Something I often hear from Christians (or Muslims, and the like), but surprisingly from atheists as well goes something like this: If you want to really learn the truth if God exists or not, read the Bible!

I honestly have to agree.  I think everyone should read the Bible.  Christian, atheist, agnostic, etc.  READ THE BOOK.   You’ll be surprised by what you find in there.

But wait!  Before you do.  I want you to keep one thing in mind.  Keep this thought in the back of your head.  “God is the creator of the universe.  God is the creator of everything.   God is the most intelligent being who ever existed and and who ever will exist.”  Then promise me with that thought in your mind, when you finish this book, you will ask yourself this question: “Is it possible that the most intelligent being in the universe wrote, dictated, inspired, etc. these writings?”

When you’re done.  The answer to that question should be an easy one.  It will be yes or no.

Unfortunately, I know that some of you will claim “I’ve already read it.” or you won’t read it at all.  But I assure you, you can’t know until you do.  For those of you who won’t read it, I’ll give you some excerpts of this book to entice you to see what it actually says!

Remember.  The most intelligent, all loving God wrote this book.

“For I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever.” – Jeremiah 3:12
“Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever.” – Jeremiah 17:4

So which is it?  Does God not keep anger?  Or does he keep it forever?

How about this one?

“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid.” – John 5:31
“Jesus answered: Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid.”  – John 8:14

Apparently the water is a little muddy here too.

Can we see God?  Apparently that’s a little muddy too.  A paradox perhaps?

“Jacob said, ‘I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.’” – Genesis 32:30
“No man hath seen God at any time.” – John 1:18

Remember, the most intelligent being on the planet wrote this stuff guys and girls – and – this “All Loving God” would have you feel how about mercy?

“Blessed are the merciful” – Matthew 5:7]
“Leave alive nothing that breathes. Show them no mercy.” – Deut. 7:2
“The Lord hardened their hearts… that they might receive no mercy.” – Joshua 11:20
“I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the Lord: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. A curse on him who is lax in doing the Lord’s work! A curse on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed.” – Jer. 13:14; 48:10

Hmmm.  I’m confused.  What should I do now?  Oh wait!  Jesus came to change things.  He came to set us free from the laws.  The old testament doesn’t apply anymore. So Mathew is right and the old testament is “passed”.  Yet Jesus was very clear that he did not remove the laws right?

I’ve heard many pastors say in the past “God is not evil.  God can not do evil.  God is love and therefore the absence of evil.”  Sometimes I wonder how many pastors have actually read the Bible.

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” – Isaiah 45:7
“Then God sent an evil spirit.” – Judges 9:23
“Behold, this evil is of the LORD.” – 2 Kings 6:33
“And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” – Exodus 32:14
“evil came down from the LORD” – Micah 1:12

Ladies and Gentleman, there are a hundred other verses in the Bible just like these.  Google it, or just READ THE BOOK.

Lastly, I leave you with some commandments.  These are from the most intelligent being in the universe.  Remember, Jesus said he brought grace, and forgiveness if you don’t follow the laws – but you’re supposed to still try to follow the law to the best of your ability (some say you MUST follow the laws to get to heaven, even with grace).  So here are the commandments from your All Loving, Merciful God:

“Any person who curseth his mother or father, must be killed.” – Leviticus 20:9
“If a man cheats on his wife, or vise versa, both the man and the woman must die.” – Leviticus 20:10
“If a man sleeps with his father’s wife… both him and his father’s wife is to be put to death.” – Leviticus 20:11
“If a man sleeps with his wife and her mother they are all to be burnt to death.” – Leviticus 20:14
“If a man has sex with a woman on her period, they are both to be “cut off from their people” “- Leviticus 20:18
“If a priest’s daughter is a whore, she is to be burnt at the stake.” – Leviticus 21:9
“People who have flat noses, or is blind or lame, cannot go to an altar of God” – Leviticus 21:17-18
“If anyone, even your own family suggests worshipping another God, kill them.” – Deuteronomy 13:6-10
“If you find out a city worships a different god, destroy the city and kill all of it’s inhabitants… even the animals.” – Deuteronomy 13:12-15
“Kill anyone with a different religion.” – 1. Deuteronomy 25:11-12
“If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity.” – Deuteronomy 17:2-7

Sure is a good thing that today’s cafeteria Christians boldly proclaim their loving God, and just ignore all the rest.  No one would ever go to church if they were taught this on Sunday!  Or maybe, just maybe, this stuff was written by man, not inspired by God at all.  Just a thought?  Maybe?  You decide.

One of my biggest problems with many organized religions is that they love to take scripture out of context, or twist it to something that suits their own personal beliefs or values, regardless of what the scripture actually says.

One argument you hear a lot from Church of Christ preachers is “Jesus did NOT turn water into WINE.  He turned it into GRAPE JUICE.”  In other words, it is a translation error.  Now remember, these are the same people who will argue with you that the Bible has no errors.

So this guy, Don Blackwell decided to take a similar, but just as illogical approach, by saying that the word “drunk” in the bible actually means “starting to drink”.  He even quotes translations of the Hebrew words original meanings.  Now, I for one will tell you, the Bible is a difficult book to translate, because Hebrew words generally have many meanings for the same word.  For example, Heaven, Sky and Cloud are all the same word in Hebrew.  When the Bible says “We will meet him in the heavens.”  It could actually mean meet on earth, meet in the stars, meet in literal heaven, or meet in the clouds/sky.”  Which one do you think it means?  The good news is that this man can not possibly be correct on his translations from Hebrew, as the same word that describes Noah being drunk is the same word that is used when Jesus is drinking wine.  You do the math.

Now, let’s give him that one and say for the sake of argument he has a point.  If you’ve watched his videos then by now you know that he chose only to cover the verses he could twist.  He chose not to cover, or even mention to you or I that there are verses that are much more direct and much less prone to the spin doctor.  Let us examine those.

Luke 7:33-35 points out that Jesus drank as the Bible describes him as hanging out with prostitutes and other evil doers.  Now, the point of this verse wouldn’t make any sense if the Bible was referring to GRAPE JUICE would it?  What if the Bible had said “Jesus eats strawberries while hanging with prostitutes.”

For John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ ³⁴ The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ ³⁵ But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it.”

1 Timothy 4:3 seems to be highly appropriate, as it is a warning about false teaching.

They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth. ⁴ Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. ⁵ For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 says we should drink and be merry!

So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!

Psalms 104 says that God sent us wine to make us glad.

You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home,
and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor.
¹⁴ You cause grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for people to use.
You allow them to produce food from the earth—
¹⁵ wine to make them glad,
olive oil to soothe their skin,
and bread to give them strength.

Judges 9:13 says that wine even makes GOD happy!

But the grapevine also refused, saying,
‘Should I quit producing the wine
that cheers both God and people,
just to wave back and forth over the trees?’

And finally, Mathew 15:11:

“It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”

I could go on and on…  but I’m running out of time for this post.  There are other scriptures that refer to Jesus abstaining from drinking in the days/hours before his death, and there was a prophecy in Genesis where the Bible says the Messiah will drink wine and be merry.  Look them up if you don’t believe me.

What we need to understand, is that nothing is inherently evil! 1 Timothy 4:4 tells us this is the case!  Everything God created is good!  The problem all boils down to one thing:  The trap that has been laid for us.  That trap is the temptation of using God created things in God forbidden ways.  And people, this isn’t just for drinking!  It’s a world wide problem!  Think about over-eating, over-spending, sexual promiscuity, or others!

Sex is not a sin!  It was created by God!  We are to enjoy it!  He WANTS you to enjoy it.  Within his boundaries (marriage for example).

Eating is not a sin!  God made all this food and he made it taste good!  He could have made it mechanical, where you just put it in and swallow it.  But he gave you the ability to taste and enjoy your food!  But he told us not to over-eat.  Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us not to eat or drink to much (funny, weren’t we just talking about wine?  If wine weren’t alcoholic, would there be a need to warn us to use it in moderation?).

By now I think you get the point.  Now go, eat, drink and be merry, within the boundaries that your creator has laid out for you.  But do not drink around people who can not follow those same rules, as the Bible warns us not to cause our neighbor to stumble.

Cults

Most people know what a cult is, but it is actually very difficult to put into words. The dictionary defines a cult as “a religous group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.” I’ve always thought of a cult as a small religion based on a larger religion that believes they are the only ones who will go to heaven, whereas everyone else is doomed to hell because if their incorrect beliefs. Often they are based around the beliefs of a single man who uses their position in the cult as a means of power to get things they want. It could be anything from money, sex, or just the feeling of power in general. However, the sad part is, most of these attributes could be applied to nearly any religion on earth, depending on what spin you put on it. The only real qualifer seems to be the size. For example, if a 20-person cult continued to grow and a century later had 2 billion followers, I guess it couldn’t be considered a cult anymore. but the truth is, most of us know what cults are, and most of them are bad, very bad. And these cults could not exist without the sheep I mentioned earlier.