God Beyond Religion: What is the Proper Use of the Bible?

So many people have been traumatized by evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity. This is in large part due to the weaponizing of the bible. So here are the questions. Is there a place for the bible in spirituality? Is there a way to view the bible that does not create trauma and actually informs our spiritual journey? What was Jesus real message and did Orthodoxy coopt it? How did the bible finally get to the place that evangelical and fundamentalist are able to use it as a weapon?

Let’s begin with the last question and address the elephant in the room. The bible is not the word of God. Let me repeat this. The bible is not the word of God. I make this statement by the teaching of the bible itself. According to the bible in the Old Testament, the Torah is the word of God, and in the New Testament the gospel or Jesus is the word of God. Evangelicals will kick, spit and yell claiming this is not so but no matter it is the truth, even by biblical standards. I will not relitigate this as I have written so much in the past about it.

Now for the question, “How did the bible finally get to the place that evangelical, and fundamentalist are able to use it as a weapon?” It became final with the reformation and the doctrine of sola scriptura. The reformers were trying to eliminate the magisterium of the pope and claimed sola scriptura which means scripture alone. However in the early states of the Reformation it was not scripture alone for all faith and practice but scripture alone for the method of salvation. Over time, it was solidified into scripture alone for all faith and practice and ultimately the doctrine of inerrancy and infallibility came into being. That was the final death knell that weaponized the scripture and turned it into the written word of God. Still, it is a gross and damaging error!

The reason is that the bible is an anthology of myths, cultural input, and mystical revelation. Anyone willing to use common sense would realize that the creative source of the universe would not codify eternally a set of unchangeable rules in the iron age. Especially with a society that believed in animal blood sacrifice to appease God. Further, if one is being honest, they would admit that every time the word of god is mentioned in the New Testament, the authors always meant gospel and not scripture. So, there is absolutely no plausible reason for the weaponizing of the bible. Further, those who would say that the bible is the “whole counsel of God” do not even understand that the verse meant the whole purpose of God and not counsel as in a document or teaching. Literalism always leads to ignorance when interpreting writing. Those who teach inerrancy and infallibility, no matter how educated, are influenced by rigid dogma.

The question (“is there a place for the bible in spirituality?”) has an affirmative answer if one looks at the literature for what it is. As stated above it is an anthology of myths, cultural input, and mystical revelation. So, in that vane it has a place in spirituality. Of course, it is necessary to use intuitive discernment to find its value. It may be instructive to provide a bulleted list of the possible benefits of the mystical revelation within the bible.

·         The notion that God is love.

·         The definition of love.

·         The definition of the fruit of the spirit.

·         That the Logos indwells all of humanity

·         Consciousness is the creative source of the universe.

·         With a proper understanding of the garden myth and Adam and Eve, a figurative explanation of human pathology and the source of evil.

The first five are self-explanatory but the sixth one needs some further explanation. So what is the benefit of the garden myth in Genesis? It explains that mortality coupled with the survival instinct (necessary for human and animal survival) combine to explain greed and therefore, explain all of the evil present in the material world we live in.

However, the remedy for that is not a sacrifice to God of a human prototype. It is the knowledge that we are divine and that the creative source is a loving parent. This is what makes the “Gospel of Truth” important in explaining the mission and teaching of Jesus and just exactly how one could look at him as a savior. It is indeed too bad that so much of Gnostic writing was destroyed. Not that Gnostic writing was literal truth, but that it contained mystical revelation that helps explain reality and our place in the material world. It also shows the problem with literal translation and meaning for any religious texts.

The answer to the question (“What was Jesus real message?”) can only be properly understood with the entire writings of the second and third centuries CE. This would include parts of the New Testament, the Gnostic texts, the Corpus Hermeticum, and Neo-Platonic texts. The best answer I have found is that it was to correct the forgetfulness that souls adopt upon incarnating into material reality. This is the main idea stated in the Gospel of Truth. It resonates deeply with me.

To answer the question (Is there a way to view the bible that does not create trauma and actually informs our spiritual journey?) is somewhat complex. First it would have to be void of any of the dogmatic voices that play in the head of one who was brainwashed with fundamental and literal teaching. If this cannot be accomplished there is little chance that it can inform the spiritual journey of such a one.

If one can really understand and believe what the bible is, an anthology of myth, cultural input and mystical revelation, then one can gain spiritual knowledge from it. This requires discernment and intuition but I think there is a benefit from the bible. So far as I know it is the only sacred text that states God is love. Further, it is the only text that gives the definition of love and the fruit of the spirit. Especially in the Gospel of John, but in other places as well it explains that we are divine. This message is very beneficial.

How then can one discern what is mystical revelation from the creative source? Here are the criteria I use. Does it promote love as defined by Paul? Will it produce the fruit of the Spirit? Does it inform us of our familial connection to God? Does it show God as a parent? In fact, you can apply this to all mystical writings. It is true of the Corpus Hermeticum. It is true of the Tao.