A friend of mine told me today that their entire life was influenced by the Bible and that it was the clearest most concise book ever written. As an example they quoted Moses and said “Thou shalt not kill. That is plain and simple. How hard is it for people to not get that??”
Sometimes….. I am a smart alec.
My answer went something like this:
Yes! Don’t kill! Of course there are exceptions clearly laid out in the Bible!
It’s ok to kill IF you are dealing with someone who does not listen to the priests Deuteronomy 17:12.
It is ok to kill witches Exodus 22:17.
And of course you can kill gay people Leviticus 21 verse 3
Don’t forget about fortune tellers! Kill them! Leviticus 20:27
Exodus 21:15 is very clear that we should kill anyone who hits their father.
Leviticus 21 verse 9 says to kill anyone who curses their parents.
Adultery? Leviticus 20 verse 10 says kill them! Leviticus 21:9 says to kill the fornicators. Exodus 22:19 says to kill those who follow other religions. Wow! Sounds like ISIS!!!
Second chronicles 15:12, 13 says to kill non-believers.
Zechariah 13: 3 says to kill false prophets.
In Deuteronomy 13 we find out that it’s okay to kill an entire town if there’s one unbeliever in the town!?!
Deuteronomy 22 tells us to kill Brides who do not bleed on the sheets on their honeymoon. Exodus 31 tells us we can kill people who work on the Sabbath!
Isaiah 14 tells us that we can kill the children of sinners. Wow!
The Bible is really clear about that one!
THE BIBLE! An inspirational book that must be rightly divided and applied only by the spirit, within. It is the word of men….about their view of the God of the Jewish religion.
Robert Rutherford

Take a moment to consider that God is everything. Not a being on the outside, but the spirit in everyone, across all forms and faces. God dwells in you, whether you know it to be so or not. This is not to assert that you are a house for God, and you invite ‘him’ in to visit, it is that you are God in your spirit, in your imagination. Just like everyone and everything else. Every person on Earth is God too, whether they agree to this or not. The entire world is God, although awakening to it is to be truly alive. When Jesus said he is God’s son, he meant he is of God, but this statement is not limited to Jesus, for to follow the analogy further, we are all God’s sons and daughters, no better or worse than one another are.
How To Read The Bible
As taught by Neville Goddard
A Guide to the Human Imagination Understanding Scripture
Neville Goddard & Levi Elton

I posted on Sunday evening about the problems that arise when we interpret imagery from the book of the Revelation too hyper-literally. What it boiled down to was that one is then forced, in order to be consistent, to interpret all of the book’s wild, apocalyptic imagery literally as well, leaving us with Godzilla-like creatures living in earth’s oceans, space-dragons, and biblical “villains” attending first century congregations, centuries after their deaths.

Another issue with interpreting the lake of fire imagery as we do, is what it does to the Protestant doctrine of salvation. Were I to ask you, as a Protestant, “who goes to the lake of fire?”, how would you answer? It’s likely you’d, if you’ve got your doctrine sorted correctly, answer with something simple like “unbelievers.” And at least, according to the Revelation text, you’d be right. So, were you asked directly by someone who, let’s say, was involved in sexual activity that you deemed unsavory and immoral, “Will I go to hell because of said activity?”, again, if your doctrinal ducks were in a row, you’d likely answer with, “No, you’d go to hell because you’re an unbeliever and rejected Christ, but not because of any particular action.”

Here, though, is where the text in question would begin disagreeing with you. Let’s take a look:

8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
-Revelation 21:8, NIV

Sure, “unbelieving” is on that list, but only after “cowardly,” and is then followed by other actions, like sexual immorality and lying. The issue here is that if rejection of Christ and unbelief is *what sends someone to hell, why all the behaviors? Why not leave it at unbelief? It seems like all these extras only add to the confusion. Also, in light of this, the Protestant doctrine of salvation not being by works, etc., stops…working, because here it is specifically *works and actions that are sending people to this place.

Now, sure, we could simply say that these are metaphors-behaviors typifying the villainous force in the book, and doesn’t mean specifically that anyone who is a cowardly , occasional truth-stretcher, will go to hell. But at that point, why not understand the lake of fire itself to be a metaphor? If you’re willing to metaphor-ize one part of the book, why not other parts?

Just some thoughts for this lovely, Tuesday morning.

What in the $%^&^% is their problem? So, a person messes up badly, obviously misinformed or whatever. Finally like all of us, they die. And the religionistas want them – not to suffer for a million years – but to suffer FOREVER. What in the blazes is up with that???
Rjs

Any building whose structural integrity depends on everything remaining exactly as it’s always been, is not truly a structure, but merely an illusion. If the changing of a light switch plate here and there, or maintenance on a bathroom will cause the entire building to collapse, there is no actual structure to the building, it is merely illusory.

In the same way, a Christianity, or a belief system, whose structural integrity depends on beliefs always remaining exactly the same, without movement, growth, or development, is not a belief system, and certainly not Christianity, but merely an illusion. If one cannot question doctrines like biblical inerrancy, or eternal conscious torment, or even something as banal as the origins of “Satan,” without the entire structure collapsing, you have no structure.

To put it simply, all structures, all *true* structures, that is, ought to be able to handle deconstruction, without it resulting in a full collapse. Sadly, today’s brand of Christianity is not deconstructable, and the moving or changing of a single belief truly will result in the entire system’s fall. This is why we must allow certain old structures to fall, without attempting to reform them. Then, after their fall, we can sift through the rubble, and reclaim some of the artifacts the former, illusory structure had hijacked, but attempting to reform such structures can only result in you being buried by its fall.

It’s time to find a new and better way, and to allow the old to collapse.
Jeff Turner

INCLUSIONISM

… [S]ince I stopped preaching “accept Christ” and started several years ago to “accept your acceptance” I have seen a marked difference in the quality of disciple. I would not go back to the way I did it for 35 years for anything. People now actually want to share their faith
Don Keathley