Ruminations on reading the Bible
This was an email that i sent to a friend of mine ... ranting a bit about the role of the bible and how it might best be approached. I just thought it would be something worth posting here as well.
-Fr. Steve
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About the Bible ... there are many who don't realize that a good deal of it, if not all of it was intended to answer questions and provide lessons to to the public. It's purpose is not to provide a historical account of anything. Creation, a worldwide flood destroying nearly every living thing, or even an historical account of Christ's life. That is NOT what is intended and there are many who get confused in reading the bible because they assume it is supposed to be something that it isn't. What the bible is is a gift from God, through the vast multitude of writers throughout the years, in order to strenghten our faith. Now, we must have faith to begin with in order for it to be strenghtened. What we need to have already accepted is that there is a God that watches over us and interacts with us in a very real sense. This was one of the assumptions what was made by the same jews who wrote the bible.
Now you mentioned that you believe there is more than one path to heaven. I agree with that, in my bones i feel that there must be. Since there are differing religious traditions, most of which say essentially the same thing ... there must be some connection, some validation to that. But the thing of it is that Jesus is presented to have said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light. No man comes to God but through me." That seems to indicate that he believed his path and his teachings were unique in their rightousness. I'm inclined to think that there was some fiddling with the translations of translations that we have now. Someone along the way had misunderstood the intent of those statements and misrepresented it to the multitudes. At the end of the day i think it might have something to due with the Jesus being the Christ, indicating that we should live as Christ (meaning the annointed one) as well. We are all the sons and daughters of God. Maybe the path we should be on is to live and work as if we were the annointed ones, the prefered children of a loving God. I'm sure many would disagree but i think that's the essence of that statement. Live like Christ did, that's the path to God.
Coming from that stance, many buddhists would be closer to God and have a better shot at heaven than many christians. Maybe that's just a bias of mine, but the buddhists I've known seem more commited to their path than most of the christians i've known. The quote from Ghandi that you gave hits the nail on the head. I love christ, it's his followers i don't like so much .... (paraphrasing of course)
-Fr. Steve
--------------------------
About the Bible ... there are many who don't realize that a good deal of it, if not all of it was intended to answer questions and provide lessons to to the public. It's purpose is not to provide a historical account of anything. Creation, a worldwide flood destroying nearly every living thing, or even an historical account of Christ's life. That is NOT what is intended and there are many who get confused in reading the bible because they assume it is supposed to be something that it isn't. What the bible is is a gift from God, through the vast multitude of writers throughout the years, in order to strenghten our faith. Now, we must have faith to begin with in order for it to be strenghtened. What we need to have already accepted is that there is a God that watches over us and interacts with us in a very real sense. This was one of the assumptions what was made by the same jews who wrote the bible.
Now you mentioned that you believe there is more than one path to heaven. I agree with that, in my bones i feel that there must be. Since there are differing religious traditions, most of which say essentially the same thing ... there must be some connection, some validation to that. But the thing of it is that Jesus is presented to have said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light. No man comes to God but through me." That seems to indicate that he believed his path and his teachings were unique in their rightousness. I'm inclined to think that there was some fiddling with the translations of translations that we have now. Someone along the way had misunderstood the intent of those statements and misrepresented it to the multitudes. At the end of the day i think it might have something to due with the Jesus being the Christ, indicating that we should live as Christ (meaning the annointed one) as well. We are all the sons and daughters of God. Maybe the path we should be on is to live and work as if we were the annointed ones, the prefered children of a loving God. I'm sure many would disagree but i think that's the essence of that statement. Live like Christ did, that's the path to God.
Coming from that stance, many buddhists would be closer to God and have a better shot at heaven than many christians. Maybe that's just a bias of mine, but the buddhists I've known seem more commited to their path than most of the christians i've known. The quote from Ghandi that you gave hits the nail on the head. I love christ, it's his followers i don't like so much .... (paraphrasing of course)
posted by Fr. Steve at 4:20 PM
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