I am in a group at church where we read a passage from the Bible every week and talk about it and how it relates to our life. The pastor picks the passage - it's often the one we'll read in church the following Sunday. This has been a good experience. The passages are often insightful and beautiful.
Since I have never read the entire Bible, this year I decided to do one of those programs where you read the whole bible in a year. I hoped it would bring me closer to God.
I'm afraid it had the opposite effect.
I read the book of Job and most of Genesis and then I quit reading. Unlike the New Testament verses we read in my church group, some of the stuff I'm reading in the Old Testament is deeply disturbing. The verses that bother me the most are Genesis 19:1-8. It's the passage where Lot offers to let a mob of Sodomites rape his daughters.
My pastor explained to me that it was another time and another culture, but that's not helping me. I assume God gave us the Bible because He wants us to read it. Why would God want me to read about Sodomites trying to rape angels and Lot offering his daughters to them?!?
I have heard people say that the Bible is God's love letter to us. I was not prepared for how horrible some parts of the Old Testament are.
Also, I know that Jesus uses parables in the New Testament, but parts of the Old Testament seem to be fictional but they aren't presented as so. It made me wonder how we can tell which parts of the Bible are true and which are not. Since so much about what we know about God comes from the Bible, this experience has shaken me a bit.
Is there a way to know which parts of the Bible are trustworthy and worth reading? Why do you think the story about Lot and Sodom is in the Bible at all?
Since I have never read the entire Bible, this year I decided to do one of those programs where you read the whole bible in a year. I hoped it would bring me closer to God.
I'm afraid it had the opposite effect.
I read the book of Job and most of Genesis and then I quit reading. Unlike the New Testament verses we read in my church group, some of the stuff I'm reading in the Old Testament is deeply disturbing. The verses that bother me the most are Genesis 19:1-8. It's the passage where Lot offers to let a mob of Sodomites rape his daughters.
My pastor explained to me that it was another time and another culture, but that's not helping me. I assume God gave us the Bible because He wants us to read it. Why would God want me to read about Sodomites trying to rape angels and Lot offering his daughters to them?!?
I have heard people say that the Bible is God's love letter to us. I was not prepared for how horrible some parts of the Old Testament are.
Also, I know that Jesus uses parables in the New Testament, but parts of the Old Testament seem to be fictional but they aren't presented as so. It made me wonder how we can tell which parts of the Bible are true and which are not. Since so much about what we know about God comes from the Bible, this experience has shaken me a bit.
Is there a way to know which parts of the Bible are trustworthy and worth reading? Why do you think the story about Lot and Sodom is in the Bible at all?