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Fnord
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23 Jun 2013, 11:11 am

After all of these years of questioning religions (especially Christianity) and the writings they're based upon (especially the Bible), it occurred to me sometime in the last week that while the Bible is not accurate in a scientific context (because it wasn't meant to be that way), it is inerrant in it's purpose - to cause the believers to believe more strongly, and to cause the doubters to reject God more completely.

It is my conclusion that the entire Bible is written as a parable. As it says in Matthew 13:10-12 (NIV) ...

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And the disciples came, and said to him, "Why speak you to them in parables?"

He answered and said to them, "Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has."

It would seem then that just as the man Jesus spoke in parables so that those who have a little faith would grow in their faith, and that those to whom faith is an alien concept with "harden their hearts" and become completely without faith, so too did the writers of the Bible present their histories as parables to by understood by the faith-filled and rejected by the faith-less.

Thus separating the wheat from the chaff.

Go in peace.



TheValk
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23 Jun 2013, 11:13 am

I've always seen that part as referring to one's intellectual capacity not faith.



Fnord
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23 Jun 2013, 11:15 am

TheValk wrote:
I've always seen that part as referring to one's intellectual capacity not faith.

He also said (in Luke 18:15-17) ...

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And they brought to him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

But Jesus called them to him, and said, "Suffer little children to come to me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, Whoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."

Apparently, intellectual capacity is irrelevant for salvation.



TheValk
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23 Jun 2013, 11:25 am

Is it Christian enough to you to give your own intellectual capacity such importance?



TallyMan
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23 Jun 2013, 12:16 pm

Fnord, does reaching your conclusion about the bible have any life changing implications for you or is this "merely" an intellectual understanding of academic relevance only?


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pezar
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23 Jun 2013, 2:57 pm

Fnord wrote:
After all of these years of questioning religions (especially Christianity) and the writings they're based upon (especially the Bible), it occurred to me sometime in the last week that while the Bible is not accurate in a scientific context (because it wasn't meant to be that way), it is inerrant in it's purpose - to cause the believers to believe more strongly, and to cause the doubters to reject God more completely.

It is my conclusion that the entire Bible is written as a parable. As it says in Matthew 13:10-12 (NIV) ...

Quote:
And the disciples came, and said to him, "Why speak you to them in parables?"

He answered and said to them, "Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has."

It would seem then that just as the man Jesus spoke in parables so that those who have a little faith would grow in their faith, and that those to whom faith is an alien concept with "harden their hearts" and become completely without faith, so too did the writers of the Bible present their histories as parables to by understood by the faith-filled and rejected by the faith-less.

Thus separating the wheat from the chaff.

Go in peace.


Th is actually not unusual among religions. I once read that in Jamaica, Rastafarians will preach on street corners, but only in a special patois language that can mainly be understood by other rastas. And then there's the fact that Christianity absorbed some of the Roman mystery religions, including the Elysian mysteries and Mithraism (Mithraism is why Christians celebrate Jesus's birthday on December 25, for that was the "birthday" of Mithras). Judaism, from which Christianity sprang, has always been a tribal faith, to be understood by those in the tribe and a mystery to outsiders. It wasn't until the Roman Empire that the idea of a missionary religion came about, prior to that you were born into a faith and there you stayed for life.



Fnord
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26 Jun 2013, 2:16 pm

TallyMan wrote:
Fnord, does reaching your conclusion about the bible have any life changing implications for you or is this "merely" an intellectual understanding of academic relevance only?

I seem to feel less caustically cynical regarding faith, the Bible, and religion in general, but NOT so much that I'm willing to shout hallelujahs from the mountaintops.

More of a "next stage" in evolution than any form of a revolution.


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28 Jun 2013, 9:58 pm

Fnord wrote:
After all of these years of questioning religions (especially Christianity) and the writings they're based upon (especially the Bible), it occurred to me sometime in the last week that while the Bible is not accurate in a scientific context (because it wasn't meant to be that way), it is inerrant in it's purpose - to cause the believers to believe more strongly, and to cause the doubters to reject God more completely.

It is my conclusion that the entire Bible is written as a parable. As it says in Matthew 13:10-12 (NIV) ...

Quote:
And the disciples came, and said to him, "Why speak you to them in parables?"

He answered and said to them, "Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has."

It would seem then that just as the man Jesus spoke in parables so that those who have a little faith would grow in their faith, and that those to whom faith is an alien concept with "harden their hearts" and become completely without faith, so too did the writers of the Bible present their histories as parables to by understood by the faith-filled and rejected by the faith-less.

Thus separating the wheat from the chaff.

Go in peace.


Do you think if one was to consider the bible as a parable to teach us how to live and not scientific and historical information, that other Christians would still consider you Christian? What if you didn't believe in a historical Jesus, he was just part of the parable story, would other Christians still see you as Christian then? I'm guessing no, but who knows?