Monday, October 27, 2008

Believing the Bible


Today, I would like to ask a question of Christians who read my blog.

Do you really believe the Bible, literally?

Yesterday, my family stayed home from church because all but one of us is sick (third week in a row for me!). My husband and I started talking about and reading what the Bible says about being holy or separate. We took our Bibles and looked in the concordance, and started looking up verses relating to this matter. We looked up verses with the word "separate", "holy" and "world."

As we read the different passages, we were very surprised, I'll leave it at that. Also, both my husband and I thought of the common passage referred to by so many Christians about being in the world, but not of the world. Interestingly, its not in the Bible, folks. If we are wrong, please tell me, as I will be more than happy to correct this post.

So this morning, knowing that our Bible concordances are limited, we both did searches on the internet. In Google, my husband did a search with the following phrase: "being in the world not of the world" and came up with the following:

Very interesting.

By my post today, I hope to get your appetites wet for what we found out, and we hope that you too will do your own search and that you will really listen to the Lord on this matter. Its not easy, I will say that much.

I have to admit, growing up in a Christian church, I feel a little disillusioned today. I'm not certain today's Christian is really living separately from the world. Where is the line drawn? I think that is a matter only the Lord can answer for me and for you. Please, don't get me wrong, I am in no way implying that I am ready to leave the Christian faith, whatsoever. The Lord has given me a prick on my heart to get to know Him more through reading the Bible ALONE without any other commentaries. It has been quite the journey as I read the Bible and see what it really says without other human interpretation. Its amazing how many commonly accepted Christian practices are hard to justify when compared to the Bible. Very interesting is all I can say.

Now here's the question for myself today:

Do I really believe the Bible, literally?
************
I want to clarify, that YES I do believe the Bible literally. The reason I said I feel a little disillusioned is that when you read the Bible, and look at the typical Christian of today, it doesn't match to me. I'm wondering why, and wondering if Christians believe they do not need to take the Bible literally?
Some say they are "New Testament Christians", yet all of the verses that I found on being separate are from the New Testament!
I guess I feel blessed though, more than disillusioned, because the bottom line is this - this has been a huge lesson for me to keep reading and learning from the Bible myself and with my husband, rather than on the latest Christian best seller. I can't just rely on commonly accepted Christian practices without checking to see if its in the Bible, because I'm finding, that more often than it should be, that some things are not Biblical.
But to clarify one more time, I do believe in the Bible literally :)

1 comments:

CookinsForMe said...

Jen, this is a wonderful entry! You're right that that exact phrase isn't in the Bible but that message is conveyed throughout it, from the beginning to the very end. I think
John 15:19 is the most likely source for the phrase, though.

I know what you mean about being disillusioned. That's what started me on my search almost 12 years ago for the truth. In fact, it started as disillusionment and the more I learned the more it became a sense of betrayal and occasionally even disgust!

Some time, when you're bored, do a study of the word 'fulfill' and its variations. Now that one was a real eye opener for me. :)

Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,
For those that wander they know not where
Are full of trouble and full of care;
To stay at home is best.

Weary and homesick and distressed,
They wander east, they wander west,
And are baffled and beaten and blown about
By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;
To stay at home is best.

Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;
The bird is safest in its nest;
O'er all that flutter their wings and fly
A hawk is hovering in the sky;
To stay at home is best.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow