. The writers were studied in the Old Testament up to that point and served as commentators on the times that they were living. The books of the prophets most certainly shed light on what these individuals believed in this time period. After finishing the Old Testament (and doing some other reading and studying) I don’t think I believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. I can entertain beliefs that the books of the Bible were divinely inspired, but not that the bible was dictated by God. I have a book called Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem (which is really more of a textbook) that would be worth diving into to see what the doctrine is with regards to this, but part of me feels that it isn’t necessary. It’s not important or helpful to me for the Bible to be the inerrant word of god, because I feel it may blur some of the deeper meanings behind the text. An example of this happened recently with a bible study where we were looking at Jacob wrestling with God Genesis 32:22-32. One person believed that Jacob was actually wrestling with God which I was a bit skeptical of. I tend to view the Book of Geneisis from a psychological and mythical sense than from a literal sense and as it turned out, our interpretations were very similar. From the psychological perspective the story could be an example of a person wrestling with themselves in the night because they are going through some change or have to make a big decision which falls in line with what Jacob was doing at this point by making amends with his brother Esau whom he cheated out of his birthright. The mythical perspective looks at the fact that his name is changed to Israel which could be a representation of that same turning point for Jacob in the national concsiousness of the Israelites to turn from their deceitful ways to a more pious and religious way in tune with what God wants of them. Something that came to mind is that God is setting apart Jacob like he sets apart the people of Israel in other parts of the Old Testament and the Israelites could have looked at it as an explanation and justification for their status as God’s chosen people. I feel that sometimes folks can be too caught up in the specific doctrine that their church has told them that they don’t think critically of the texts and understand what they represent from a human perspective. The story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree comes to mind when thinking about this. Did the story take place as it has been told? No-one will know for certain, but that is missing the point. People can argue back and forth about whether it’s true, but can come to the same interpretation, that one should not tell lies. It is evident that this story has contributed the collective American myth and the legend of George Washington as our founding patriarch which is not a bad thing. Stories help reinforce morality and values and should be read and studied, but I think it is unwise to cling to a belief that stories about morality (The Bible can be considered the ultimate authority on morality), must be literally true for them to have merit. That’s where I’m coming from I think. It’s not about belief in God or having faith or praying, it’s about study and reflection. At another bible study we were talking about accepting christ into our life and for me and the discussion was a little offputting for me. One of the questions was “why would a person reject Christ?” One thought tht I had was that they experienced something bad with the church that made them question their faith and they decided that the whole “being a christian” thing wasn’t working out for them. I’d say that for me I don’t reject christ, but I reject things like the Prosperity Gospel, The Westboro Baptist Church, Televangelists, Christian Nationalism, Creationism, and Fundamentalism/Literalism. At the same time I reject arguments that say that the bible is fake and that people are stupid to believe in it. As with most things in life, there is a lot more complexity to it. In conclusion, I finished reading the Old Testament and I feel that I have a greater understanding of what I believe and how I’ve come to have this belief. I will be looking at some history between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament for a time.