Really?
Forgive my ignorance (not being sarcastic here) but what is the basis for getting into Heaven?
Repentance. Believing that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, who died, was buried, and was resurrected. In theory, if Mother Theresa didn’t believe that, but my lazy ass did, I’d go to heaven and she’d go to hell.
If this was the only brand of Christianity around, I’d probably be anti-Christian.
Thank God there’s moderate, progressive, and liberal Christianity, though.
Also known as unbiblical Christianity.
With these three options to choose from:
- Take the Bible at 100% face value and worship a vengeful, manipulative, bipolar, murderous God.
- Take the Bible at 100% face value and reject God altogether
- Recognize the Bible as a flawed product of man, separate the wheat from the chaff, and worship a fair, merciful, loving God
I’ll go with #3 every time.
Maybe, I just don’t see the value of a religious text (I’m not religious by the way; I just read it like a book, I find it interesting) that is flawed. How do you know which parts are the inspired ones?
Since most Christians say that their faith is based on Christ, I suggest Christians do exactly that. Take the four canonical gospels, glean the central spiritual and moral teachings of Christ from them, and then evaluate the rest of the Bible – the Old Testament and the remaining portions of the New Testament both – through that lens. Where the Bible is compatible with Christ’s teachings, accept it; where the Bible is incompatible with Christ’s teachings, regard it as inconsequential and don’t follow it; where the Bible is neutral in regard to Christ’s teachings, use your discretion to come to a conclusion.
How do you know that the gospels are legitimate if the other 62 books are not?