Yesterday I was surfing the web through Facebook and I stumbled on this youtube video, entitled “Proving that the Bible is Repulsive.” I thought it was really sad. Sad in the way that this person may have skimmed through parts of the Bible and found portions they found objectionable, but really – they missed the whole point. Go ahead and take a few minutes to watch it. I’ll tell you right now that I don’t agree with it, so if you want to skip this after I won’t be offended. But if you pride yourself on keeping an open mind, you might want to read it anyways.
The first thing that surprises me about this video is the intro. “A modern, civilized society?” Modern, ok. But civilized? With all the craziness that’s going around? And then he jumps right into the ten commandments. So apparently 99% of Americans believe in the Ten Commandments. But he doesn’t say what they believe. That they exist? That they are the law of God? We know that Mr Antonin Scalia believes they are God’s command, but not the American public. Really, statistics are so easily skewed and made-up anyways. I realize that’s just being nitpicky, but the real meat of the piece is coming. The only point he makes which I agree with are that most people have not read the Bible. But I don’t think that most people who have read it are repulsed by it.
So his first example from scripture is the commandment about not working on the Sabbath, and that the penalty for this is death. He of course goes on to mention that millions of people in America and around the world work on Sunday, so should those innocent people be killed? First of all, no one is innocent. Nobody is perfect. We often get angry, lie, get frustrated, purposely do thing we know we should not – and that claims our innocence. There are probably several Sunday workers out there who feel some sort of guilt about working on Sunday and maybe they don’t even know why. We have become desensitized to working on Sundays and shopping on Sundays. At first it was okay to eat out on Sundays, which meant someone else had to work so that we could have a good time. Then it’s ok to shop on Sundays. Then it’s ok to see a movie on Sundays. Eventually, working on Sunday is no big deal. But to God, it’s a sin according to the commandments, or the law. But here is the good thing. After Jesus Christ died on the cross, the law is not what governs us anymore.
Romans 7:6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Now I haven’t done much theological research, I don’t have any credentials. But if you were to ask me what the point of the Bible was, it’s not to tell us how to judge our neighbors. It’s not to put authority in our hands. (Note: Being ‘released from the law’ doesn’t necessarily mean that we are free to do what we want. I recommend that you read through Romans because Paul talks about this in length, and I – not being a theologian, don’t want to mess it up.)
A later example in the video is about rebellious teenagers. That they should be stoned to death for not obeying their parents. Well, obeying parents is one of the commandments, so they also would not be innocent. However, in John 8:7, Jesus says:
“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.
God’s word is about showing His love for us. A question I hear a lot (and honestly, I wanted an answer too) is “Why does God let bad things happen to good people.” Well we’ve sort of already heard half the answer. No one is “good” by themselves. We are all the same. We could amend the question. “Well, then if no one is perfect, then why do bad things happen to righteous people?”
Matthew 5:45 For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
“Alright then… if God is so loving and just, why does he let people go to hell?”
I heard this said best by Dr John Morgan, pastor of Sagemont Church. God doesn’t let us go to hell, He gives us a way to go to heaven – through Him, and His Son. We really don’t deserve it. If we were able to be perfect then of course we could go to heaven without Christ. If we were perfect, we wouldn’t need Him. But we’re not. We’re only human after all, and every time that we lie, argue with someone, think hateful thoughts, or so many other things, we distance ourselves from God. But those things are gone once we turn to a belief in Christ. Sure, we’re going to keep making mistakes.
The law was not made so that we could adhere by it and be perfect. It wasn’t made so that humans could carry out God’s wrath for Him. It was so that we could see that we aren’t perfect, and that we needed to believe in someone higher than us. I’m sure that several people out there that are still reading (yay, haven’t lost you yet!) think this is a pile of crap. I’m sorry that you feel that way. I’m sorry if you agree with that video. If you have ever truly witnessed the change in someone’s life after they have become a Christian then you will know it’s not fake. People who make great changes in their lives need a catalyst.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a Christian because I didn’t want to go to hell. Now, hell doesn’t sounds like a fun place. But for some reason, that wasn’t enough. In high school, I drifted away and did my own thing, and became very unhappy and I felt like I wasn’t whole. I wrote a poem in high school where I wrote “I want to feel whole again, I want to be free”. I didn’t know it then, but I was searching for something I had left behind. I don’t want to give false promises – when I decided to turn my life over to Christ for certain, in my first year of university, there wasn’t an immediate change. I still felt empty inside, I wanted nothing more than inner quiet, and peace. I wished there was a way to shut off my thinking. But gradually – things got better. I have not felt that empty, hollow feeling in years. I still get sad and lonely, I still do things I regret. But the important thing is that now I feel alive. My life has a better quality now that I’ve become a Christian. Life-altering change is easier to take. Obstacles are easier. These are things I know for certain, and they are certainly nothing to be repulsed by.
Tags: Old Cremes