I grew up in church. I was raised as an orthodox Presbyterian. Legalistic. Submission. Authority. Heresy. Predestination. Sanctification. All that Calvinistic garble.
I don’t subscribe to that worldview.
I went to a year of Bible College and it only further cemented that something is wrong with organized religion (and very very wrong with the legalistic mindset many denominations cling to). You see, I’ve read most of the Bible. I’ve studied the history of the church and this is what I discovered: the Bible is not infallible. The Scriptures are not meant to be taken literally. Almost everything I was ever taught was one huge brain-washing lie.
Here’s the problem I have: the Bible as we know it was voted on by a bunch of pompous religious leaders, namely the church father Athanasius in 367 AD. That was about 300 years AFTER Jesus. Who gave him the right to pick and choose? (And there was picking and choosing because why wasn’t 4th Corinthinans included? Yes, there’s a 4th Corinthians.) Secondly, most of the books of the New Testament were written by the Apostale Paul, and while he’s a cool guy and I think he has some cool stuff to stay, it’s akin to me writing a series of opinionated blog posts and the world deciding they are holy and should be considered the inspired word of God, because at the end of the day, he’s not a part of the holy trinity. His opinions are not the be all end all of my religion.
The Old Testament to me is more of a history book. It talks about wars and some really cool stuff that God did, (and who doesn’t love David’s works of literature?) but when Jeaus came, the “law” was fulfilled. So, that is no longer inherently important to me.
This is what is important to me: The Gospel. The 4 books of the Bible where Jesus’ words are highlighted in red. Those are important words. Those words are everything. Those words offer redemption to the fiery, indignant, and angry God of the Old Testament, and provide salvation for a regular old sinner with a potty mouth and a pocket full of bad decisions.
You can tell me that I can’t “pick and choose” which books to follow. Says who? You? Legalistic religious leaders who have given themselves authority to carry out “God’s will”? Please. God knows God’s will and he is not telling you about it because his thoughts aren’t like ours.
The only thing I know with absolute certainty and that I can trust is that Jesus came to earth as a man, died for my sins, and that along the way he preached a lot. He said that he’s the only way to God. He called out the religious leaders of the time for their legalism. He called them hypocrites. He said he fulfilled the law and the commandments and instead gave us two: 1. Love the Lord with all your heart and 2. love one another. That’s it.
Jesus didn’t say we had to go to church, that was Paul. He went into a temple and flipped tables and tore shit up. Meanwhile he’s having sermons on a mount.
Jesus didn’t say wives were to submit to their husbands, that was Paul. Jesus called a whore the Apostale to the apostales.
Jesus didn’t say that pastors had to be married, that was Paul. Jesus himself never took a wife.
And so on…
There’s a big difference, and I think that while Paul said a lot of great things, that I’m going to listen to what Jesus, as God, said. And not worship the words of a regular old sinner just like me. The only thing truly infallible in Scripture are those bright red words.
And you can say what you will about the infallibility of the Bible and the heresy you think I’m committing and how I’m probably going to hell because of this, but I don’t care. You know why? Because there were a bunch of self-righteous religious folks in the Bible who followed the law to the letter and insisted that those who didn’t as well were committing heresy. They accused the son of God of committing heresy! They put him to death. And to be honest, it is the thousands of legalistic bigots who have put Jesus to death all over our nation today.
Seizing the Day 