Before you start building, you gotta have a plan. Which means you gotta give some thought to the end you have in mind or whatever it is you hope to achieve. Common sense to most I’m sure but, just stating the obvious to be clear on where I’m starting and why. So, in the broadest sense, what I hope to achieve is to provide people an alternative path to “faith” predicated simply on the written words on the pages of the Authorized King James 1611 version of the bible.
Let me state for the record here that the reason I use the KJV is because it is one of the earliest translations from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and greek text, offering some amount of purity related to the intent of the words on the page. I might be oversimplifying what version we should or shouldn’t use but, I would rather avoid the issue and simply offer a bit of my reasoning for using the KJV instead of just using it and giving no explanation. That said, you’re obviously free to use the version available to you and if you ever find a passage that reads different than the KJV, maybe even to the point of suggesting a completely different meaning, you might consider researching the history of your version to understand why.
The framework that I’m planning out here will be the basis for the path that will appear right in front of you as you come to understand the bible as it’s intended. As lofty as that might sound, that’s the point of this whole exercise. If we claim to be believers, it follows that our belief should be based on our own personal and individual understanding of the content of the bible and our personal choice to believe in, i.e., have faith in that understanding. Likewise, if you claim to be a non-believer, it also follows that your basis for being in unbelief should stem from knowledge and understanding of the real content of the bible and a choice made to not believe it. Otherwise, all you’ve done is thrown in with either the “Christian” herd or the “Atheist” herd based solely on hearsay.
Remember what I said in one of my earlier posts about going against the grain. Maybe at this point you’re wondering, “Who does this guy think he is?” “How can he sit there and come off like he’s got this thing all figured out and in one paragraph alienate everyone on both sides of this issue?” “Where does he get off thinking he’s gonna get anyone to consider his thoughts and ideas about the bible while at the same time suggesting that everybody who doesn’t understand it the way he does is believing in a bunch of hearsay?” Am I close?
It is not my intent to alienate anyone, but rather to cause you to examine yourself. I’m not trying to offend anyone, hurt anyone’s feelings, none of that. You don’t have to receive any of this as an affront. In fact, you could choose to turn down the sensitivity a little bit, hear me out and assume I have the best of intentions, not the worst. Just saying, you could… I’m simply posing a perspective that I hope will cause everyone to evaluate the basis of their individual understanding of this hot button issue that most people seem to not even want to talk about. Especially in such a raw, direct, and probing way. “It’s none of your business.” “You don’t know me.” “That’s a deeply personal issue for me and I don’t appreciate you asking questions of such a personal nature.” I’ve heard it all before. I’ve been told I’m rude, imposing, insensitive, unfeeling, callous, a know-it-all, etc. Because it’s not “packaged” the way someone expects it to be delivered, if at all, any discussion ends abruptly as soon as you cross the line and the person becomes defensive. And what does defensiveness indicate? Getting a little too close to the truth? Or, what?
It’s been my experience that most “Christians” I’ve encountered through-out my life prefer to confine discussions of faith to what church they attend, what the sermon was last week, outreach programs “their” church is sponsoring, and the like. They’re certainly not interested in explaining why they do what they do, any scriptural basis for why they do what they do, and certainly not interested in engaging anyone that might suggest their understanding is somehow off the mark. No, no, no, not gonna let that happen…
Atheists are the same. You ever try to talk with one about how they arrived at their conclusion that there is no “God”, no “Word of God”, no afterlife, no nothing? “You’re born, you die, and that’s it.” “So, make the most of this life while you can.” They too want to confine the discussion to their philosophical/intellectual explanation that there is no god. Don’t start asking them if they’ve ever read the bible. No, no, don’t do that. Some will say, “Why, yes I have as a matter of fact”, but are never able to articulate what they understand about it, just that they’ve read it and chose not to believe it. Still, others would say there isn’t any need to read the bible since they reject the premise outright. “Why would I waste my time reading something suggesting there’s a god when I’ve already reasoned there’s no such thing.” “It’s just some ancient, archaic writing that was written to explain our existence before science came along and made it all moot.”
So you see, there’s no “right” way to go at this other than a direct approach to cause the individual to examine yourself, that is to say, take stock of what you believe and more importantly why you believe it. If you can’t honestly tell yourself that you’ve considered the written words on the pages of the bible in an effort to understand the meaning as the author intended, than the foundation or basis or your belief or non-belief is incomplete to say the least.
From the KJV:
II Corinthians 13: 5
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
The word “prove” in this passage means to “see whether a thing is genuine or not”. Don’t take my word for it though. Go to www.blueletterible.com or a similar bible site, find the passage, then the Greek word for “prove” and it’s meaning. Why am I suggesting that you do this? Should be pretty obvious to you. If God is God, he certainly knows the real you. You might be able to fool most people on earth that you’re a bible believing “Christian” but, you ain’t gonna fool him.
And remember, the beauty of this whole approach is that it’s between you and the words on the page and no one else. You don’t have to prove yourself to me, to a religious organization, your congregation, your mother, father, sister, brother… Only yourself… And God of course assuming you’re on the “believer” side of things…
So, the framework for this platform consists of you, the individual, understanding your responsibility before God to hear his testimony and choose belief or unbelief. You either believe his testimony or you don’t. In other words, you are to face God directly and consider the evidence put before us like a judge presiding over a case. Church attendance essentially puts you in the audience once removed from the finer details of the case, leaving you to have to trust the various religious organizations to adequately and accurately speak for God. Remember the multi-sided dice…?
Matthew 22:14
For many are called, but few are chosen.
