Reading the Bible and deciding what it means is more of a Parlor Trick than Divine Inspiration
The Bible plays an important role in supporting the faithful. And it has some tricks up its sleeve which explain how it wields its power.
The Bible works like a parlor trick. You don’t play it.
It plays you.
I’ll explain.
The Bible very sneakily shifts its authority onto the reader. It can’t be avoided.
The contradictions and puzzles of the Bible demand the reader make choices between opposing positions while giving the illusion the decisions were made by God.
“Love enemies” – Jesus (Matthew 5:44)
“Kill my enemies in front of me” – Jesus (Luke 19:27)
After making your decision ‘to love’ or ‘kill’ an enemy, God takes credit for your decision and it becomes The Word of God. Any choices you make about the Biblical verses are claimed as God’s command – though it is actually only the reader’s decision.
Consider a less obvious example:
“We are all made in His Image and God made us the same!” (James 3:9)
“But there are no roots in him…and when there is distress or persecution because of the word, immediately he falls apart.” (Matthew 13:21)
No matter how you choose, it is blessed as The Word of God
The above verses contain a stunning contradiction.
How can everyone be made the same, yet some of us have ‘no roots’? These claims conflict and a decision must be made.
You begin to work it out….Has God made some people without roots? Why would he? So the seed of truth cannot take root? Now think of other reasons why God would do this. Anyone can guess, it isn’t difficult.
But notice how God vanishes as you consider the options!
God is not guiding this part of the process, you are.
Ponder which verse is more true. It won’t matter what you finally decide, God returns and blesses your decision – This is the Word of God.
Now you can tell others exactly what God means regarding ‘roots’.
The trick also works whenever there is a question about what is literal vs. metaphorical. Again – the reader is the decider but it is hidden so the credit goes to God.
Another example:
“If I testify about myself, my testimony is Not valid.” – JESUS (John 5:31)
“Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony IS valid.” – JESUS (John 8:14)
Well, is the testimony of Jesus valid or not? It is another contradiction.
It doesn’t matter – decide however you want to and it will be God’s Word when you are done.
The reader then becomes the Moral Arbiter of the very book
which claims to be the Moral Arbiter!
This is an amazing trick.
YOU ARE GOD AND GOD IS YOU!
The faithful reader comes away from interacting with the Bible with a deep feeling God understands her very well.
Yet she is only looking in a mirror, sees what she agrees with, nods knowingly and then mistakes it for the Authority of God.
No wonder the Bible makes it so easy to believe in God and to feel that one has a ‘personal relationship.”
God is You. And you are God.
Creepy, isn’t it?
“For I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever.” (Jeremiah 3:12)
“Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever.” (Jeremiah 17:4)
So. Is God merciful or not?
Will his anger ever fade? Or burn forever?
It waits for your decision.
Go ahead and decide between the options. It doesn’t matter. No wonder there are thousands of versions of Christianity.
And by the way, after your decision is made the contradiction disappears too – very convenient.
The Bible does not present itself as a book of moral options (which it is) but as moral absolutes, a compendium of absolute claims and pronouncements. That is what keeps the illusion of God’s infinite versatility and mysterious power going strong. Once the multiple options are cherry picked by the reader they become absolutely validated.
Furthermore, the Bible offers no method or system of how to determine what is moral. The assertions about what is moral vary dramatically within its pages. So the job falls on the reader – entirely.
To increase the variety of possible options, the literal and metaphorical are brilliantly and seamlessly intertwined. So the reader is forced to apply some personal method to determine which biblical claims ‘ring truest’ to a given dilemma.
For example:
“Love thy Neighbor” – JESUS (Mark 12:31)
“[they] are Dogs!” – JESUS (Matthew 7:6)
So is Jesus saying all our neighbors must be loved? Are some literally ‘dogs’?
Or is he saying some neighbors should not be loved? Should some be disparaged?
It is okay whatever you decide – Jesus is on your side.
Without any guidance from a real God to intervene and tell us how to determine what is moral we are forced to apply our innate intuition.
This example is from the Sermon on the Mount:
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” – JESUS (Matthew 5:16)
“Take heed that ye do not put your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.” – JESUS (Matthew 6:1)
Indisputable contradiction.
Should we show our generosity and charity in public? Or hide it so only God can see?
Your decision does NOT matter. The Bible is brilliant at this sort of thing. God will agree with you – With God all things are indeed possible!
As the reader proceeds he must gently omit or rationalize those parts which do not harmonize with the reader’s morality. The faithful reader will not even be aware of a problem as he skips over all disgusting options such as rape, genocide or slavery.
This is why God is always on your side and why Jesus always thinks like you, no matter how you ultimately behave.
Would Jesus approve of slavery? No. Why not? Because you don’t believe in slavery!
Or, Yes! He would happily approve of slavery if you are that sort of person, God is ready to agree with you – “do buy slaves” (Lev 25:44).
It doesn’t matter. That isn’t the God you have chosen to follow. The Christian creates a perfect God for herself from her accumulated decisions.
This trick explains why all holy books lead to faith in various gods. The Q’uran works for Muslims in the same way.
SURPRISE!
YOU NEVER NEEDED THE BIBLE
Contradictions are not flaws in the Bible – they are a vital part of why the Bible works so effectively at tricking the reader into the illusion that God is speaking to them personally.
The sinister part of this process is that your decision is sanctioned by God Himself – no matter how moral or immoral your decision. There are no checks and balances.
Meanwhile, your own judgement is demeaned at every step,
as if you are deemed unworthy of making the very decisions you are being forced to make and then blessed for making!
These are astonishing tricks.
Religionists like to complain that Atheists don’t have a moral code – but of course we do. It is the same secular, innate moral code the religious use – but they are tricked into thinking it was God.
A final example:
We should fear God (Matthew 10:28)
We should love God (Matthew 22:37)
There is no fear in love (1 John 4:18)
Do you see it now?
These claims cannot all be true. You are forced to decide. God leaves the room as you choose – and he returns once you are done to claim it “The Word of God.”
The Bible can’t wait to reward you for consulting it and taking full responsibility for YOUR decisions.
The decisions of the Bible were yours all along
The whole thing is in your hands. However you decide to resolve these conflicts, you are ‘blessed’ with the correct answer. And this is why the Bible should be treated with caution.
Once you understand how the trick works, The Bible is nothing but a big Tarot Card.
Again, the sinister bit is that your decision emerges as something sanctioned by God Himself – no matter how moral or immoral it may be.
YET it was a trick. Because it was YOU ALL ALONG!
If one’s own intuition is going to be the moral arbiter anyway, consulting the Bible is worse than unnecessary.
It is dangerous.
Atheist Max 
Reblogged this on myatheistlife and commented:
This post is the kind of clarity that I think we all could use more of. It’s not just that there are contradictions in the holy books, rather it is that when you decide which is right you are writing your own version of your god’s very words. The last 5 sentences of this post are brilliant!
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Nothing brilliant about taking Holy Writ out of context to prove your own bigoted bias against Christianity. Luke 19 is a story Jesus used to prove another point. I heard a Muslim do the same parlor trick with that verse to justify violence.
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If it is not bigoted to preach Jesus to an unbeliever
It CANNOT BE bigoted to preach anti-Jesus to believers.
I have no bigotry against anyone.
But religion is a terrible thing and it should be abandoned.
People have rights.
But ideas do not have rights.
Religion is just another bad idea in the world.
And I have been careful to not criticize people – only ideas. And Jesus is full of terrible ideas.
Luke 19 – The Parable of the Minas – is a terrible, horrible, inhuman parable.
It ends with an ominous warning from Jesus that those who do not do his bidding will suffer in the same way the Nobleman’s servants suffered for failing their “Master”.
“Bring to me those enemies of mine and execute them in front of me.” – JESUS (Luke 19:27)
For centuries it has been understood that the Nobleman is Jesus – he is warning his followers to carry out the law. It has been the cause of an infinity of suffering; witch burnings, honor killings, stonings – for centuries.
I have not misquoted anything. It is perhaps time for people to examine these texts for what they are – ancient fortune cookies.
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Reblogged this on Laying Faith to Rest and commented:
Here’s a nice piece about certain contradictions in the Bible and the kinds of mental gymnastics that are required to reconcile them. Bottom line: The reader always becomes the ultimate authority in determining what scripture really means.
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1 Corinthians 2:10-12
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
1 Corinthians 2:13-14
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
2 Corinthians 3:14-17
But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.
But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.
Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
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Dick Martin,
You like to quote the letters of Paul.
But Paul has a very different view of Jesus than the one the Gospels portray.
You appear to have made a decision that the Jesus of the Gospels is not the correct Jesus?
Religious conflict is always resolved not by God – but by the reader. That was the point of my blog and you seem to be demonstrating it unwittingly.
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God knows all things . He saw the end before the beginning. His purpose of the Old testament was to show man who has a free will that he could not save himself. Adam Failed, Man failed – Flood came , 400 yrs in exile, 10 commandments never saved anyone, Jesus when on earth He did not know all things either; only what He learned and what was humanly possible for He gave up His God attributes. The book of Acts was about the 1st. century Church. and the book of
Revelation is about the future. That only leaves Paul’s writings; which is what we are to live by at present. Jesus paid for our transgressions, our Failures, our inadequacies. He took all of these things and exchanged them for His perfection. Free to us but costly for Him. Without this Exchange no one could attain Heaven. quite a dilemma, no way out of going to Hell. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of Heaven. Jesus saves today.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The Epistles of the Bible is the path to travel today.
Hebrews 8:6-7
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
Hebrews 8:13
In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. This New Covenant is about GRACE and MERCY. For you out of LOVE. All mankind has to make this decision.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Pretty narrow minded isn’t. He can say it because He is right.
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You certainly have a right to believe those things.
But it doesn’t appear to me that these things are true. It just appears that people say they are true because they have decided the bible must be true – for reasons that are not clear to me.
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The Bible says that the Holy Spirit; Who is God ; will lead us into all Truth. Satan who is a deceiver; His Bag is to Kill, Steal, And destroy. I remember when I was a child seeing a cartoon of a person who had a devil setting on one shoulder and a Angel on the other. Each whispering in the person’s ears. How true for today. Jesus said the Sheep hear the Sheppard’s voice and recognize it and they follow him. You were a Christian at some point in your Life and if you were one of His, you still are. You make obvious statements like; “It doesn’t appear to me, It appears to me, not clear to me”.
2 Timothy 1:12-14
For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Stop confessing things the Devil is wanting you to believe. Stop calling your self atheist. You are not. . For out of you mouth your Heart speaks. Do you have a name your parents gave you? If I’m right and your wrong , you have everything to loose. If your right and I’m wrong, were both have nothing to loose. The only thing that makes you a follower of Jesus is your in the Family and were blood relative. It’s not what you do to prove to God your Love but Who do you belong too.
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No where in the bible does it say we are turned into Gods or God. It does tell us that if you are born again you become a member of God’s family and like any children of a father you are created in his likeness and image and you have his nature. We never become all-knowing; all powerful; ability to be every where at the same time; etc. Bible is true. Look up history of the bible It’s over 6 thousand yrs. of God dealing with man and man failing God for 6 thousand yrs. It’s a recording like a news paper. archeology proves the existence of Places ,peoples, Things. There still there today. The bible has more copies of itself sold every year , year in and year out than any other book ever written. If applied with understanding it proves itself which can’t be denied. You say ” For reasons that are not clear to Me”. So don’t share your results with those who would say ” it’s clear to me now.”
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Dick,
“No where in the bible does it say we are turned into Gods or God.”
Which of these texts is true?
And tell me who decides.
“For I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever.” (Jeremiah 3:12)
“The Lord said, Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever.” (Jeremiah 17:4)
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Isn’t your title of dangerous thoughts no. 11 ( How the bible turns you into God?) Jeremiah 3:12 –God is calling Israel back to Him and reversing His anger and offering them Mercy. Read 2 or 3 lines before and after your statement. Jeremiah 17:4 is talking about punishing their disobedience because they did not return to Him. Anger is not a Sin. All thru the bible and even today, God is calling us back to His ways, we keep rejecting His Mercy. Again ” My ways are not your ways” We would like to ( walk in the flesh) but God wants us to ( walk in the Spirit). See Romans 8:5-11
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. AMEN.
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Jeremiah 3:12 –God is calling Israel back to Him and reversing His anger and offering them Mercy. Read 2 or 3 lines before and after your statement.
Jeremiah 17:4 is talking about punishing their disobedience because they did not return to Him.
But that was not my question.
Is God’s anger going to fade out?(Jer 3:12)
or will it always burn intensely forever? (Jer 17:4)
Which one is correct?
Please answer.
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God has always been a Loving and forgiving and merciful God. He is not Happy about our decisions because we have a free will to choose. He states His anger many times but When the Eternal future starts there will be NO anger ;EVER , in heaven. God says” your either for Me or against Me. In Hell the eternal flame of His anger will burn forever to those who were against Me. Which side of the fence are you in this world. The choice has to be made on this side of the grave. Jesus died and paid for all you imperfections, your inadequacies, all the deceptions you’ve fallen into. Your not saved by your doing or not doing; (Works). all you have to do is believe what He has accomplished for you – Tell – witness – confess means you agree with Jesus and thank Him for the Free gift. What do you have to gain; you have everything . You have nothing to loose; your already Lost. See instructions
Romans 10:9-10
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That’s it — Your in.
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The Jesus that Paul knew was God because Jesus was totally God at that Point. The Jesus in the Four Gospels was not totally God then. If Jesus was totally God during His 33 yrs. on the earth, He could not qualified to pay for our sins. He had to become totally Human; which he did.
Philippians 2:5-8
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. After His Resurrection He became who He had been for all eons’ past. Always existed.
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What changed in Jesus’ body which turned him from God into ‘human’ if he wasn’t already human all along?
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God became Human not by having and earthly Father but by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was the Word.
John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Luke 1:30-33
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Jesus was God; came to earth in human form and lived 33 yrs. ,was crucified , Died , buried, and rose from the Grave and ascended back into Heaven and became fully God as He was always.
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Sounds like a very complicated enterprise. Hard for me to believe it.
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God’s done all He is going to do for you and everyone has a shot at it. it’s in you ball park now. you must apply FAITH to it.
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