Understanding Bibliolotry

[Lilith666]

"Kill all the boys, and kill every woman who has had sex with a man. But all the young girls, who have not slept with a man, keep alive for yourselves." Paraphrasing of Numbers 31:17-18, where the Israelites raid the Midianites.

 

Mom, explaining this verse: "The Israelites wanted to assimilate the girls into their culture."

Me: "Then why did they kill the small boys too, who were too young to be loyal to the Midianites?"

 

*silence*
 

[LogicalFallacy]

*Christian hat on*

Lilith your mom had it wrong. Those people were heathen and worked against God's people who sacrificed children thus God was punishing them. They kept the young girls because the seed is passed through the man not the woman so that's why the boys had to be killed. And the women were already defiled.

*Christian hat off*

 

Of course with todays science we know that people get a 50/50 split of DNA so it doesn't matter if your father is Israelite - if you mother is Midianite then you have a 50/50 child that you call an Israelite. Apparently God didn't know this or else he would have ordered total, utter, and complete extermination of all non Israelites including slaves etc in order to keep genetic purity.

[Lilith666]

 

Looks like my nutty fundy mother - at least as far as fundies go - is among the nicer Jeebus crowd.

[Geezer]

I consider bibliolatry regarding the Bible, when exhibited by a committed theist, to be evidence of emotional and psychological dysfunction and often a sign of mental illness, akin to OCD.  They are difficult to deal with because of this.  They usually avoid rational thinking, evidence based arguments and alternative world views.  Their "only my way is correct" attitude is often comical, particularly when they are attacking other committed theists.

 

Put more simply, they are nutters.

The God Virus, by Darrel Ray, explains how a belief in God can turn people into religious zombies.

[Geezer]

 

I was part of the Church of Christ and they definitely worship the Bible. Their beliefs & actions must be based on a specific relevant scripture. "Is that scriptural?" was a common question. They do not have instrumental music in their worship service because there is no scripture in the NT that authorized instrumental music as part of a worship service.

In reality the Church of Christ workships the Bible first, the Apostle Paul next, then Jesus. In their mind God & the Bible are one and the same thing. And In their mind Paul & Jesus were pretty much equal. Jesus didn't finish the job so God picked Paul to finish Jesus work. It's interesting that the C of C has elevated Paul to such high importance because Paul was all about grace but the C of C is all about laws, rules, & commands. They obviously don't see the contradictions.

 

 

 

Very accurate and spot-on description! I am an ex Church of Christ member, as well. So glad to be out of it!

Happy to meet a fellow cult member. I was so brainwashed that I even served as an Elder.

[L.B.]

There was once a man whose sailboat sunk; he was marooned on a deserted island.

 

Years later, he was discovered by a passing freighter. The crew came ashore to see how he had managed to survive.

 

When they reached a clearing in the jungle, they found three bamboo and grass huts.

 

"That one on the left is my house" said the castaway. "The one on the right is my church."

 

"What's the one in the middle for?" asked the freighter's crew.

 

"Oh, that" scoffed the man. "That's where I USED to go to church; they don't teach the TRUE word of god there."

[megasamurai]

I was Assembly of God, meaning that we believed that the Bible was perfect, but it was not the sole source of divine information. "Experiences" were equal in finding God. So many people in my church claimed that God gave them precognition powers, and many claim to have visions. We could still be considered biblioloters because the Bible was co-equal with God. If you heard God's voice in your head and it said "I created the world billions of years ago" instead of "I created the world ten thousand years ago" your "prophesy" would be denied. I still on occassion worry about being wrong about the Christian God because of all the weird stuff I've seen in an AG church. Being an AGer seems to give you supernatural abilities.

[sdelsolray]

 

I consider bibliolatry regarding the Bible, when exhibited by a committed theist, to be evidence of emotional and psychological dysfunction and often a sign of mental illness, akin to OCD.  They are difficult to deal with because of this.  They usually avoid rational thinking, evidence based arguments and alternative world views.  Their "only my way is correct" attitude is often comical, particularly when they are attacking other committed theists.

 

Put more simply, they are nutters.

The God Virus, by Darrel Ray, explains how a belief in God can turn people into religious zombies.

 

 

 

That's a decent read.

[sdelsolray]

I was Assembly of God, meaning that we believed that the Bible was perfect, but it was not the sole source of divine information. "Experiences" were equal in finding God. So many people in my church claimed that God gave them precognition powers, and many claim to have visions. We could still be considered biblioloters because the Bible was co-equal with God. If you heard God's voice in your head and it said "I created the world billions of years ago" instead of "I created the world ten thousand years ago" your "prophesy" would be denied. I still on occassion worry about being wrong about the Christian God because of all the weird stuff I've seen in an AG church. Being an AGer seems to give you supernatural abilities.

 

Seems rather convenient...and contrived.

[♦ ficino ♦]

I was Assembly of God, meaning that we believed that the Bible was perfect, but it was not the sole source of divine information. "Experiences" were equal in finding God. So many people in my church claimed that God gave them precognition powers, and many claim to have visions. We could still be considered biblioloters because the Bible was co-equal with God. If you heard God's voice in your head and it said "I created the world billions of years ago" instead of "I created the world ten thousand years ago" your "prophesy" would be denied. I still on occassion worry about being wrong about the Christian God because of all the weird stuff I've seen in an AG church. Being an AGer seems to give you supernatural abilities.

Yes, I was sucked up into this denomination, too. One of the good things about Calvinism, when I later became a Calvinist, was that people didn't blather on about "the Lord showed me" or "the Lord spoke to my spirit" or "He gave me a burden to share with you" or

"hundelah shundelah kundelah ..."

[LordProtectorOliverCromwell]

 

I was Assembly of God, meaning that we believed that the Bible was perfect, but it was not the sole source of divine information. "Experiences" were equal in finding God. So many people in my church claimed that God gave them precognition powers, and many claim to have visions. We could still be considered biblioloters because the Bible was co-equal with God. If you heard God's voice in your head and it said "I created the world billions of years ago" instead of "I created the world ten thousand years ago" your "prophesy" would be denied. I still on occassion worry about being wrong about the Christian God because of all the weird stuff I've seen in an AG church. Being an AGer seems to give you supernatural abilities.

Yes, I was sucked up into this denomination, too. One of the good things about Calvinism, when I later became a Calvinist, was that people didn't blather on about "the Lord showed me" or "the Lord spoke to my spirit" or "He gave me a burden to share with you" or

"hundelah shundelah kundelah ..."

Calbinism is the only form of Christianity I respect. Better than the Pentecostalism I'm forced to be a part of.

[megasamurai]

"hundelah shundelah kundelah ..." 

 

Ah yeah, tongues and "prophecies," aka alleged translations of tongues done by the old guy in the back of the church. What does "Kothrorosinco no kaso miso" mean today? I find it funny how people speak in tongues seem to use the exact same phrases, yet the old guy who translates tongues into English always gives it a different translation. When translated, these messages, supposedly from God, are always Biblical cliches. If tongues are real, can't we decipher them by transcribing the tongues and the translation and see what words mean what? Of course, people might be afraid to do this because it would disprove tongues.

[L.B.]

A person who was fluent in Hebrew once went to a Pentecostal church and stood up and recited the 23rd Psalm ("the lard is my shepherd").

 

Someone "interpreted" his message, thinking it to be in tongues... he said they didn't get a single word right in context; they might have "interpreted" the word "lord", but not anywhere where he actually SAID the word "lord", etc.

 

One of my favorite stories has to do with a congregation that was "dancing in the spirit" or some bullshit. A regular attendee was late to the service... some time into the proceedings, someone broke into tongues. This late-arriving person "translated" the following:

 

"Lo, O my people... I heard that you were dancing in My presence; if I had been with you, I would have been dancing, too!"

 

I don't know what the fuck that was supposed to mean, but apparently it was received as "the word of the lord" or whatever horseshit.

 

I'm so fucking glad I'm done with all that shit.

[rjn]

Calbinism is the only form of Christianity I respect. Better than the Pentecostalism I'm forced to be a part of.

 

Funny. I find Calvinism/Reformed Theology to be the most abhorrent form of Christianity there is.

[Guest]

 

Calbinism is the only form of Christianity I respect. Better than the Pentecostalism I'm forced to be a part of.

Funny. I find Calvinism/Reformed Theology to be the most abhorrent form of Christianity there is.

 

I'd have to agree, having seen and suffered the consequences first-hand.

[Guest]

Regardless of what is "worse" or "better," though, why LordProtectorOliverCromwell, do you respect Calvinism? Maybe because its values connect with your desire to have dominion over others, which you have expressed on many an occasion?

[megasamurai]

Does it matter if you believe that god sends people to hell because he chooses to send you to hell or god sends you to hell because you (supposedly) choose to go to hell? Either way, you have the belief that the vast majority of humanity is going to be weeping and gnashing teeth.

[L.B.]

The "god" of Calvinism doesn't exist; who gives a fuck if someone respects one or another bullshit man-made religious infrastructure?

 

If there were a god, and he/she/it predestined me to eternal fiery torments without any regard for the choices I would make in life, and with no hope of changing my fate...

 

...then he/she/it could kiss my fat ass now and for the ages upon ages, world without end, amen.

 

Jonathan Edwards (the famous Puritan preacher) said that his god "loathes" me and is holding me over the fires of hell like a disgusting insect.

 

Fuck his god. The feeling is mutual, Yahweh. I loathe the very idea of the existence of a piece of shit like you.

[megasamurai]

If someone respects the Calvanist god, they are respecting torturing someone in a lake of fire. That's a lack of compassion for you. I just feel like vomiting when I hear a Christian cheerlead for hell.