A Christian who believes the bible is wrong

[Wertbag]

I've spoken to many Christians over the years, but this latest one has a set of beliefs that is quite unique.  He pointed to the bible, where it says there will be false prophets, that the anti-Christ will work against the church, that demons can cause confusion and many will be confused and lead astray.  He said he believes the bible is wrong in many places, and the pointing to contradictions, or brutal killing in the bible are stories of His enemies and not of god Himself.

It is a strangely understandable position that I've never heard before.  If the bible openly says there will be deception, and we see the church fragmented and constant confusion over the bible, then to put the blame for those things on these listed evil forces makes sense.  I'm actually surprised more Christians don't follow those verses.

 

This person was of the opinion you couldn't trust any of the bible, and that it was straight out wrong in many places.  It could be used as a hint that god is there, but beyond that it was impossible to say anything with certainty.  He called Himself a Christian, but I don't know how you get to Christianity with belief that the bible and church are wrong.  Maybe a deist god, more of an unknown supernatural being, without any of the trappings.  But I think it was personal revelation that lead him to believe his view was the correct one.

 

But you run into this problem of cherry picking, in that which parts are written by real prophets or god Himself, and which parts are written by false prophets or demons?   How do you know that Jesus wasn't a false prophet?  It even says the anti-Christ and false prophets can use magic and perform miracles, so even showing divine powers is no guarantee that the person isn't still false.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

I never really understood liberal christianity as anything other than a series of platitudes based on social and cultural constructs.  As you say, why even call yourself a christian if you believe half of the bible is just metaphor and the other half is flawed/imprecise/mistranslated... whatever.  I was, of course, a biblical literalist and sincerely believed that only the most sold-out and radical were "real" christians (my poor Lutheran cousins were all going to hell).  So, religion was an all-or-nothing prospect for me.  Half-hearted half-beliefs were the work of the devil.  Lukewarmness made jesus sick.  

 

I might have lasted longer as a christian if I had been more liberal in my approach.  And I wonder if that is the reason people embrace the idea.  It's easier to believe what you want to believe and chuck out the parts that are offensive or just plain silly.

[alreadyGone]

16 hours ago, Wertbag said:

....  He called Himself a Christian, but I don't know how you get to Christianity with belief that the bible and church are wrong.  Maybe a deist god, more of an unknown supernatural being, without any of the trappings.   ...

 

That would be my take on it..

It seems an attempt to insist there must be and is a god, but at the same time toss out all the b.s. and contradiction in the bible.

 

 

[alreadyGone]

44 minutes ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

  It's easier to believe what you want to believe and chuck out the parts that are offensive or just plain silly.

 

And then to make yourself believe that you know what god wants, how god thinks, even as the bible says the opposite.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

3 hours ago, alreadyGone said:

 

That would be my take on it..

It seems an attempt to insist there must be and is a god, but at the same time toss out all the b.s. and contradiction in the bible.

 

 

I think this is really where the social and cultural aspects come into play.  The dominant religion is christianity, so a person wishing to identify with a religion without really identifying with it will call themselves "christian" but reject the majority of the teachings they don't like.  On the other hand, though, a person wishing to identify with a religion will also call themselves "christian" while rejecting the teachings of jesus and embracing the law, which jesus came to fulfill.  It's all down to which cherries one chooses to pick.

 

Even as a biblical literalist, there were certain verses that I either ignored altogether or attempted to explain away.  A good example is the one about dashing babies brains out against the rocks.  Sure, it was literal, because in that time frame god was referring to Philistine babies; and they should be killed before they became men and could fight against the chosen people.  But, really, it was a metaphor for how god wanted us to deal with sin in our lives: kill it while it is still in its infancy before it grew up to become an addiction or a lifestyle.  Ho hum...

[alreadyGone]

Leviticus 19:27:

You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard.

 

And of course there's more. Much, much more.

 

We got war, pestilence, and famine, and god's gonna be concerned about how I trim my beard?

If I didn't trim it short I would trip over it.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

I still can't figure out why the damn cult is so popular to begin with. Why this particular Middle Eastern tribal taboo religion became popular. I wonder if we would have abandoned the concept of gods when the ancient empires that promoted them fell. I guess there is a grass roots appeal to the con of a better afterlife. Then there's modern Judaism with the various rabbinical cults all concerned with nuances of rightness, ignoring any kind of connection with reality and human life and instead defining their "people" by this arcane set of rules. Humans... we seem to love cults, be they religious, political, racial, whatever. 

 

I have a bit of hope since I was more like the Prof in being a hardcore fundamentalist and was able to finally see through it when reality didn't match the narrative. I questioned my perceived reality, my defined role, the very basis of the nature that spawned me. And that was prior to any psychedelics, so there is a bit of hope that other humans can see through the programming of abstract ideals and make a better way. 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

20 hours ago, alreadyGone said:

Leviticus 19:27:

You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard.

 

And of course there's more. Much, much more.

 

We got war, pestilence, and famine, and god's gonna be concerned about how I trim my beard?

If I didn't trim it short I would trip over it.

Yeah, I look at the images coming back from the James Webb Telescope and I wonder, "Why would any god capable of creating all that care what a man does with his own goober-flute?"