Burnishing Bigotry - 3rd edition

My Friend, if you do even a modest amount of research, you will easily find that the
Bible might indeed have started as a collection of God-inspired words, but that over time it has
become a man-manipulated tool of oppression and misguidance. And you will also find that the
same was true of the Hebrew Bible (what Christians call ―the Old Testament‖) in Jesus' day, which
is why he clearly came to radically remind folks what God's Law was truly all about (namely,
LOVE) … Jesus literally gave his entire life to this mission, and for several decades after his
death, his Followers actually ―got it‖ – and then our friend Paul showed up and turned everything
on its head. The Christian church was born thereafter (founded upon the principles & the teachings
of Paul, not those of Jesus), and it is the Christian church that ultimately decided which
books made it into the Bible and which didn't – finally finalizing their canon (and thereby
creating the Bible we have today) some 400+ years after Jesus' death!
Now, I think for the most part these men actually did quite a fine job of making the Bible
into what it is today (with the exception of removing The Gospel of Thomas & The Apocalypse of
Peter, and keeping John's – in my opinion, blasphemous -- book of Revelation) … And I would also
note for all those reading along that the scholarly analysis that goes into translating the ancient
biblical manuscripts (a process called ―textual criticism‖) has given us remarkably accurate
compiled Hebrew & Greek texts with which to work when we are trying to retranslate &/or
rediscover God's true Word …
And it is just as important for us all to remember that the Bible is still a man-manifested
collection of merely mostly-Divinely-inspired writings – a collection that thus must be tested to
parse out which parts of it are truly ―of God‖ & which are not … Even Paul (ironically) agreed
with this contention when he wrote ―Test the Scriptures and hold onto only what is Good.‖ (1
Thessalonians 5:21) …
In closing then, please know I am not advocating abandoning the Bible, my Friend …
Rather, I am advocating that we all devoutly enliven it; though only in the Way that Jesus would
have wanted us to do so … Sending you much Peace today …
―You search the Scriptures
because you think that in them
you have eternal life, and that it
is they that testify on my behalf;
and yet you refuse to follow me
and thereby know life.‖
~ Jesus Christ
(John 5:39-40)
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