In The Beginning God Made the Bible?

 

 

 

Sola Scriptura is just one of many diversions clouding the path of well-meaning believers. First things first. What is inspiration? Yesterday I explained the problem of trying to reduce thought to language. Ask yourself: did Jesus come to found a publishing company, or did he come to edit misconceptions perpetrated by centuries of those in control putting heavy loads on people who don’t have the time or means to even talk back. The very fact that Jesus did not leave any original writings should give you the answer to that.

 

There is a line of reasoning that says God changed His very nature from the Old Testament to the New. The gospel. God did not change. And He didn’t seize the scribe’s hand and force words to papyrus, stone, or 20# bond from Office Max. In the beginning God made . . . everything! The earth, moon, stars, galaxies, space, and X-Box. All of it. And He turned it over to us. And it doesn’t matter if you believe in evolution, creation, or SpaceX. It all had a beginning. And if you have a beginning it only goes to follow that there simply must be a beginner.

 

We were never designed to comprehend eternity. The very word, “eternity” demonstrates our assigning a word to something we will never be able to understand. We were never designed for that. We try to reduce concepts to logic. To some kind of a time line. How do you impose time on the watchmaker that made time? Time! Something you were running out of from the moment you were born. And time only becomes important when you realize that time is finite. God is not!

 

And you want to believe that God entered into some kind of publishing deal with us. All the glory and splendor of creation can be reduced to a book? Penned by wanderers in some desert somewhere. The Goat-Herder’s Guide to the Universe. Hallelujah! And then let someone reduce the concepts by editing them, even removing some of it entirely, and you lose what little grip you had and stifled your own common sense by killing your daughter or forgoing coffee. And when it’s all said and done the clock is still ticking, and your book is still due.

 

Men wrote the Bible, the Qu’ran, Book of Mormon . . .the Karma Sutra! God wrote the universe. And our basic understanding of our existence includes rules ingrained into our very being. We know right from wrong. We know at three years old that if we hit our friend and take his or her toy that is not a good thing. Because it is reasonable that if we do that eventually someone will come along and do it to us. Do unto others? Remember that one? And we know that if we do such things it is setting us apart from other members of whatever society we subscribe to and you can call it sin or any other name that suits your fancy, you won’t be happy, people around you won’t be happy, and if you persist they will be unhappy without you!

 

What I’ve just written is not inspired. It is the accumulation of life lessons that I’ve learned since I stole one of my friend’s toy helicopter in 1955. I planned how I would go next door to say something to his mother. I asked for a glass of water. When she went to get it I reached up on the mantle, took the helicopter and ran out the door back to my house, where my grandmother was waiting with a belt. I never stole a helicopter again.

 

I knew I was wrong. I deliberately planned it. I ran from the scene of the crime. I was four! I could not read, much less a Bible. The worst part was my grandmother knowing I was a thief. She took my record player away for a while. Told dad when he got home from work. Yeah yeah yeah. Don’t even go there. We’re talking 1950’s Louisiana. And in the space of a week or so I found that what I had was far more valuable than anything I could steal. Simple. You can’t enjoy things you steal because they’re not yours.

 

Life deals us lessons from the moment the doctor said, “Hey!” and we said, “Huh?” Then, of course there’s the blame game. I don’t care what you say, when catastrophe falls upon you,  you look for something or someone to blame. Can’t be you. Oh no! Then some of you find a Bible. Then there’s religion. God made man, man made theology, and theology made religion. Religion is like Bondo on a dented Cadillac. The problem is when the cracks begin to show you look for a workaround. Can’t be your fault. God has a COVID shot in there somewhere. And if you can’t find it the preacher, priest, rabbi, or Imam will find it for you. In no time at all you’re standing there holding a helicopter, or bank account, or a divorcee. Didn’t Jesus say . . . Not if she was in another branch. Then she becomes what is known in Catholic circles as a rejuvenating virgin. The Primitive Baptists just call her a whore.

 

Inspiration all depends on who is inspired. It begins with a thought. Then the inspired begins to write. Then he has to untangle the illogical prose. At this point it’s him, not God. “Thou shalt not steal” becomes “Unless you give ten percent to the church.” They call this “Justification.” And there is always some kind of owning up. “I shouldn’t have done it, but I done it anyway.” But you keep the helicopter, right. I mean, how can you give back a used wife to the former owner? As you can easily see it’s not God it’s just a big tangle of words.

 

And if you are an evolutionist you ascribe to the monkey to man idea. If you are a creationist you believe Eve looked like Taylor Swift ala fig leaf. If you’re a Southern Baptist you’re just hoping Adam didn’t look like Diddy. But over and above all only we have a soul. All dogs or Mormons don’t go to heaven and there will be free Bibles at the gate.

 

I saw a picture this morning. It’s at the top of this article. It was a monkey of some variety holding her dead child, mouth open, wailing, looking up. Animal! No soul. Meat for the worm. Why is she crying. What does she expect to see up in the sky. Think about that after church. Take all the time you need.