Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The Jefferson Bible

If you had the opportunity would you re-write the Bible?  This is assuming that you alone would have the enormous amount of time to undertake such as task.  Today I ran across an article about Thomas Jefferson who was doing just that.  http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/11/my-take-how-thomas-jeffersons-secret-bible-might-have-changed-history/?hpt=hp_c3

According to the article Jefferson was editing out parts of the bible that he didn't believe or found too mythical for his mind.  So I ask you again - if you could, would you re-write the Bible?  What would you change and what would you insert?  As a man of faith, I have always operated under the belief that there is no way that I will ever completely understand even a small part of the Bible.  Sure some of the historical data appears accurate, but historians have for years found difficulty with incorrect time lines as compared to other sources.  When archaeologists have participated in "digs" in the Holy Land they have left more confused than informed on many occasions when sites mentioned in the Bible just could not be found or were finally located far from where the Bible indicated they should be.  


Does this mean the Bible is wrong and we should re-write it?  This deacon says no - emphatically No!  The Bible is a book of faith - a love letter from God to His people.  Through the various books of the Bible we are told how God reacted with and to His chosen ones and how in the course of time, all of us were invited into that relationship.  It's a tale of a Heavenly Father who has laid out a plan for each one of us - what to seek and how to seek - how to act and how to respond - when to pray and how to pray.  The Bible is a road map - for each of us to follow to our final destination with our Heavenly Father, with His son - Jesus and all the angels and saints who have gone before us.  Faith is a journey - a pilgrimage - and we each travel our own way - with Bible in hand - to remind us how God loves and encourages all His people.


Ciao
Deacon Dale