SPOTLIGHTING
BIBLICAL ERRANCIES
(Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes)By Alex
PART ONEFrom my little corner of the world, I hope to titillate your mind, lure you to logic, plant a mustard seed of spiritual doubt, and bring you back to virtual reality. I don't profess to be an authority on the bible. I leave that title to others. I liken my task to that of the setter that flushes out a quarry. I aim to shine a glaring light on the deep, dark hiding places of the real truth about Christianity and the Bible it holds in such reverence. Vital information that has been suppressed, compressed and hidden away from public view. Information that has been deleted, repeated, distorted, and "taken out of context", a frayed cliche so dear to the heart of the ministerial pea brains.
A lot of the following material was gleaned from a wealth of literature written by greater minds and deeper thinkers than many of the Christian persuasion who tend to think in rote. The authors of much of this material had the freedom to think, study, research, ponder, and arrive at logical conclusions. They had the ability to do so for they were immune to the spiritual virus and unhampered by mental restrictions.
Along with the material from books by ancient and current authors, are excerpts from articles in various periodicals, booklets, tracts and sayings that are relevant. In each instant, I will strive to quote the source, title, author and page number.
This antithesis of the bible will never be revealed to you by your minister. And even when confronted by it, will steer you back into the cult with his power of persuasion. The shepherd will once again herd the stray back into the fold. For he is the controller and you are the controlled.
"So Come, Let Us Reason Together".
Since it is so vitally important, and something many of you can relate to, I'll begin by quoting the entire text on page 392 from Tim C. Leedom's "The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read." This and other books with the same theme are available on "The Painful Truth". To ex-cultists, page 392 brings back with a rush a feeling of anger, bitterness and hatred against a vile, perverted old man who duped, conned, killed, and disrupted so many lives. The Bible deplores such emotions but who cares? It is as much to blame as Armstrong. With all the utter mayhem, mass exterminations, wars, wars and more wars, perversions, baby killings, global drowning, etc. crammed between its covers, it should deplore?
The "Mind Control" Controversy
What is Coercive Persuasion?
(P. 392)Is there such a thing as brainwashing? Is the way in which cults recruit and indoctrinate their members an example of such mind control?
In his book on mind control and ego destruction, Robt. J. Liftron lists 8 elements that he found to be intrinsic to the complete involuntary conversion of a person to a new and absolute philosophy, a process he calls totalism. They are:
Mind Control-The purposeful limitation of all forms of communication with the outside world. Sleep deprivations, a change in diet, control over who one can see and talk to.
It also tells a lot more other things that discerning Bible readers are well aware of and the laity conveniently wish to overlook. JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW CAUSE THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO
In Leedom's book is an article "Must We Bash the Bible?" By Wm. B. Lindley. Several quotes on page 78 are very interesting--"Why are we being punished for Adam's sin? He ate the forbidden fruit, we didn't. It's his problem, not ours, especially in light of Deut. 24;16 which says the children shall not be punished for the sins of their fathers."
"How can Num.23:19 which says God doesn't repent, be reconciled with Ex. 32:14 which clearly says he does?
"We are told the bible has no scientific errors, yet it says the bat is a bird (Lev.11:13.19) hares chew the cud (Lev:11: 5, 6) and insects (Lev.11: 22-23) have four legs".
"A prophecy by Jesus in John 13;38 "The cock shall not crow till thou (Peter) has denied me three times" is false because Mark 14:66-68 shows the cock actually crowed after the first denial not the third."
"Jesus said to "honor thy father and mother" (Matt.15;4) but contradicted his own teaching Luke 14;26 "If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother he cannot be my disciple" . In the Encyclopedia Of Biblical Errancy by C.Dennis McKinsey on page 12 are more questions.
"Can one be a biblicist and deny inerrancy? Not if the Bible teaches its own innerrancy. If the Bible contains some errors, no matter how few or many, how can one be sure that his understanding of Christ is correct?...Even if the errors are in supposedly "minor" matters, any error opens the Bible to suspicion on other points that may not be so "minor". If inerrancy falls, other doctrines fall too.
and a couple of paragraphs on page 13--
"No one can predict with total accuracy what doctrinal dominoes may topple after inerrancy falls. Defections do not always follow a logical pattern. Nevertheless, some general predictions can be made when inerrancy goes....It is a historical fact that a less then total view of inerrancy has resulted in a denial of some or all the miracles of the Bible."
"Usually, Old Testament miracles are the first to either be denied outright or explained away as happening naturally rather than supernaturally. Often the attack is directed against the historical events recorded in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. That means that the accounts of creation or of the sin of man or the Flood are denied as being historically and factually true". .
And again on page 14--
"Those who undermine the truth of the Bible sometimes claim truthfulness for some parts of the Bible. These would be parts in which God has spoken as opposed to other parts in which only men have spoken. But this position is unsound. People who think like this speak of biblical authority, but at best they have partial biblical authority, since the parts containing the errors cannot obviously be authoritative. What is worse, they cannot tell us precisely what parts are from God and therefore truthful and what parts are not from God and therefore are in error Usually they say it is the "salvation parts". quote, unquote, whatever they are, that are from God. But they do not tell us how to separate these from salvation "..parts.......(parts are parts)
And next--
A valid criticism of this kind is directed primarily at the liberal wing of Christianity. How do you know what is true when you begin to admit certain parts are false? In A Defense of Biblical Infallibility, apologist Clark Pinnock says on page 18, "The surrender of biblical infallibility would be a disastrous mistake having deadly effects upon the church of God and its theology".
One of the foremost apologetic authorities on the Old Testament, Prof. Gleason Archer states on page 22 in his book A Survey of the Old Testament:
"If this written revelation contains mistakes, then it can hardly fulfill its intended purpose, that is, to convey to man in a reliable way the will of God for his salvation. Why is this so? Because a demonstrated mistake in one part gives rise to the possibility that there may mistakes in other parts of the Bible. If the Bible turns out to be a mixture of truth and error then it becomes a book like any other book".
Continuing--
Again, the question arises, how do you know what is true when you begin to admit certain parts are false? Every book contains some truth, if it is nothing more than the name of the author and the publisher. As Harold Lindsell says on Page 25 of The Battle for the Bible;
"I contend that embracing a doctrine of an errant Scripture will lead to disaster down the road. It will result in the loss of missionary outreach. It will quench missionary passion. It will lull congregations to sleep and undermine their belief in the full orbed truth of the Bible". unquote As to one of the many instances of viciousness in the Bible, I'd like to quote from page 114 and 118 from Thomas Paine's Age of Reason .to wit:
When the Jewish armies returned from one of their plundering and murdering excursions, the account goes on as follows : Numbers Chap.xxxi (31 ver 13.
"And Moses, and Eleazar, the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp: and Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And Moses said unto them have ye saved the women alive? behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the council of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now, therefore kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with him: but all the women-children that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves".
Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world have disgraced the name of a man, it is impossible a greater than Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher boys, to massacre the mothers, and debauch the daughters. (Unquote)
Here are some short quotes from Leedom's book:
"Toward no crimes have men shown themselves to be so cold-bloodedly cruel as in the punishing differences of beliefs---James Russell Lowell
"The Passover (Last Supper) symbolizes the sun/son image with the 12 disciples who depict the 12 months in a year and are arranged in four groups of three, signifying the seasons". ------Jordan Maxwell
"Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus, going on before" -------Sabine Baring-Gould
"There was a time when religion ruled the world. It was known as the dark ages". -----Ruth Hermence Green, author, The Born Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible
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