The Only Demon to Fear

I don't believe in Demons. I am not saying I don't believe in beings that are hell bent on over-throwing the Kingdom of Heaven, no that part is totally plausible. In fact it makes a lot of sense. Given an infinite universe, with an infinite number of created beings, all with the gift of free will, it follows the laws of chance to assume that at least a handful of these creatures turned on their creator. It's practically the law of probability. A discussion of the existence of extraterrestrial beings, Angels or otherwise, is not what I'm discussing here, I am specifically addressing the idea of demons that inhabit people's bodies and force them to do or say things that they normally would not.

The propagation of the idea of demon inhabitation has been at the heart of Christianity from the beginning, and probably apart of all religion from the beginning. However, Christianity has taken this idea to a whole new level, and I'll try to explain why. Most religion relies on one very important sentiment, and that sentiment is sensationalism itself. People like to feel as though there is something beyond them that is in control of their environment. People thrive off the feeling of fear. Fear drives all bad religion, and it drives the belief in the supernatural as well. Not only that, but the supernatural validates the believers faith an alternate power source that is contradictory to the evil one. In other words, Christianity uses the demonic influences to prove its own legitimacy. 

You see there is one extremely inconvenient truth to religion, at least all poorly constructed religion. There is no outward proof of God's existence. You cannot go in to a church and look at the pulpit and find God standing there ready to talk, neither do you go in to a church and see angels standing guard over the communion bread. However, guess what is more than available to us everyday? You guessed it, demon possession. 

You can step outside and see any number of evidences of it. Katy Perry sings extremely well at a super bowl concert. We all know Katy Perry isn't that good, so the only explanation is that she performed a seance and channeled the lead singer of heaven himself, Lucifer. The other day I saw a demon-possessed lady out in front of the cafe I frequent. She was talking to absolutely no one, yelling at the air and having a conversation with herself. The demonic influences are so conveniently evident. I can go to the local psychiatric ward and find dozens of demon-possessed people. So if the demons are real...God and His army of peace and Justice must be real as well, or at least that is the reasoning of some. Do you see how wrong this sort of reasoning is? I know this type of reasoning because I took part in it for years. We would tell these demon possession stories with awe that bordered on reverence. And we would shiver when we heard how God had triumphed over evil when the pastor cast the demon out. You see, these stories validate our beliefs. They give us a reason to believe, it is real hard evidence that points to the existence of God. Thank God for demons, or we might not even be aware that God exists. 

As you should be aware by now, I take very little stock in the sensational. I do not worship God because it makes me feel tingly. I do not worship God for fear of demons haunting my nightmares, I worship God from a logical mind that has thought through the options and come to the conclusion that there is a creator, a beginning to this never ending cycle. There is an unmovable mover and yes, "He" does desire a relationship with me. Not one built on fear and superstition, but one built on love, understanding, and knowledge. That relationship is seen practically in how I treat those around me. This relationship isn't some superstitious prayer ritual in which I communicate with a higher being. This relationship is seen in its ability to change my way of thought, my desires, and my actions. The relationship is acted out in my ability to choose, to think, and to do. This relationship is acted out in existence itself, the fabric of reality and the small part that I play inside of it. 

God does not force, ever. God does not posses people and control their actions. This would be a violation of free will. If you have read my articles on the Bible and inspiration, than you will know that I believe normal people wrote the Bible according to their individual understanding and knowledge of God. The Bible is a reflection of man's experience with God over the past several thousand years. I don't believe there is such a thing as an absolute revelation from God. The relationship that these men write about is inspired, but their individual understandings of it, and the words with which they choose to describe it, are not inspired. It is purely the mind of humanity reasoning out faith. God gave us minds with the ability to reason for this exact purpose, to be able to discover Him. With this is mind the idea that some other created being can inhabit the human mind and take over their body is rather contradictory to me. 

Free will means so much to God that I do not believe he has even made such an inhabitation possible. We are the only things that can actually possess our own mind. The human mind is a marvelous machine. It has processes that we haven't even begun to comprehend. In one aspect it is just a collection of electrical circuits and connections. We feel the world around us because of receptors throughout our body that detect sensations such as pressure, temperature, pain, and vibration. We smell because of electrical impulses triggered by special chemoreceptors in our nose that carry electrical signals to the brain, which then get interpreted, sorted, and stored in memory. We can see because of photoreceptors that convert light energy to electrical energy that the brain interprets as shapes and movements. Our entire reality is based on "simple" electrical impulses sent to our brain, impulses that can be corrupted and misinterpreted. Our brains also have a quantum source for the storage of memory, etc., but that's another topic. Suffice it to say, our brains are crazy machines, but they are just that, a machine, and machines can be corrupted. 

Because our brains can generate the reality in which we exist, how hard do you think it is for our minds to create alternate realities by misinterpreting the senses being received from the environment? It isn't hard at all, in fact it's quite common, it occurs with drug induced hallucinations, brain damage, and psychological disorders. Our brains have the ability to distort the reality in which we exist. You may be wondering about the stories of superhuman strength etc., exhibited by these supposedly possessed people. Again, our bodies are amazing machines, there is no such thing as super human strength, it is simply strength that the body does not normally exhibit. There is a massive amount of energy stored in human muscle. Normally stretch receptors protect us from actually using our muscle above its capacity. In fact, these receptors are so finely tuned that they will not allow you to pick something up that would harm you. If a weight is too heavy these receptors will fire and cause your fingers to automatically extend causing you to drop whatever it is you are holding. Your body normally protects itself. If something happens to this system it becomes possible to do some truly amazing things, such as the mother lifting a car off her child. She suffered a compressed spine and torn ligaments and muscle because of it, but she was able to do it because of the shear adrenaline and terror that overrode the normal sensory response of her body. The same phenomenon can occur by drug induction, or by psychological disturbances and hormonal imbalances. 

I am 99.9% sure that virtually every "demon possession" is simply a manifestation of a sick mind. These people need help and rehabilitation, not an exorcism performed by prayer. There is nothing to fear from the demonic world. "Demons" are nothing more than created beings that are involved in a very similar experiment, as we are, that is, "what would the universe be like without Love being the driving force of existence?" These "demons" are created, and besides physiological differences and potentially dimensional differences, these beings are not much different from us. By believing in such things as possessions and haunting etc., we give to them a certain amount of adoration that they, as created beings, do not deserve. 

I know what is for most on your mind as you read, that is that the Bible talks extensively about demon possession. I have a number of answers to that argument. Firstly, Bible writers had no knowledge of the processes of the mind. They wrote according to their understanding of the time, so when someone with a mental illness starts screaming insanities and speaking in other voices and claiming to be a demon, what else would they assume? Bible writers thought that the heart controlled the thoughts and actions, they thought the mind was nothing more than filler for the skull and a bed for the soul, so the processes that alter our state of consciousness were not well understood at all. It is easy then to see why Bible writers would conclude the often-erroneous concepts that are often found in the Bible. It doesn't lesson scripture, it merely sheds light on times and culture. To me it makes the Bible more real, and even more believable. These writers were real humans, operating under their own free will to think and understand. 

"Why then, did Jesus give so much consideration to demon possession?" You might ask. When I read those stories I focus on something completely different than you likely do. You see it's not important to me how the writer chose to describe the story, or what Jesus said to the demon possessed person, what matters is what Jesus did. You see Jesus paid them no mind. He faced them head on and he commanded them to leave. Jesus was not awed by the "posseessed", he gave them not a second thought. He looked at the individual and He saw a person. Jesus healed people he did not perform exorcisms. Jesus had the power to heal people's minds. I've seen it a few times. Someone is going crazy and flipping out, yelling at the trash can etc., and I watched as my Bible worker calmly walked up to the person and merely talked to them as a person, prayed with them and put a comforting hand on their shoulder. Do you know what happened? The person calmed down, they relaxed. Usually these "demon possessed" incidences were brought on by drug use or alcohol. What brought these people out of their raging was simply a calm peaceful person that demonstrated compassion and concern for their condition. The simple prayer revealed to these people that someone cares and was willing to take the time to speak with them and offer assistance and healing. This is exactly what Jesus did. He was a man of compassion; He healed people, mind, body and soul. 

So you see, my focus isn't on the interpretation of the writer, but in the actions of Jesus. I ask myself the question, what did Jesus think of these people? How did Jesus view demons? What did Jesus do? Jesus recognized demons for what they were, merely created beings that had abandoned the grace of God. There was no room in the mind of Christ for superstition and sensationalism. Christ did not preach a doctrine of fear. He did not scare people in to following him, he merely preached of the love and perfect character of Himself and lived in such a way that drew people to him. He cared for people; that was the doctrine of Christ. 

The fact of the matter is, we all have a demon inside and it is ourselves. The same free will that God established to allow us to choose life and love, also allows us to make decisions and do things that harm our bodies, twist our reason and alter our judgment. We have the ability to deconstruct our reality and mold it in to something dark, deceptive and demeaning. We see what we want to see, we fear what we want to fear, and we will ultimately become what we desire to become. Even if demon possession was a real thing and every mentally ill patient truly was infested with demons, I would not give it any more thought than I give it now. To me, I just don't care. I really do not care if Katy Perry really did summon demons to her aid, I really don't care if our president prays to the devil for guidance, I don't worry about the secrete societies who control government and do the bidding of the devil himself. None of these things faze me. There is no room in my mind to dedicate to such a waste of brainpower. I desire truth above all, I desire reason and I desire thoughts from a sound mind. My focus is on the revelations of the character of God found in Jesus and all of creation. Be beholding I intend to be changed in to the perfect image of God, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. By the grace of God I will become like the most high. 

I want to call each of you to a deeper understanding; I want to call you out of a religion based on fear and illogical assumptions, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7) I desire that each of you obtain a knowledge of God that surpasses fear, that overcomes superstition and that matures in to understanding. May your religion be as intellectually honest and logically contrived as is the theories of a scientist studying his field. God has called us to seek and find, to discover and learn. Do not allow fear to rule your mind and construct your philosophy. 

“Finally, brothers and sister, what ever is true, what ever is honest, what ever is just, what ever is pure, what ever is lovely, what ever is of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

We Were Meant for Something More

“I am God.” This is possibly one of the most arrogant claims that any one person can ever make. It is so blasphemous that religious groups have the most horrible punishments for it. Stoning, burning, torture, crucifixion, all these things are what await those who make the most blasphemous claim available to humanity. What is it then that compels so many to make such claims on divinity? Could it possibly be because divinity is what we were actually made for? Perhaps those blasphemers aren't all wrong, perhaps God likeness should be our goal. Let me explain.

First lets talk about this from a purely logical point of view. As has been drilled in to the foundation of pretty much every single blog post I have written, it is clear that God is not like us. God is not created, God does not exist, He is something else entirely. My pastor reminded me a few weeks ago, in His sermon, how the Israelites understood this concept. The name of God uses the Hebrew letters Yod, Hay, Vaw, Hay. They are all vowels, and written as they are they are the root letters for the word "To Be." That isn't the most amazing part about it however, the letters were not meant to be sounded out but rather breathed. Try it with me, breathe in Yo, breathe out Hay, breathe in Vaw, breathe out Hay. The name of God is the sound of breath, the sound of life itself.

The Jews understood a very important concept that much of the religious world has since lost. The Jews recognized that God is not a being. In fact, all of creation spells the name of the God we believe exists. He cannot be named because no name accurately describes what "He" is. The only way we can understand God is through creation, and yes that includes each other. Why do you suppose the Bible states in Genesis 1:26 "So God created man in his own image..."? It isn't because God literally exists within a body just like us, such a concept is absurd. It is because God created us to demonstrate something about His character. All creation is a demonstration of the character of God. Jesus is a revelation of God in a way we can understand, Michael, the arch angel, was a revelation of God in a way that other beings, that we call Angels, could relate to. And it is the same with every creation God has saw fit to create. It is all a revelation of the character of God.

Why do you think humanity has such a concept as beauty? Why do you think every society from the beginning has had an infatuation with beauty? It is because we were meant for something more. We are here to reveal something of the character of God, and we know it. We desire that perfect beauty that we were intended for. It is not an evil desire to want to be beautiful. It is not an evil tendency to desire to cover up our blemishes. Makeup is not an invention of the devil, jewelry is not Satan's master plan to damn people to hell. No these things were invented by humanity in an attempt to bring ourselves back to the ideal. Albeit we do a poor job of it because we cannot of ourselves achieve what God has in store.

"You will be like the most high." The amazing thing about that first lie is that it actually wasn't a lie at all. It was the truth. God did indeed intend for Adam and Eve to become like Him, just not in the way Satan led them to attempt. The fact of the matter is that the Bible talks a great deal about humanities destiny to be equal with God. You might want to stop me here and say that I am completely off my rocker, after all, the Bible does not teach heresy. Well, let's just look at a handful of texts that will seem to say otherwise.

"He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he has set the world upon them." (1 Samuel 2:8)

So what's so incredible about this verse? Here it shows God setting mankind in a place it does not seem he deserves.  God wants us to sit on the thrown of glory? Who alone is able to sit in the place that only God has the right to occupy? I'll share with you a little insight purely from my own observations. There are many stories in history and the Bible when people sat on thrones that they were not entirely entitled to. Joseph sat on a throne in Egypt, not as Pharaoh but as one who represented Pharaoh to all the people. Daniel sat on a throne in Babylon, not as the king but as someone who represented the Kings interests to all the nations around Babylon. Both of these men did not deserve the throne, it was not their right to take, both were captive slaves from other lands, yet both ruled as kings. Could it be that God has something similar in mind for humanity? Let's look at a few more verses.

"But as many as received him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. (John 1:12) John here is saying that we are the sons and daughters of God! He doesn't just say that God will make us rulers in heaven, what John is really claiming here is that we will have a place in heaven equal to that of Jesus! I'm not making this up! Are you still doubtful? Check out these other verses.

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:14-17) What! Can you believe what this is saying? The author of Romans is stating that we will be joint heirs with Christ! Can you even comprehend what that means? Jesus is God and we are going to be joint heirs to the throne of God! What does this even mean?

I honestly have a hard time wrapping my mind around this one. The same God that does not exist, does not have a body, does not have such thing as a brain or any such human understanding of existence, this same God has destined us to inherit the entire universe and to sit on his throne and rule with Him! This isn't just an isolated text; this theme is repeated over and over again. Check out Galatians 4:3-7, Revelation 3:21, or Revelation 21:6. These verses make some massive claims. We will be sons, we will be heirs, we will be sitting on the throne of God, etc. these are the things that the Bible promises. The Bible makes claims that only a fool would believe! The Bible is full of some of the most diabolical blasphemy ever written!

See, the truth is that Satan did not lie. Satan merely told the truth and led Adam and Eve to seek to obtain the promise by their own power. What was the original purpose of humanity? I'll tell you a theory I have, it may be a little far fetched and you may not like it, but hear me out and tell me if it makes sense. Humanity was created to reveal something of the character of God. Our purpose was to reveal God to everything around us. Our very first assignment was to reveal God to this earth, to the animals and all things living. We were meant to guide this creation in an understanding of absolute love. That was our job, to teach animals the knowledge of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of love.

Here is the real kicker of the story. Guess what Satan's job was? He was created to reveal the glory of God and His absolute love to the universe and the Angels. Satan was created to teach others of God's ultimate character of love. What did Satan do instead? I think we all know the story. Does this change your understanding of the depth of meaning in Satan's fall? Rather than revealing the love and character of God to the universe, Satan turned from his purpose, possibly after billions of years of following the perfect law of love. So what did God do? God sent Jesus.

Jesus' purpose was to reveal the ultimate character of God. Jesus took the job that was originally intended for Satan! That was supposed to be Satan's job! Satan was supposed to be the Christ to this world; He was supposed to be the one to reveal the true character of God. Instead, he led humanity away from believing.

So what does this have to do with everything else we have looked at? According to the Bible, humanity is now destined to be Christ to the rest of the universe. Our job for all eternity will be to reveal God to the inhabitants of this universe. We will have the authority of God himself. Dale Leamon once asked me to imagine the following scenario: imagine you are in heaven. Let's say you are sitting on the back patio of your home right next to the sea of glass. The sun is shinning bright, it is a perfect 80 degrees and the smells of blooming flowers and the fruit of the tree of life is filling the air. Birds by the dozens fly through the air singing their songs of cheer. You close your eyes taking in all the wonders God has prepared for you, and then suddenly you hear a voice in your mind. It says, "Timothy, I have a job I need for you to do. Planet X is ready to have the complete revelation of my character revealed to them. Will you go and share with them who I am?" You jump in your spacecraft, wormhole or however we travel in the future, and in several hours or maybe days, you arrive on Planet X. 

The people of Planet X have been prophesying of your coming for centuries. They have developed culture, religious beliefs and governments. When you arrive they come before you and bow down to worship you as the one sent from God to reveal the everlasting gospel. You tell them, as did the Angels in the Bible, do not worship me, but let me point you toward the creator of heaven and Planet X, and allow me to teach you of his character.

What a sobering thought that is that we will be the Christ to the universe. We will take the place of Satan and we will do the work that Jesus was sent to do on this earth. We were meant for something more. We were meant to ascend into heaven, we were destined to have our throne exalted above the stars of God: We were supposed to sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: We were meant to be exalted above the stars of God, and we were meant to be like the most high.

John sums this up very poetically, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:1-2) We do not yet know what our future will be. We do not yet know just exactly what God has prepared, but we do know, that when His character is fully revealed, we will be changed to be as He is. It is not the physical image of Christ that changes us; it is the full and complete revelation of the character of God himself that changes us. We will be like the most high. We will be able to say to the other inhabitants of the universe, "Follow me, because I follow Christ." We will be able to say, "My prayer for you is that you will be one like I and my father are one." This change starts now. Will you allow your understanding of God to change? Why not allow the revelation of God's ultimate character to mold you in to a perfect representation of Love?  

The Bible is Wrong

I was inspired to write this post for several reasons. One reason is that most of the problems I face with people and my philosophy, or people and their rejection of God and the Bible, almost always stems from a misunderstanding of the inspiration of scripture and a poor interpretation of God's word.

Most conservative Christians have a very literal interpretation of scripture. They would even dare tell you that they do not interpret it at all, but simply let the Bible interpret itself. This is impossible, because it is impossible to read anything without interjecting your personal worldview into what you are reading. There is no such thing as an interpretation free of bias and personal thought. Liberals on the other hand will cherry pick what they like out of the Bible and disregard the rest, as was noted in Derek Flood's recent book "Disarming Scripture." As you can likely guess, both of these approaches to scriptures are completely wrong and will lead you into a misunderstanding of not only inspiration but God's character as well.

As I have pointed out many times throughout my writing, the writers of the Bible were human. This point cannot be stressed enough because so often it is forgotten as people read and interpret scripture. We have this human characteristic to idealize the past and even idolize it. Because we are 4,000 years removed from much of the history found in the Bible, we put it on a pedestal that no human work has the right to be placed on. The writers of the Bible were human. I know that most Christians would never dare say that any human was divinely infallible, that is boarder-line blasphemy. Yet all of a sudden when you transfer this knowledge to a reading of scripture, people abandon caution to the wind and place their entire faith in the hands of fallible humanity. Why is this? It is because of a misunderstanding of how inspiration works.

I'll bring this home with an example. I'll use Seventh-day Adventists as an example for this part because that is the faith I happen to belong to and was raised in. Many Adventists believe that Ellen White is absolutely infallible. They believe that God himself is the author of her books and every word that proceeded from her mouth is the express will of God, much as other faiths view the Bible. This leads many to believe things, such as the idea that pepper should never be used because it "excites the animal passions." Or that masturbation causes blindness, and many more medical inaccuracies. It isn't because Ellen White was weird, she simply wrote according to the medical knowledge of her day, which just so happened to be incorrect. Ellen White also changed dramatically in her writings after 1888. Why? It was Because Mrs. White's understanding of God changed drastically after 1888. The message of Righteousness by Faith preached by Jones and Wagner drastically affected her theology. She discovered an aspect of the character of God that she had never fully comprehended and without Jones and Wagner she would never have been able to write the Desire of Ages or Steps to Christ. Ellen White was human, just like everyone else, and she was influenced in her writing according to her own understanding of God and the cultural context in which she lived. It is that way with Bible writers as well. They are all human, they all understood God in their own way, and each of their understandings of God can teach us something about His character that we may never have contemplated otherwise.

As I wrote in a previous blog post, the beauty of the Bible is not found in the infallibility of its writers, but rather in its awesome portrayal of mans development of understanding. People are always talking about the difference between the old and the New Testament and their strikingly different perspectives on God's character. Several years ago I couldn’t understand people's concern with this. It did not seem to me like there was a huge difference between the two, after all there are some wonderful depictions of the love of God found in the Old Testament. Yet as I studied further, it became very clear that there is indeed a very distinct difference between the understanding found in the Old Testament and that found in the new. There is a very distinct progression seen with a common theme throughout the entire Bible. The theme is that God is different than all the other gods of other nations, and that He cares for His people. The details, however, are not always in keeping with an understanding of a God of Love and compassion, who seeks to woo the hearts of mankind and draw all nations to himself.

For instance, throughout the Minor Prophets you have men saying that God is pleased when His people bash infant’s heads against rocks, and murder women and children. You have commands for mass genocide that are attributed to God. David was a man of violence, which is also attributed to the fact that God was with him. Over and over again throughout scripture humans have been attributing to God what we would only be able to say was the work of the devil today. Why is this? Why would God allow such things, and why do the writers say it was actually God's command? The answer is very simple: humans wrote the Bible. Because of this, people have used the Bible in very terrible ways over the centuries. They have used it to justify Crusades that murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Catholics used the Bible to murder Protestants; Protestants used it to justify murdering Catholics; America used the Bible to justify slavery, and Adventists use the Bible to justify sexism. By their fruits you will know them; if your interpretation of the Bible leads you to believe such things, then you can be certain that your understanding of it is completely wrong.

The Bible is not a perfect document. It was never meant to be a perfect document. It has only become a perfect document as humanity has moved further and further away from the source of the original "inspiration." We cannot ignore the negative things found in the Bible as the liberals do, or accept it all as the revelation of God's character as the conservatives do. We must recognize these passages for what they are and seek to understand the perspective of the writer inside of their own cultural context. All scripture is profitable for instruction, but it may not be true that all scripture is an accurate depiction of God's character.

The Bible gives us an amazing glimpse into the lives of individuals as they struggled in search of truth over millennia. There is no other book in this entire world that gives us such a broad depiction of humanities struggle with truth. In fact, the only way I was able to arrive at the conclusions I have come to about the character of God is because I stood on the shoulders of the Giants that came before me as they fought to discover who God was. They did the groundbreaking research and I reap the benefits and the privilege of pulling that information into a coherent and valid philosophy on God. I use the entire Bible in my search to understand God, but some of it teaches me what God is not, rather than what God is. When faced with a hard passage of scripture, I do with it what I do with all written works of other humans. I ask myself the question, "Does this understanding of God's character reflect the character of a loving God found throughout scripture and confirmed in Jesus?" If it doesn't, I try to understand what led that writer to see God the way he did. I put the writing in cultural context and compare it to the general understandings of God at the time.

It is actually very interesting, because as you read the Bible, you find glimpses of Gods character all the way through, but you realize that the full character of God took 3,500 years to develop. It wasn't until John the Revelator wrote down his record of Jesus that we had a full and complete depiction of the truly awesome character of God. John is the one who first recognized that God IS love itself. He was the one who recognized that an abiding relationship is the key to a changed life. He comprehended better than anyone else the mercy and love of God. God has been seeking to lead humanity to this understanding of His character from the very beginning, but it has taken us a very long time to arrive at this understanding. In fact, even though we have the knowledge today, we still have not accepted the character of God that was so plainly revealed in Jesus. We get stuck on an Old Testament understanding of God. This does not mean that we should not use the Old Testament but that we must recognize that God has moved past the Old and New Testament and is moving forward to even more truth! God is constantly ahead of our time, drawing us toward the future. We are constantly playing catch up with God, and it has been that way from the very beginning.

In order to come to these conclusions and continue on to a more complete understanding of God's character, we must read the Bible like Jesus read it. Here again I am stealing ideas from Derek Flood. Jesus read the Bible very differently than the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus read the Bible with the knowledge that man has misinterpreted and misconstrued the character of God. Jesus constantly confronted the literal interpretation of the Pharisees. Jesus taught love for enemies. He revealed that God desired the hearts of everyone, not just His "chosen" people. Jesus taught that hating your enemy was the same thing as murder. Jesus fought the idea that God desired his people to conquer, kill, murder and rape their enemies. Jesus taught a message of love and compassion that was contrary to much of what the Pharisees quoted from the Bible. Jesus did not pick and choose which scriptures to read but rather confronted it head on and reinterpreted it’s meaning and revealed how we as humans messed up our understanding of the character of God.

On The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus started with what the Jews previously had thought. Then he proceeded to reinterpret everything they had assumed about the Bible and its depictions of God. The word of God was never meant to be infallible; I state that again because it is very important to understand. In Jesus' day there were different camps that adhered to different scriptures. It was like some today who stand behind this person's theology or that person's theology. Consequently, today we have both types of scripture in one book, which makes it difficult to discern. Jesus pulled from each of their philosophies and revealed the character of His father through all scripture. He revealed both what God was not and what God was. Jesus' interpretation of the Bible was founded on the central theme of His ministry: that God is love and he desires all to be saved. Upon this philosophy, Jesus based all of his theology. Framed in this context it is easy to discern the truth found in scripture for those who are seeking it.

Jesus understood from where scripture came and to what purpose it was intended. The scriptures have gone through several phases over the thousands of years it has been under construction. It was first written down as a record of how God had led His people in the past. Much of it was written to comfort an enslaved people. It was basically a record that said "if God did this for us in the past, then certainly He has a future for us." Some of scripture were letters written to individual people or people groups, they were letters of instruction and encouragement, much as you would write a letter today. Some of scripture was written as personal journals, or songs of praise to God. Still other parts were prophetic depictions of the hopes and fears of God's people. The point is that the scriptures were never written because the writer thought that his writings were timeless and perfect. Paul would probably be horrified today to find that we make a claim of perfection on his writings. He was a fallible human being, how could we place on his shoulders a burden that only God can bear?

Besides having many different goals and purposes, the scriptures have also been used many different ways over the years. As mentioned they were used as simply a written record of God's dealings with His people. They were used to lead worship; they were used to construct faiths and philosophies. The Bible was assembled in its current form very recently, only in the past 600 years or so. There were many books that were hotly debated as to whether or not the church should accept them as scripture, such as the book of Jude in the New Testament and many others. The scriptures were diligently pored over to try and come up with a list of books that most accurately represented the Christian faith and were consistent with themselves. However, because the Bible was compiled by mere humanity, it is not an infallible document. In fact it wasn't until Martin Luther that we begin to view scripture as we do today.

Martin Luther took the scriptures and placed them on a pedestal that they had never occupied before. Never in the history of religion had the Bible been so firmly upheld as the absolute word of God and the soul foundation of our faith. Luther did not make a mistake in this; this understanding of scripture was absolutely necessary in order for truth to be carried forward. Christianity needed to understand that truth does not originate from the understanding of one man. For so long the church had placed its entire beliefs in the hands of the clergy. No individual had the ability to discern truth for him or herself. Luther placed the gospel in the hands of the individual and revolutionized our understanding of scripture, revelation, salvation and the relationship between the sinner and Christ. He brought grace within reach of the poor and the uneducated. You see an absolute understanding of scripture was the firm foundation Christianity needed in order to break free of the dark ages.

Every age had a different understanding of scripture and used it in many different ways, this was needed then but it may not be what is needed now. What was understood in Jesus' day was not the understanding that Luther needed in order to pull the church out of a doctrine of control and hate propagated by Christianity, but what Luther needed is not the same thing that we need today. We need a firm foundation on scripture but with a different understanding of what scripture is. We need scripture because like the Jews of old it points us toward how God has led His people in the past and where He intends to lead us in the future. Like Jesus pointed out, we need scripture because it points us toward a God of love and compassion for all people. Like Martin Luther we need the scriptures because it gives us a firm understanding that truth is available to the individual and is not a monopoly of priests and kings. We need all these understandings of scripture, prefaced with the knowledge that humanity was intimately involved in writing, committing to memory, translating and compiling the document we have now. There is just way too much humanity in that process for us to have a perfect document. However, in terms of its value to the furthering of truth and the knowledge of the character of God, the Bible has no equal.

So is the Bible wrong? The answer is two fold. Yes, it contains depictions of God that are not accurate and not in keeping with the knowledge of a loving God. But the Bible also contains the very principles that have led me to the knowledge that God is love. Without the Bible, it is unlikely I would have ever arrived at the conclusions about God that I have. So yes and no, the Bible can be wrong, but even in the concepts that are not entirely accurate, valuable information can be found about the tendencies of the human mind. Like I have said all the way through this post, the Bible is a record of mans progression toward truth, all of it is important for us to know and understand in order to construct an accurate philosophy that incorporates the knowledge gleaned throughout the ages. If we have this understanding of scripture rather than either the understanding of absolute conservatives and cherry picking liberals, we will arrive at a truth that far surpasses any philosophy on God ever constructed. If we have this view of scripture we will find what John found, that God is absolute love and His one desire is an abiding relationship with the individual.