One of the most interesting aspects to me about the concept of sin is that it's rebellion against God. Sin is bad because God has mandated the rules, and God is the all-powerful judge of the universe. People often question that mentality in a discussion of morality (often due to the fact they don't believe in God at all), because human beings strive to make morality relative. Meaning that different events and inputs have different moral outcomes based on the situation.
In my mind morality is universal through God, and we see the first example of it when God sets the rules of the Garden of Eden. God tells the two humans not to eat from the tree of knowledge. The serpent asks the woman if God really said that they couldn't eat from any tree in the Garden. The woman says that they can't eat from the tree in the middle or they will die. The serpent lies to her and says you will not die, you'll just gain knowledge.
Here's the thing, when I first read this I wondered if God lied to humans about the tree. Sort of like how parents lie to kids about bad things in the world in order to keep them in line. But then I remembered that these are the first two people on earth. They have no real concept of death yet. It's likely that they would never die living in this paradise. In fact later in the chapter, God remarks that man must be banished so he's not allowed to become like one of us. Us again being the collective term God gives himself. Could humans have become one with God? Was that the intention? Or is this again some passed down human arrogance suggesting that man was almost God-like, but blew his chance. I have a feeling it's the latter.
Now, did they die immediately upon tasting the fruit? No, but they did purchase their own deaths by falling into sin and eating it. The wages of sin is death, as we are reminded by Paul in Romans 6:23. We clearly see that in this chapter. The humans wanted to gain wisdom, despite what God had told them. Too bad the "wisdom" they gained was that they were naked and afraid. As such they were banished to toil and die in the real world, with all the pain and suffering that entails.
That's what falling into sin does. It opens our eyes to how truly horrible the world really is. No matter our intentions of what we are doing, bad acts don't magically lead to good outcomes in this world. Maybe in the short term, but the long term consequences of sin is death. I'm reminded of the show Breaking Bad when it comes to small sins. Sure, making some drugs to save your family might seem like a small thing. But those small sins lead to greater sins, and soon you don't recognize the man you've become.
Study Thoughts:
1 - When did you first realize the world was a scary place? When were your eyes opened?
2 - Can you think of a time where a small sin lead to later sins? How did you correct that? Have you?
3 - What kind of wisdom does the world hold for you? How is it different from God's wisdom?
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Genesis Chapter 2: God Creates Both Man and Woman
God rests. He takes some time off from all his hard works, and kicks back. I write this on Sunday, my own day of rest, and think about how I spend it. Most of the time, it's involving church, football, eating delivered food that's probably not great for me (chinese), and sitting in my thinking pants on the couch. My thinking pants are flannel, ya dig?
But in Genesis, God rests too. I wonder if he's resting today in our everyday life. I mean back then maybe God could kick back more since the universe was brand new, and there were only two human beings roaming the earth. Maybe it was all much easier back then. Somehow I doubt it. Life tends to be just as complicated today as it ever was back then.
The second chapter of Genesis also gives us the second take on the creation of man. Instead of appearing together, man is created first from the dust, then woman is created from man's rib. It's always struck me as odd that immediately after describing how things were created in chapter one, we immediately see a slightly different creation story and timeline in the next chapter.
Why the difference? Is this just clarification? Are we getting a deeper backstory into the creation of man and woman? Or is this a revision by man telling the tale so that he is front-most in the story. Did the arrogance of man influence the tale of creation so that he plays a bigger part? That God is creating for man instead of man being created in conjunction with everything else.
My personal opinion is the Bible is not flawless, nor is every word and every detail meant to be taken totally literally. You will see why later in other chapters of the Old Testament when several things take place that sound totally abhorrent to a moral person. After all, the Bible is telling us a story of God, and how to live our lives based on that story. But it's not God putting the pen to paper. It's man telling the story about his encounters with God. Like any game of telephone, I personally believe that man is not infallible, and does try to tweak the message in places.
That's why God blessed the Christian man with judgement. We are not blind soldiers meant to look at everything literally. We are supposed to question what we are taught and see if it fits into the sphere of the loving, all-powerful, father that we know. We are also supposed to follow the words of Jesus Christ himself, and let those messages stand as the basis for our faith.
So did God create the world, the seas, the land, the plants, the animals, and then man and woman last as in Chapter 1? Or did God create the heavens and earth, then man, then the plants, animals, and woman as on Chapter 2? To be honest, I don't think the order matters. Other people will tell you that it does and focus on minitua, or use it as a reason to assume that man and woman are or aren't equal in the eyes of the Lord.
To me that's all nonsense. What matters is that we were created by God as his children in his image. That we are important and loved by our creator as his fine creation. Those are the key facts I take away from this chapter and this lesson.
Study Thoughts:
1 - Does the order in which man was created matter to you? Do you think it happened more like Chapter 1 or Chapter 2?
2 - Why do you think Chapter 2 tells a different story of man's creation than Chapter 1?
3 - How do you think our judgement affects how we read the Bible, and how we interpret the message?
4 - What do you like to do on your day of rest? Does it honor our Creator?
But in Genesis, God rests too. I wonder if he's resting today in our everyday life. I mean back then maybe God could kick back more since the universe was brand new, and there were only two human beings roaming the earth. Maybe it was all much easier back then. Somehow I doubt it. Life tends to be just as complicated today as it ever was back then.
The second chapter of Genesis also gives us the second take on the creation of man. Instead of appearing together, man is created first from the dust, then woman is created from man's rib. It's always struck me as odd that immediately after describing how things were created in chapter one, we immediately see a slightly different creation story and timeline in the next chapter.
Why the difference? Is this just clarification? Are we getting a deeper backstory into the creation of man and woman? Or is this a revision by man telling the tale so that he is front-most in the story. Did the arrogance of man influence the tale of creation so that he plays a bigger part? That God is creating for man instead of man being created in conjunction with everything else.
My personal opinion is the Bible is not flawless, nor is every word and every detail meant to be taken totally literally. You will see why later in other chapters of the Old Testament when several things take place that sound totally abhorrent to a moral person. After all, the Bible is telling us a story of God, and how to live our lives based on that story. But it's not God putting the pen to paper. It's man telling the story about his encounters with God. Like any game of telephone, I personally believe that man is not infallible, and does try to tweak the message in places.
That's why God blessed the Christian man with judgement. We are not blind soldiers meant to look at everything literally. We are supposed to question what we are taught and see if it fits into the sphere of the loving, all-powerful, father that we know. We are also supposed to follow the words of Jesus Christ himself, and let those messages stand as the basis for our faith.
So did God create the world, the seas, the land, the plants, the animals, and then man and woman last as in Chapter 1? Or did God create the heavens and earth, then man, then the plants, animals, and woman as on Chapter 2? To be honest, I don't think the order matters. Other people will tell you that it does and focus on minitua, or use it as a reason to assume that man and woman are or aren't equal in the eyes of the Lord.
To me that's all nonsense. What matters is that we were created by God as his children in his image. That we are important and loved by our creator as his fine creation. Those are the key facts I take away from this chapter and this lesson.
Study Thoughts:
1 - Does the order in which man was created matter to you? Do you think it happened more like Chapter 1 or Chapter 2?
2 - Why do you think Chapter 2 tells a different story of man's creation than Chapter 1?
3 - How do you think our judgement affects how we read the Bible, and how we interpret the message?
4 - What do you like to do on your day of rest? Does it honor our Creator?
Friday, September 26, 2014
Genesis Chapter 1: In the Beginning
Chapter one of Genesis contains one of the most famous quotes in all of the Bible. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Most writers strive for months if not years to create the perfect opening line to their story. Some are good, some are terrible, and occasionally some are epic.
"Call me Ishmael."
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed"
"It was a pleasure to burn."
All those pale in comparison to "In the beginning..." That's THE opening that all other openings aspire towards. God says let there be light, and there is light. God says let there be water, and there is water. God speaks into existence land, plants, animals, stars, planets, the universe as a whole.
Then God creates man. One of the things I focus from God's creation of man is in chapter 26, "Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Odd that God would choose the words US and OUR in describing himself, when later in the Bible he refers to himself as "I am that I am" in the singular. This always struck me as odd. Other scholars have debated the point, leading many to believe that God is referring to the trinity, or how God is able to be many things while also being one force. I personally believe this is the case, that God is almost using what we on earth would call the Royal We to refer to himself.
It's important to note here as well that in chapter 27, God creates both male and female at once. This is important because later in Genesis we get a different interpretation or perhaps clarification of what happened. However, in this first chapter male and female are noted as simply created together, and then blessed by God to rule over all things of the earth.
Now, if you understand science at all, you probably have heard the discussions about this story and it being called the Creation Myth. In actuality I have no idea if things happened exactly as described in this story, nor do I believe that science has a defined answer about the creation of the universe that precludes or removes God. In many cases, both sides of that argument will try to deceive you into believing they have the ultimate answer on something that likely happened billions of years ago.
What I do know is that God likes to speak in stories, and I know this from hearing the tales of Jesus. At the time of the Bible's creation, we're not exactly talking about well-educated scholars with a solid understanding of scientific method. They were simple people trying to survive a harsh existence, and their entertainment was telling stories. In many cases these stories were told orally and passed down generation to generation before writing even existed.
And yet, stories are one of the great ways at staying relevent even after the times have changed. The idea of God creating everything in exact days as we know them, to me that seems silly. God is infinite and his version of time is infinitely different than ours. However, God had to describe and humans had to grasp how the universe came into being. I don't think God would be able to tell our ancestors thousands of years back how quarks and neutrons worked in his creation of the Big Bang. Instead, we have a creation story that spans the test of time.
Accurate in detail or not, the creation story is an important one because God is the key figure. Often science will try to explain their way around that, but usually only succeed in describing how the system works. Not the original movers. After all, I know how an air conditioner works. I can study it and detail the features and reactions in that system. But somebody had to make it. There was an original mover.
And that original mover in our universe was God.
Study Thoughts:
1 - How have stories changed your life, Biblical or otherwise?
2 - Think of things that stand the test of time, what do they have in common?
3 - If God wrote the opening line to your life, how do you think it would read?
"Call me Ishmael."
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed"
"It was a pleasure to burn."
All those pale in comparison to "In the beginning..." That's THE opening that all other openings aspire towards. God says let there be light, and there is light. God says let there be water, and there is water. God speaks into existence land, plants, animals, stars, planets, the universe as a whole.
Then God creates man. One of the things I focus from God's creation of man is in chapter 26, "Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Odd that God would choose the words US and OUR in describing himself, when later in the Bible he refers to himself as "I am that I am" in the singular. This always struck me as odd. Other scholars have debated the point, leading many to believe that God is referring to the trinity, or how God is able to be many things while also being one force. I personally believe this is the case, that God is almost using what we on earth would call the Royal We to refer to himself.
It's important to note here as well that in chapter 27, God creates both male and female at once. This is important because later in Genesis we get a different interpretation or perhaps clarification of what happened. However, in this first chapter male and female are noted as simply created together, and then blessed by God to rule over all things of the earth.
Now, if you understand science at all, you probably have heard the discussions about this story and it being called the Creation Myth. In actuality I have no idea if things happened exactly as described in this story, nor do I believe that science has a defined answer about the creation of the universe that precludes or removes God. In many cases, both sides of that argument will try to deceive you into believing they have the ultimate answer on something that likely happened billions of years ago.
What I do know is that God likes to speak in stories, and I know this from hearing the tales of Jesus. At the time of the Bible's creation, we're not exactly talking about well-educated scholars with a solid understanding of scientific method. They were simple people trying to survive a harsh existence, and their entertainment was telling stories. In many cases these stories were told orally and passed down generation to generation before writing even existed.
And yet, stories are one of the great ways at staying relevent even after the times have changed. The idea of God creating everything in exact days as we know them, to me that seems silly. God is infinite and his version of time is infinitely different than ours. However, God had to describe and humans had to grasp how the universe came into being. I don't think God would be able to tell our ancestors thousands of years back how quarks and neutrons worked in his creation of the Big Bang. Instead, we have a creation story that spans the test of time.
Accurate in detail or not, the creation story is an important one because God is the key figure. Often science will try to explain their way around that, but usually only succeed in describing how the system works. Not the original movers. After all, I know how an air conditioner works. I can study it and detail the features and reactions in that system. But somebody had to make it. There was an original mover.
And that original mover in our universe was God.
Study Thoughts:
1 - How have stories changed your life, Biblical or otherwise?
2 - Think of things that stand the test of time, what do they have in common?
3 - If God wrote the opening line to your life, how do you think it would read?
Welcome to the Biblical Elevator
Hello fellow Christians or possibly Bible enthusiasts. If you've stopped by my blog, you probably have some interest in scripture, or you want to know more about certain passages. My goal with this blog is to do a post on every single chapter in the Bible. The name of the blog is a bit of a pun, actually. I hope to both elevate our knowledge of the Bible while also taking each chapter on a step by step basis. Now, I know what you might be thinking. There are almost 1,200 chapters in the Bible. Can you do a post on every single one?
Yes, I believe I can. Sure, it might take me years. It might not make for the best analysis when I get to Numbers and it's an entire chapter of Jewish ancestry. Still, I think we can all pull a little something from every single chapter in the Bible, and I plan to give you my take on each one with some different context. I also plan to add some study questions so people can use the ideas to foster their own discussions in their own small groups.
What are my credentials? None, to be honest. I'm a devout Christian, a sports fan, a writer of a sports blog, a Sunday School teacher, and a pretty funny dude if I do say-so myself. I've never been to seminary, and I was taught by years of going to church in my youth. I went without any sort of religious services in college and completely lost my way. It took me until my 30s to really get back into the fold. But now I'm back and leading a small group of my own in my church, and often I wish I had more resources to help me look at individual chapters of the Bible for study.
I think many people can identify with that where they can't identify with a regular preacher or scholar. I want my approach to scripture to be that of the layman, with the thoughts and concerns we have on a day-to-day basis in the real world. So much of the Bible is criticized as being out of date in today's culture. However, I believe the Bible's stories are more relevant than ever. After all, Jesus spoke in parables because they are timeless, and in many ways the Bible is timeless as well.
So hopefully we both get something out of this ambitious goal. I will be using it as a way to expand my writing, delve into something I love, and do a bit of teaching. Hopefully you find something new in the Bible that you never saw before. Feel free to ask me questions or make comments along the way. After all, I don't pretend to be right about my interpretations. I simple want to present them and start a discussion.
Happy reading!
Yes, I believe I can. Sure, it might take me years. It might not make for the best analysis when I get to Numbers and it's an entire chapter of Jewish ancestry. Still, I think we can all pull a little something from every single chapter in the Bible, and I plan to give you my take on each one with some different context. I also plan to add some study questions so people can use the ideas to foster their own discussions in their own small groups.
What are my credentials? None, to be honest. I'm a devout Christian, a sports fan, a writer of a sports blog, a Sunday School teacher, and a pretty funny dude if I do say-so myself. I've never been to seminary, and I was taught by years of going to church in my youth. I went without any sort of religious services in college and completely lost my way. It took me until my 30s to really get back into the fold. But now I'm back and leading a small group of my own in my church, and often I wish I had more resources to help me look at individual chapters of the Bible for study.
I think many people can identify with that where they can't identify with a regular preacher or scholar. I want my approach to scripture to be that of the layman, with the thoughts and concerns we have on a day-to-day basis in the real world. So much of the Bible is criticized as being out of date in today's culture. However, I believe the Bible's stories are more relevant than ever. After all, Jesus spoke in parables because they are timeless, and in many ways the Bible is timeless as well.
So hopefully we both get something out of this ambitious goal. I will be using it as a way to expand my writing, delve into something I love, and do a bit of teaching. Hopefully you find something new in the Bible that you never saw before. Feel free to ask me questions or make comments along the way. After all, I don't pretend to be right about my interpretations. I simple want to present them and start a discussion.
Happy reading!
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