My Biggest Pet Peeve

As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: "Go in and kill them; let no one escape." So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it. They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day. 2 Kings 10: 25-27

Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 13-14; John 2

Wooahhhhhh!

I’ve heard of Christian missionaries in Brazil who did this to folks who practice Candomble.

Now… I’m not a big fan of Candomble but good gracious… you can’t use this scripture as justification to act contrary to Jesus’ message of love your neighbor as yourself.

Which brings me to my point…

Some folks look at stuff like the passage above in the Bible and compare it to Jesus’ message and say that the Bible is contradictory. The typical argument goes something like this.

“The Bible says an eye for an eye and turn the other cheek. That’s contradictory therefore the Bible is hogwash.”

Umm… these people clearly haven’t read the Bible.

Now that we are pretty deep into it maybe you are noticing a progression. If one were to look at the Bible as a history of God’s relationship with humanity then we can see that this relationship has evolved greatly.

The first agreement was with Adam and Eve. They had one rule. Don’t eat the fruit.

That didn’t go so well.

Then the next agreement was with Noah to never destroy the earth with water again. The symbol of this is the rainbow.

Next was the agreement with Abraham. If Abraham worshiped only God then God would bless him. It continued that way through Isaac, and Jacob and all the way until we get to Moses. Moses went up to Mount Sinai and got the first of the 613 Mosaic laws. These laws clarified what it meant for the nation of Israel to obey, follow and worship God.

Then fast forward to Jesus who changed the game by making us accountable by faith shown by love instead of actions.

My point is this… much like nature… the relationship between humanity and God in the Bible evolved greatly from Adam and Eve to Jesus. It is very easy to pull a scripture from the time when the Mosaic laws were king and compare them to Jesus’ message and say that the Bible is contradicting itself…

But before you do this, try to understand the context. And if you don’t know the context it’s ok to say “I don’t know” rather than assuming.

This is the good move in life as well. If more of us spoke only about what we actually know then life would be a whole lot less complicated. Many lives have been destroyed and lost based upon innuendo, hearsay, or outright lies.

So to my fellow Christian folks… stop pulling out archaic Old Testament references to justify acting out on your character flaws.

And to my non-Christian folks… if you have heard or seen terribleness when it comes to Christians and are curious about why… ask someone that you know and trust who is knowledgeable. They might be able to break it down for you.

And if you don’t know any such person, holla at me… I’ll do my best.