Becoming Untethered: An Awakened Being's Changing View of the Bible, Part 3

 

    In my previous blog post, I wrote about a well-known theory of how we got the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch. It was something I was aware of, even when I was still a Fundamental Christian, but did not really open my mind to. As someone who is supposed to be writing about Spirituality and Taoism, I hope that I have not lost you along the way. There's a reason I keep making excursions into Christian territory. This is my background, and as such, I am compelled to reinvestigate it with a higher mind. A secondary reason for my meanderings into old scripture manuscripts is because I think it may help someone else who may have also grown up in the church.

    I want to address some objections that have been raised to the JEDP theory. Personally, I don't know how much of it I hold to. According to the late Dr. Alan Cairns1, a Free Presbyterian scholar, the idea that the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were edited and compiled manuscripts rather than written by Moses was originated by Jean Astruc in 1753, and Julius Wellhausen, in 1876, formed this thinking into the JEDP theory we know today. Cairns gives several arguments against this view.

    First, the theory posits that different writers use different names of God. However, the names of God have specific meanings within the Pentateuch, and all refer to the same being. It can be stated, therefore, that the same being refers to Himself according to a number of different names, each of which allow human beings to understand Him.

    Second, the theory posits that Israel's history in the Pentateuch was woven together over time as the
tribes of Israel were not that advanced to begin with, and therefore could not have possibly had such integral laws. However, Cairns points out that the Code of Hammurabi in 1901 predates the Old Testament Law and shows that such a world of laws and rituals already existed. It practically provides the stage on which the drama of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses took place.

    Third, a fragment of the Pentateuch was discovered in 1979 that dates back to before the destruction of Nebuchadnezzar's Temple, and that fragment was from Numbers 6:24, and 25, which according to the JEDP theory, did not yet exist at that time. These objections are pretty serious, and I don't know if the theory can hold up entirely under it. The objections cannot, however, give concrete evidence that the Bible is therefore an infallible document.

    I am still convinced that the first two chapters of Genesis contain two different creation stories, and if so, it would point to two stories edited into one narrative. The Pentateuch does seem to be a compilation, although I'm not sure to what extent, and I don't know that it means that someone named Moses never existed. Perhaps we may never know.

    What I do know is that there are major problems with following the Bible literally. I have found that you cannot base your life upon it without giving way to enormous hypocrisy. I have found that many Fundamentalist Christians are the first to throw judgment upon others without first examining themselves. They will consign a Jew, Moslem, or Buddhist to hell and be filled with indignation when they go to their holy places on their designated day, but at the same time they do not fulfill their own law to the letter concerning the Sabbath Day. They may go to church, but they do not exclude doing their own pleasure, as is commanded in Isaiah 58:13. I have personally observed that many Christians cannot wait to get out of church on Sunday morning so they can get home and watch their favourite team play football.

    Yet God has commanded that they should love Him supremely. But if you see what they watch on television, it becomes quite clear where their affections lie. I do not fault them for this. I do not say that their worship of God is not valid. These same people may very much display their unwavering faith in the God of the Bible if they go through a major life crisis. What I am saying is that total allegience to everything the Bible says is absolutely incongruent with daily life.

    The Christian can get out of this by saying, "Of course I still sin. But I'm being sanctified. I was saved from the power of sin, and one day I hope to be saved from the presence of sin." I would object to this that if you have the presence of sin with you, it does not seem evident that you are out from the power of sin yet. I John 3:6 seems to agree when it says, "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known him."

    Again, the Christian will argue that the verse in question only means that we do not sin habitually. well then, by that logic, any Christian who struggles with a habit considered by the church to be sin must not really be saved.  All of these ideas run contrary to one another, and that is why I say again it is impossible to live your life in a consistent fashion as a Christian.

    For me, I found myself in endless online arguments before my awakening. I did not see that this was only a way to feed my ego. I never argued anyone to Christ or any Christian with a different viewpoint over to my way of thinking. But oh, I tried! After my awakening, I realized what a fool I was, and I laughed at myself.

  As a Taoist, I no longer need to worry about sin. The alcoholic or the drug addict is a person on their own spiritual quest. They just haven't figured out yet that the answer isn't in a bottle or at the end of a needle. I don't care for their company as they tend to be quite destructive, and for civilization to exist, I think there need to be laws that will discourage their behaviour, but those who have not even begun their spiritual journey should not judge those who have. Sin itself is simply a concept. Christianity as I knew it kept me constantly focused upon sin. Spirituality has refocused me upon love.

    That is where the focus should be. In meditation, one can feel within them the love of the universe. It is the love that connects all of us, no matter what faith we belong to. We find within the love of the universe that we are all connected to each other. Within that love, there is room to be, to explore, and to find out more about my higher self. The awakened journey is the higher journey. It is the journey of love. I wish to all of my readers love and light.

1Cairns, Alan, Dictionary of Theological Terms, P. 241, Ambassador Emerald Publications: Greenville, SC, 2002.