Sunday Afternoon Bible Study Of Sorts

  

    

    I should probably start this off by saying I'm not the biggest fan of the Bible. I've read it cover to cover multiple times, and some parts, like the sermon on the mount, countless times. When I was young, it was pretty much the only source if you were interested in things spiritual. And everyone around me agreed, it was the only reliable source. It was all I knew, so I made sure to know it quite well.

    I'm not about to get into why now I don't really care much for it, there's a laundry list of issues, from poor translations to even poorer interpretations. There are people who get a lot out of it and live very fulfilling and compassionate lives thanks to it, so I don't think it's a terrible book or not worth reading. It's just not for me. And while I understand the people who use it as a weapon against other people, the major issues are with them and not the Bible, it's still difficult to completely separate what the Bible actually is and what terrible people have made out of it.

    Talking about the Bible though is very strange to me now. It's like my native language, that I chose to let go of because it was so limiting. Even addressing God as God and using Biblicaly assigned pronouns, is so awkward. 

    But you can't read something that many times without it having an effect on you. So, for this little blog post, I will discuss the two main takeaways I got from the Bible. Starting with, in the beginning...

    

    You see, in the beginning, at the very start of Genesis, there is an odd occurrence. It goes over the seven days of creation, and then, starts at day one again. I've heard many explanations for this. Most common is the idea is there was some kind of catastrophe (generally blamed on Satan, or some pre-Adam people) and so God recreated everything. But none of those explanations sat well with me, and being an over thinker, I way over thought it until I realized something capable of putting my mind to rest. Why did God look at the world at the end of the seventh day and say it was good if really it was so bad day eight was a complete do over? 

    But then I realized on the second telling, it never gets to day seven. It goes all the way up to day six and the creation of Adam, and then becomes the story of man and man's relationship to God. No where after does it say the day ended. Which would mean Biblicaly speaking, it's still the sixth day.

    So the first telling of creation is just a setup to let you know everything. And the important thing there is, when the sixth day ends, and God pronounces his judgement on what was created, he sees that it is good. Not, it's good except those damn gays. Or, the Christians are good but unfortunately there's Muslims so kind of a meh day. It is good. That's God's judgment on man as a promise written into creation.  

    Now the second thing is really just a reaffirmation of the first. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus makes a pretty bold statement. 'Be ye therefor perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect.' He says, pretty clearly, mankind can achieve perfection. Not just perfection, but how God measures perfection. So, not a state of being without flaws. Jesus doesn't precede his statement by saying be flawless. But he is making it clear God has one measure of perfection, and only one, and when God claims perfection it is because God does one very specific thing that every person is capable of.

    Unconditional love. "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you..." Don't let the world stop you from loving the world. Don't treat anyone differently. Even the worst people will show kindness to people who are kind to them. But God, God sends the sun to shine on everyone, even those who actively hate him. Loving people who love you is great and all, but the true measure of a human being is can you do the same for everyone else, even those who have harmed you or wish to do you harm? 

    And the important thing here is, what ties it to God promising his judgement will be 'It is good', is that if God has made a place for me in his home, at his table, then he had better also have an equal place for those who hate me. If there is an eternal damnation, a place such as hell, then it is impossible for there to be a heaven. If the good people of heaven are supposed to want the same for the people who hate them as the people who love them, it would be torment to sit in a place like heaven knowing others are suffering. 

    Though, if that is God's measure of perfection, if that is why God claims perfection, then God himself would be tormented by the idea of hell. Eternal damnation for even one person would mean eternal suffering for God and those God deems perfect, it would be punishment for the just for being just the same as it would be punishment for the unjust. The compassionate would be punished for their compassion. 

    So at the end of the Day, before God takes a rest, he declares it's all good. Everything is leading up to that moment, when the only one with a right to judge, doesn't condemn a single thing.