I’ve always had questions about my Christian faith, but I just accepted what was being taught…until a few years ago.
Then I really began to search for some answers. That lead me to other questions I didn’t even know. They were there, but just under the surface.
Here are some of the questions:
Maybe you have some of the same ones…So let’s get started.
1. The first one was in Genesis where the word “we” was used when God talked about “himself.”
How many Gods were/are there then?
It was always explained as the Trinity was talking, but that does not set well with me. The Trinity means 3 in 1, so why use the plural when it’s really One?
It just leaves an uncomfortable feeling in me.
There are lots of other explanations…and we might get into them, but they come from outside the Bible and Christianity…so let’s leave that one alone for a while.
2. Why were these Gods so afraid of our potential that they destroyed the Tower of Babel?
They said we could become like them…something to remember.
It just doesn’t seem like a “God” to me.
3. Then we get into all the rules about cleaning your body and house. It only entailed washing and then having the priest inspect it.
So didn’t they have some other kinds of treatments? Like herbs or prayer?
Probably…but could it have been a “priest power” thing?
Just Asking???
They had the power to kick you out of the city and destroy your house if you were unclean!
4. I always wondered about the statement, It was spring, the time Kings went out to war.” Does that mean God wants us to be at war?
Then it says King David stayed at home from war and because of that he got into trouble too. That’s the Bathsheba story. He committed adultery and then tried to cover it up by murdering a man. He lost his son as a result. This is because he didn’t go to war??? Hmmm…
5. This is the one that really gets me questioning. When the Israelites came back from Egypt, they were commanded to “kill every man, woman, and child, every animal and every living thing, so as not to “contaminate” the Jewish bloodline! This has implications throughout history. Who would command that? It doesn’t matter for what reason!
6. Then it says that we should have no other gods before him. What other gods? I thought there was only one. Baal was “defeated” by Elijah at an altar. So Baal was another god? Hmmm…are we talking about gods…or GOD here? Some say that money, food, or drugs can be your god. We are equating bad habits with the Creator of the Universe!!!??? They can supplant the “real” God!!! I don’t get it.
7. Then there is the commandment Thou shalt not murder! But, spring was the time kings went out to war. Isn’t that murder, especially if you were the aggressor? I think there is a contradiction here.
8. How about the stories of the kings? When they followed God they flourished, but when they didn’t God Punished Them. So it’s God sending bad things on us when the king was bad? Just doesn’t sound like a god of Love! Kinda sounds like God made in our image instead of the reverse.
9. What was Job all about? God and the accuser talked. Who is the accuser, and how does he get to talk to God? He’s a very bad person I hear. Wish I could get to talk to God, as I gotta be better than the accuser. And then God lets him take everything away from Job, even though he was an upright man. Does sound fair.
Ya, I know that happens here on Earth, but does it originate in Heaven? I shudder to even think about that. I know it could be taken as an illustrative story, but it never said that’s what it was. It was told like it really happened. And how long did they talk about why Job was taken down….pages and pages. It’s a major event as far as Bible stories go. But I don’t get it.
10. Did you know there is no mention of the Jews in Egypt, including Moses or Joseph, or about the 3 million people that left, or the parting of the waters, or evidence of 40 years in the desert? There is no mountain in the Sinai, but there could be one in Saudi Arabia. However, the Israelites would have had to walk 45 miles a day to stick to the timeline described. What a feat!!!
11. They had to cross the Gulf of Aqaba…not the Red Sea…to get to the one in Saudi Arabia. There is some unconfirmed evidence of some chariot’s remains in the Gulf, but it is over 1000 meters deep at that point! So it would be a major effort to gather it.
It must have been a great miracle to stop a thousand meters of water over 5 km wide for 3 million Jews to cross.
12. Solomon’s temple has not been discovered, even though Jerusalem is the most excavated and researched area in the world!!! Actually, Israel did not have Any large cities when all this allegedly happened…around 1000 to 1200 BC. 200 to 300 years later there were cities, but no evidence of kings or big empires.
13. Nothing that was said in the Bible about David, Solomon, Abraham, or Moses can be found. They can’t even find evidence of the Jews back then. There is one carving of a king’s name in Northern Israel (Samaria) that also has a one-sentence reference in the Bible. That is hardly evidence. Shouldn’t the greatest empire of the time be written about?
14. Where is the evidence of Solomon’s riches and kingdom?
15. There are no records in Babylon either. There are a lot of records from that time, so if the Israelites were “big”, it should have been recorded somewhere. The closest they can come is Ezra writing the “history” of the Jewish people when they returned from Babylon. The Bible says he was a writer and historian, but where did he get his information from?
I was amazed to hear this…the general consensus is that the Patriarchs didn’t exist. I still find this hard to believe. This is the bedrock of our faith…and it’s a myth…a lie!!!????
Now I am getting angry. For thousands of years, we have been told a “story,” a lie. What is going on?
16. Anyway, let’s move on. What is a wheel within a wheel in Ezekiel, and how did Elijah, and others get caught up into heaven? Pretty strange. I think this is something we should be studying and emulating…
17. In the New Testament Jesus was an entirely different person than what Paul talked about. He never said he was the “Savior of the world.” In fact, he didn’t allow anyone to bow down to him. He referred to himself as the “Son of Man,” and only once did he say he was the “Son of God.” What does “Son of Man” mean? I find no explanation. He did talk about his Father in Heaven, but he never called him God.
18. What did he mean when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the light? No one comes to the Father but through me?” He’s not here anymore, so how can we go through him? You could take that symbolically, but He said he was going back to the Father, and sending the Holy Spirit, which was going to “reveal” all things! How many Christians have that focus on what Jesus said…I was always told to worship Jesus, something he said not to do!!!
19. Paul said Jesus came to do away with the Law in Romans, but Jesus never said that. He did say that he came to reveal a new law…the law of Love (hence my focus on Knowing that You are Loved, therefore You Can Love Yourself, and Find Your Dream.)
20. Jesus did miracles, taught Love, and told the Jewish religious rulers they were evil. He said we could be healed by our own faith, and couldn’t do miracles when they had no faith.
21. He said strange things like, Is it better to heal on the Sabbath or to forgive sin? I ask, how did he forgive sin? Doesn’t say. I think that’s critical, how did he forgive sin?
To me, it’s central to Christianity???
22. He also said, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.”
What…God doesn’t condemn us? Wow! And we can live perfectly!
Well, he did say, “Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” We are supposed to be like the Father…perfect!!!???
I think we got it wrong someplace. Paul says we were born in sin, then Jesus saved us from sin, and now we can be perfect.
Jesus said, “Be ye perfect” when he was alive BEFORE he died on the cross, rose from the dead, and saved us!
Something is wrong!!!
22. What is this thing about Communion? Do this in remembrance of me. Drink my blood and eat my flesh? A commemoration, but really kinda gross, isn’t it? And why would we do that? What good does it do, but to remember him maybe as a symbol??? I don’t know, but maybe as an example to be followed??? I have no clue!!!
23. The last thing…for now…I think I will be writing about this more…is the complete lack of difference in Christian character compared to the “world.” There is very little difference between Christian and non-Christian divorce, crime, and many other statistics.
What???
24. I am astounded by the lack of evidence for many of the Old Testament stories and evidence for Jesus actually being a historical figure (Only 1 historian says anything about him. One would think that a man who changed the world would have many corroborating sources outside the Bible.)
25. Also the removal and total suppression of books from the Bible in 300 AD that the leaders did not like. What are we missing?
I wouldn’t mind or question that decision, but with all the other things listed above, I have grave concerns!
I have lived my life as a Christian, and now it is upended, in doubt, and basically in turmoil.
So what does one do now? I have been researching and studying for more than 5 years. It’s called going “down the rabbit hole!” It’s led to many strange and wonderful places…and I will be writing about them in future blogs!
Stay tuned!
For more info, contact me at vsalzer@vincesalzer.com!
Vince
