Tag: believing the Bible

‘Is the Bible Just Stories?’ (2015)

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Currier and Ives : "Noah's Ark" (1800s) — Giclee Fine Art Print

Noah’s Ark, as interpreted by Currier & Ives

I like to run this post from time to time because you never know whom might be out there as a first-time viewer, and might derive some benefit from reading it.

And if you’re afraid you’re the only one who believes what it says in the Bible–well, don’t! Because you’re not. You have a lot of company.

Is the Bible Just Stories?

And I am happy to say that my Christian friend who didn’t seem to believe much of the Bible, seven years ago… doesn’t fit that description anymore.

Read the Word with an open mind and observe what happens in this fallen world. You’ll come around.

‘Is the Bible Just Stories?’ (2015)

Posted By: leeduigonPosted On:

Currier & Ives | Noah's Ark | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Noah’s Ark,” by Currier and Ives

I run this post from time to time because there’s always someone out there, very often someone who calls himself a Christian, who insists that the events described in the Bible never happened–that they’re “just Bible stories” intended to convey a “moral lesson.”

Is the Bible Just Stories?

This is the price of admission into the temple of this world, where Science is the idol and whatever’s happening now is the liturgy.

Honk if it’s a place you want to be.

‘Balaam and the Ass’ (2017)

Posted By: leeduigonPosted On:

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Liberals mock us for believing that the miracles recorded in the Bible really happened. No Reputable Bible Scholar would be caught dead believing that.

And one of the miracles that offends them most is the story of Balaam and the ass in Numbers 22.

Balaam and the Ass

Balaam’s sin was to sell the gift of God–the exceedingly rare gift of prophecy–as if it were only merchandise. Having refused to listen to his own conscience, God had the prophet rebuked by the ass–in those days, the least prestigious of domestic animals. Balaam continued to try to go against God’s will and eventually paid with his life. He really should’ve listened to the ass.

Yes, we believe the report.

Some of the things those scholars believe are a real hoot.

Balaam and the Ass

Posted By: leeduigonPosted On:

Image result for images of balaam and the ass

This is another story which liberals sneer at us for believing: the account of the prophet, Balaam, who was rebuked by his ass (Numbers 22: 23-33).

Modern people think the people of the ancient world were credulous ninnies. Actually, people of Balaam’s time would have known much more about domestic animals than we do. They would have certainly known that an ass doesn’t talk.

Ah! But according to liberal scholars who don’t believe the Bible anyway, this was only a story cooked up by Jewish priests to pass the time while they were held captive in Babylon. At worst it was an idle tale to be imposed upon the gullible. At best it was a metaphor.

The Bible tells us that Balaam was a prophet, a man with the ability to communicate directly with God, a man held in high esteem even by kings and princes. As the children of Israel neared the Promised Land, the king of Moab sought to hire Balaam to curse Israel. Balaam was not eager to do this, but eventually the king’s emissaries soft-soaped him into it. And so Balaam sinned by selling the gift of God.

On his way to the king of Moab, Balaam was confronted by an angel of the Lord’s wrath. Because he had wilfully subjected himself to spiritual blindness, Balaam couldn’t see the angel. But the ass he was riding could: and three times the ass did Balaam an injury while avoiding the angel with the sword. When Balaam, because he totally failed to perceive the cause of what was happening, beat the ass, “the Lord opened the mouth of the ass,” and the ass rebuked Balaam and had to explain the situation to him.

Then Balaam went on to Moab; but instead of cursing israel, was compelled by God to bless him.

I believe this narrative is true–and that it was remembered, and kept in the Bible, because it was a miracle: a thing that could only happen because God made it happen. Balaam was a high and mighty VIP who was rebuked by an ass, the least prestigious of riding animals. I dare you to tell me God doesn’t love to work that way! He uses weak things of the world to overthrow the things that are mighty, foolish things to confound the wisdom of this world, and things that are despised, to take down the things that are held in high esteem (1 Corinthians Chapter 1).

Another thing learned by Balaam, in the course of his humbling experience: God is not a man, that He should lie (Numbers 23:19).

And even Balaam was never such a fool as to mock anyone for believing God.

Sorry–I Believe the Bible

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I had occasion yesterday to consult “Biblical scholars.” But as usual, I found their company to be annoying–because most of them seem not to believe hardly a single word the Bible says. They (most of them) would have us believe that virtually the whole Old Testament is fiction, cooked up by Jewish priests looking to wile away the years of captivity in Babylon by spinning tall tales.

I like to think that I know something about writing fiction. I’ve been doing it for almost all my life. And reading a lot of it, too. Not to mention history produced by Greeks and Romans, Britons, Scandinavian peoples, and others.

The great medieval Icelandic historian, Snorri Sturlusson, said he trusted his sources–royal poets, most of them–because, had they praised the kings who employed them with stories and boasts that people knew were not true, they would only win for their kings mockery, not praise. I take that to be always true. People have always laughed at empty boasts.

So not only would those fictioneering Jewish priests have exposed themselves to ridicule–but why would they take their two greatest kings, David and Solomon, and describe how those kings fell into sin and folly, and brought evil on their country? No Roman historian–and Roman historians, like Livy, are always, always accused to making their subjects look much better than they were–would have dreamed of writing such a thing.

The practice of tearing down the great and famous men of the past never came into general use until late in the 19th century. There could have been no reason whatsoever for Biblical chroniclers to show Solomon, wise King Solomon, indulging in foolish behavior that ruined his kingdom.

They would not have written that unless it were true and everyone knew it to be true. Ditto David and some of his more egregious mis-steps.

This, of course, is a vast subject and I have only scraped its surface here. But if scholars are going to accuse the Bible writers of spinning yarns, they would do well to acquire some slight understanding of fiction.