I believe in God, and in His Son Jesus, but I find much of religion really uncanny, including the bible. For example, the idea that God is appeased by the smell of burning meat or that forgiveness requires the shedding of blood. Or the harsh penalties for sin in the law of Moses. They really freak me out.
I don't have anything against most of the commandments. Killing, stealing, lying and not keeping sex sacred are not things I enjoy - I realize such things must be forbidden morally.
But neither do I understand why, for example, a fornicator is supposed to be stoned. That feels muslim to me, not christian.
So I decided that especially the Old Testament was written for another time when people were pretty savage. Apostle Paul also wrote that the law is of no real use to us because it's really the power of sin, that we're just too weak to suffice the whole of the law. So we got Jesus who upholds eternal grace for us. God recognizing the little men He has created, taking responsibility.
But there are still the hellfire threats. I really cannot take them literally, that God would make some people suffer forever. That's just beyond me, and I cannot reconcile it with God saying that He is love.
Why are there these uncanny things in the bible??? God is not a hypocrite so He can't say that He is love and then He does these things. So again I would suppose that God takes people at their level and speaks to them according to where they're at. And the ancient people felt it normal that there is war and bloodshed. The pagan religions, after all, did that thing with animal sacrifices too.
But it's like in the jewish religion. After they lost their temple in Jerusalem, the jews couldn't make animal sacrifices either, and so they decided that to atone for sins they had to pray much and give a lot of alms. Isn't that better than blood sacrifices? If you have sinned, and then pray about it, you work through the sin and understand how bad it was, and likely you won't do it again easily. And doing good to a poor person really produces something good, which again is better than when an animal gets killed for you when it hasn't done something, when it was innocent of course.
The sacrifice of Jesus seems to be divine to me, because it ended all the animal sacrifices, and yet we know in it a kind and merciful Savior that exemplifies His love for us. And so we can simply trust God now. And the resurrection shows us there is life after death, no need to fear death anymore.
But I wonder why religion had to be so uncanny. Isn't it possible to live in love and peace with your Father in Heaven? We learn virtue from Jesus who is the same as His Father, so we have a virtuous God who is a good example for us. But when I read the bible there is little virtue at many places and some writings are so awkward. For example when a prophet says that the jews will be besieged in war and will eat their own babies because they have no other food. This is so terrible, it makes me want to puke.
Is there perhaps no other solution but to discard some of the bible, saying it was a product of its time when people didn't know differently? In the Sermon of the Mount Jesus disagrees with many parts of the law of Moses. And then He dies for us and forgave His murderers instead of lashing out against us.
So we really have a God of love. But why was the bible so uncanny. So many children must have felt fear and horror of God...
I don't have anything against most of the commandments. Killing, stealing, lying and not keeping sex sacred are not things I enjoy - I realize such things must be forbidden morally.
But neither do I understand why, for example, a fornicator is supposed to be stoned. That feels muslim to me, not christian.
So I decided that especially the Old Testament was written for another time when people were pretty savage. Apostle Paul also wrote that the law is of no real use to us because it's really the power of sin, that we're just too weak to suffice the whole of the law. So we got Jesus who upholds eternal grace for us. God recognizing the little men He has created, taking responsibility.
But there are still the hellfire threats. I really cannot take them literally, that God would make some people suffer forever. That's just beyond me, and I cannot reconcile it with God saying that He is love.
Why are there these uncanny things in the bible??? God is not a hypocrite so He can't say that He is love and then He does these things. So again I would suppose that God takes people at their level and speaks to them according to where they're at. And the ancient people felt it normal that there is war and bloodshed. The pagan religions, after all, did that thing with animal sacrifices too.
But it's like in the jewish religion. After they lost their temple in Jerusalem, the jews couldn't make animal sacrifices either, and so they decided that to atone for sins they had to pray much and give a lot of alms. Isn't that better than blood sacrifices? If you have sinned, and then pray about it, you work through the sin and understand how bad it was, and likely you won't do it again easily. And doing good to a poor person really produces something good, which again is better than when an animal gets killed for you when it hasn't done something, when it was innocent of course.
The sacrifice of Jesus seems to be divine to me, because it ended all the animal sacrifices, and yet we know in it a kind and merciful Savior that exemplifies His love for us. And so we can simply trust God now. And the resurrection shows us there is life after death, no need to fear death anymore.
But I wonder why religion had to be so uncanny. Isn't it possible to live in love and peace with your Father in Heaven? We learn virtue from Jesus who is the same as His Father, so we have a virtuous God who is a good example for us. But when I read the bible there is little virtue at many places and some writings are so awkward. For example when a prophet says that the jews will be besieged in war and will eat their own babies because they have no other food. This is so terrible, it makes me want to puke.
Is there perhaps no other solution but to discard some of the bible, saying it was a product of its time when people didn't know differently? In the Sermon of the Mount Jesus disagrees with many parts of the law of Moses. And then He dies for us and forgave His murderers instead of lashing out against us.
So we really have a God of love. But why was the bible so uncanny. So many children must have felt fear and horror of God...
