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Given my uncanny ability to unabashedly disagree with nearly every person’s opinions about nearly everything, I cannot deny the cloyingly cliche nature of the makeup of this post. After making it painfully obvious how radically obscure my opinions, and the logic thereof can be, I shamelessly top it off by declaring that the current interpretations of the Bible fall short of the truth. Argumentative as I am, it may be tht I have a subconscious desire to contradict the ‘norm’, but if that is the case, I must assure you that this is not my intention. Furthermore, even though you would likely never agree with me regarding the ‘true’ interpretations, I strongly believe that regardless of what you do believe in, my own interpretations are sure to enrich your own.
Except for perhaps a brief, but valiant attempt to reconcile Christianity with my own beliefs, in the past two years my discontent of Christianity has grown so intense that, if you didn’t know any better, you would think that I hated it with a passion. But, just so that there are no misunderstandings regarding this, I would like to clarify this one thing:
I have only respect for the Bible, and unconditionally consider every word of it to be absolute truth.The emnity between me and Christianity does not deal (as one would expect) with the validity of the Bible, but the interpretation thereof. That is, I believe that the Bible hold far greater meaning than can possibly be grasped by the human mind. Such profundity is of course befitting of words written by God- a being who’s very nature cannot be truly perceived by us…But this is not to imply that the Bible was written by God…well, at least not ‘God’ in the literal sense.
I believe that the greatest flaw that has been made in translating the Bible is the assumption that some of that which is written is “yet to come”. But before going into that, I should clarify this one other thing: Anything of supernatural nature is inherently impossible to convey directly- for the same reason that we cannot understand the words of a language that we do not know. Because of the abstract nature of the supernatural, a more accurate way to communicate the words of God would be metaphorically. Although I may be the first to do so, I feel that re-translating the Bible as 100% metaphor is imperative- an essentail element for ensuring accuracy.
There is a fairly universal belief that “History” repeats itself. Assuming this statement to hold true- the Bible makes perfect sense when such a theory is taken to the extreme. In fact, I am overwhelmed with examples throughout history which repeatedly validate the Bible. Again and again, there have been countless “AntiChrists” in particular- on average 1-2 major examples of them per century- perfectly fit the description. Several times also, Armageddon was widely believed to be right around the corner.
If history does indeed repeat itself, and there was and is an important motivation that drove things into such a pattern, then it’s likely that the writers of the Bible somehow gained priceless information regarding this, and made a record of it, in hopes that future generations could solve the unfinishedn puzzle of what it is that drives our existence.
Within the Bible is a beauty rivaled by none other. In its pages are written the many opinions, perspectives, emotions, motivations, lifestyles….throughout History. Every understanding that anyone has ever had of truth is buried within it- yes, even mine. Despite being limited to human language, the Bible somehow melds itself to fit anyone and everyone- including every ‘person’s account of truth– unconditionally.
For this reason, it has become universally known as “The Living Word of God”, in recognition of this power. Another thing to take into consideration: On an individual basis, believing something to be truth is the same thing as it actually being true. This being the case, I believe that Jesus actually did exist. Whether or not such a person was even born is, after all, irrelevant.
So many people believing that he existed, and does exist, is proof in itself that he did indeed exist. That is, when so many people believe, no proof is necessary. We make something real by believing in it. This is probably what the verse, “faith is the substance of things not seen” (note to self- cite verse!) meant. When I meditate on how infinite the Bible seems to be– the boundless reflections of truth– despite being of finite size, I am overwhelmed with awe. To think that so much meaning can be gained from one book gives me such a rush of excitement and gratitude that I cannot properly convey it in words.
September 13, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I hate to burst your bubble, no actually I enjoy it. You are far from the first to read the Bible that way. (I’ll give you a list later) Although I agree with reading the allegory of scripture, I don’t accept the Bible as uncorrupted. Many of the epistles that support a Church hierarchy are called into question by scholars.
Research Gnostic Christians and Nomina Sacra. They and others interpret much as you do. Freke and Gandy wrote The Jesus Mysteries, where they found a common interpretation dispersed throughout the west and near east religions. Different stories, but the same underlying truth.
I think you are about to become an initiate into the mysteries. You are on the path. And your inner sense of there being more to it than is commonly taught is right on target. Follow your intuition while controling your fear. good luck, but again, I at least beat you to your interpretation. lol.
Pelagian7
September 13, 2009 at 4:48 pm
lol Pelagian7 although I did not label it as such (didn’t want to be overly-redundant) this post is actually a remaster. I wrote this about 2 years ago, although the opinions I give in it still hold true today (for the most part).
Since then I have converted between gnosticism, Christianity, Esoteric Christianity, and finally back to gnosticism. Out of all of religious philosophies I’ve bound myself to (or should I say, ‘tried’ to bind myself to), gnosticism has been by far the most compatible.
Since I wrote this post, I’ve written several other posts, either re-interpreting Bible passages, or clarifying certain aspects of the allegorical aspects of the Bible, focusing mostly on the spiritual component, and the complications caused by the imperfections inherent and (I would agree) essential to communication.
As I learn more about the Gnostic philosophy (in particular of the Valentinian sect) I am continually confounded as I realize that hundreds– perhaps thousands of the ideas that I came up with independently of education– are all part of the gnostic philosophy. Because I essentially came up with Gnosticism through *pure* intuition, that is plenty powerful evidence– at least for me– that Gnosticism is the path to truth. At the very least, even if I had not known about Gnosticism at all, I would still be a *natural* gnostic anyway, which I must say is awesome!
Thank you for your comments, they are much appreciated ;-)
September 13, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I got chills reading your response. I too was led by intuition to the same conclusions. I would also add intellect, as it assisted me in seeing the contradictions of traditional Christianity.
It has been about two years for me, actually, to be precise, I finally accepted it all on Easter ‘07.