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AMAZING GRACE! |
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SCRIPTURE DISTORTED! COMMENTARY by Dr. Bob Holt, md, mph
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COMMENTS by Dr. Bob Holt, md. There came a time about four years after Bryan Aalborg (senior pastor) and Erin Miller (associate pastor) cooperated with each other on this witty and entertaining public dialog on what "GRACE" can do for us in the Christian church, when Erin really needed some of this "GRACE", and discovered that it was a phantom, --- not really available for her. It seemed (to some at least) that she might have a problem somewhat like David's, and this cannot be tolerated in a female Seventh-day Adventist minister. Male Seventh-day Adventist ministers can expect unusual efforts to either hide such problems or work through them with counseling -- or, if all else fails, expect a transfer to an area that won't learn their personal histories, but not so for Erin, our dedicated and persistent preacher of God's "unfailing" GRACE. Most will be happy with the presentation given on January 26, 2006 by these two ministers, but those of us with a more CRITICAL and less POPULAR way of looking at the Bible will notice that some of the examples cited, when taken in context, prove the exact opposite of what these two are promoting. Noah was not willing to extend any "GRACE" to his youngest son Ham, whose only "SIN" was seeing his drunken father naked. He cursed both this son and his descendents to be slaves and servants forever. We assume that Jehovah carried out Noah's wishes. Jehovah, that grand old Male God with a severe attitude problem, who carries a grudge until the third or fourth generation of those whose attitude He doesn't like! However, those of us more suspicious than most have noted that Ham was the father of Canaan (Genesis 9:22) and it was Canaan, not Ham, who was cursed (verse 25). Canaan never saw his grandfather naked, at least in the story we have received as true without question, but was the ancestor of the Canaanites, whose land the writers of these stories have coveted and sometimes owned for the last 3000 years. Abram's calling his wife "my sister", according to scholars was a means to provide her with status and legal rights not accorded to ordinary wives in Sumerian society, as has now been documented from dug up texts from that area. But it turned out so helpful and interesting to Bible scribes that they credited Abraham with doing the same thing in chapter 20 when he stayed for a while in Gerar. One assumes that Sarah was a much older woman by this time, but look, this was a woman who could still become pregnant at 90 years old! In David's case, Nathan the prophet said a lot more to the king than "God forgives you," as any Bible reader knows. In spite of many prayers and a hunger strike, and sleeping along side of the Ark of the Covenant, David could not persuade Jehovah to spare the sick child of David and Bathsheba. Which was indeed a precedent for Foster Church's attitude towards its erring ministers. There are so many ethical disconnects in the Old Testament stories that modern scholars have used these strange deviations to identify the presumed authors, and label them as "J", "E", "P", and "D", whose stories were stitched together by a talented "Redactor". By the time the New Testament was written, the "Redactor-in-Chief" was Jesus Christ Himself. Whose talent for telling untruthful (in a literal sense) stories has hardly been equaled in all history. Which may be why we enjoy these stories so well! Peter did not really curse and swear in the literal sense, but only turned back to the standard Essene "curse" repeated by all Essenes against all who refuse to live by strict Essene rules. A curse spelled out in great detail in the newly rediscovered "Dead Sea Scrolls". Jesus had little or nothing to say about "GRACE" although Paul found it to be a very useful concept to promote when preaching to a Gentile audience. But Jesus did, -- even the "Gospel Pesher" shows this to be true, -- have a tendency to stretch and bend these strict Essene rules, for the 3 1/2 years he was the accepted Essene "Mesiah" of David's bloodline at Qumran. This is shown in Peter's case in Matthew 18:21, 22: "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." The "Pesher" history of Jesus' actions in the Gospels, which reveal his real "theology" and beliefs -- not the childish surface stories -- show him to be an extremely tolerant individual, much more likely to give a person who had broken some Essene rule a second, or seventh, or seventy times seventh time -- another chance. I suspect that in the case of Erin Miller, defrocked minister, the end result would have been different. However, this same "Pesher" history demonstrates conclusively that he was not "God" in the sense that Constantine the Great wished for the Christian bishops at Nicea to declare him to be -- and that is one major reason why Bryan Aalborg, and most other Christian ministers refuse to even consider looking at this possibility and method of interpreting New Testament texts. To put it extremely bluntly, Job security is much more important to ministers than is historically accurate "truth". |
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NEXT: The Greeks had a name for it
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NOTICE: Potential "HERESY" -- The links above are not for the Faint-Hearted! |