A few months back I read an article written on Newsweek shared by my good friend Steve McSwain on his wall. The article was about the Bible and how it has been abused, misused, and taken advantage of by many people that have forced it over the centuries to fit into what they thought was right and in the process disregarded what it was actually trying to say.
The writer of the article goes into great lengths to intellectually take the bible apart and mainly focuses on the verses that main stream evangelicals use to judge and condemn others. He does this brilliantly in my opinion however there is something far greater going on in this article and in the Bible which this writer misses and we will too if we only use our minds to process what the Bible is trying to say.
Please allow me to explain.
The Bible I am coming to understand is like a high tension bridge. Often as the writer of the article rightly points out it can appear to contradict itself thus setting two statements about the same topic on complete opposite ends. Yet here lies the beauty of this wonderful book. Like the high tension bridge requires two opposing forces to be pulling in opposite directions so it can remain up so does the Bible. You see the bible was written by people like you and I whom lived in a dualistic reality. This reality and way of seeing things means that it is either black or white. This point of view would of course be ok if men came up with the inspiration for it but the reality is that they didn’t. That part belonged to God which lives and sees things through a completely different reality where dualism is replaced by wholeness and oneness. We therefore need to understand that the writers did their best to explain what they heard and saw. Yet as with everything in life naturally when two or more people look or hear the same thing often their interpretation is totally different hence the opposing scriptures about the same subject. Not to mention the difference in their personalities, level of education, ability and style of writing, cultural differences, etc, etc.
This is why if we want to really discover the truth that all these words are trying to convey as a whole to us we need to understand that this truth will only be found somewhere in between those two opposing forces and statements. When we read the bible with the eyes of our egotistical and elitist mind all we will ever see are the verses that support what we want to say and think. On the other hand when we read it with the eyes of our non judgmental heart we will be able to see the whole picture and not just the part that is convenient for us or endorses the message we want to use to bulldoze others with. I personally think that the most amazing thing about this book called the Bible is that even though ordinary men wrote it one can still find the magic of His Kingdom within it if the right pair of eyes and ears are used to see and hear what it has to really say.
Is no wonder Jesus often said to his listeners to let those that had eyes to see and ears to hear to use them if they wanted to understand what He was really saying to them.
-pablo-
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