“God is the same, yesterday, today and forever. He never changes,” the old adage says. True. And yet somehow he created a world that is full of constant change. If we are created in the image of God, after his likeness, and we are designed to change, right from our birth till the day we die of old age (hopefully), the only constant in our lives is change, so how can we think that the way God relates to us will not change?
One of the privileges of travelling around the world is seeing the differences between people; their culture, traditions, way of life, and yes, religion. Christianity to be specific, for those that practice it. For instance, if a culture believes that wearing trousers is strictly men’s clothing and not women’s, then it is also enforced in the church. If wearing hats or head ties are a part of a culture, it exists in the church (regardless of what the Bible says about it). If the culture literally doesn’t care about the distinction in clothing, well neither will the church members of that culture. So at the end of the day, who is right and who is wrong?
Absolutely no one! We are all just doing what we’re doing according to our perspective; the lenses through which we see the world. That is why there are so many different Christian denominations: Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, Church of Christ, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness etc. Even though these denominations are vastly different from each other, somehow they all claim to read the exact same Bible (or something close to it) and profess the same faith.
Even within the same denomination, churches within it vary; like in the Baptist denomination for example, there are evangelical Baptist churches, radical Baptist church, new age Baptist churches etc. all preaching from the same Bible, believing in the same God.
Do we ever wonder what God thinks? Many of us don’t feel like we need to wonder because we think we already know. “The Bible says…” we declare, but do we really know? As in really, really know??
I will remind you that the Bible has so many different translations, King James, New King James, NIV, Good News… and more modern translations like The Message and Word on the Street etc. Not to mention that the Bible exists in virtually every language on the planet. And believe me, each of these translations are quite different from each other. Yes, we can claim that they mean the exact same thing, but do they really? Read again, like really read between the lines without panel beating anything, and tell me honestly, are they saying the same things?
No, they are not. Because language changes over time. The same way nobody now speaks Shakespearean or Elizabethan English, is the same way, 300 years from now, no one will be speaking the way we do. I bet you, they will barely even understand us and our literature and way of life. So how can we truly expect Biblical things not to change in application to this day and age?
Yes, some principles the Bible teaches can still apply to modern day living, principles that speak to general morality; don’t lie, don’t steal, be kind to the poor etc. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, the more nuance parts of the Bible, a lot of it doesn’t exactly apply anymore. For example, we can apply everything God said to the Israelites to us today, but guess what, it’s not applicable because he wasn’t talking to us. He was speaking to a specific group of people at a particular time, in a particular place of their lives, so why do we preach it in churches and claim it still applies?
Now, the main problem is, the Bible isn’t one book, it’s a collection of 66 books, written by 44 different people, over a period of about 10,000 years, and because of this, it contradicts itself more than once. And that is understandable.
Just a few years ago, for instance, we were taught that eating too much eggs can cause high cholesterol, and now we are told, it does not, because it’s good cholesterol that can’t harm us. Now, were they wrong back then? Yes and no. Yes, because now with science and technology we can test things better and prove things further. No, because at that time they honestly, genuinely thought they were right.
The same goes for the Bible, humanity changed over the period of time it took for the books to be written, gathered, printed and reprinted. And because of this, it begs the question, how relevant today is a lot of the written word and how much of it should we apply to our lives today, as opposed to just seeing it as speaking to a specific people at a specific time, and not to humanity as a whole?
For instance most ‘Christian’ men, especially, LOVE quoting passages like 1 Timothy 2:12 that says that women must be silent in humility and not have authority over men. Men like these love these passages, heck, churches like the Church of Christ denomination was founded on such principles, whereby men do everything at their churches and women do nothing. They don’t lead prayers or the singing, they can’t serve as ushers at the door, or collect the offering, or even hold any sort of office in the such like Secretary or Account (even if that’s their job in real life). Women can’t do any single thing at their churches, not because they’re not spiritual qualified or equipped to, no, no, no, it’s just because they don’t have an appendage dangling between their legs. For such denominations, even if the man is the worse sinner behind closed doors, it doesn’t matter, he is a man and so by just that mere fact he is above the women.
This passage has been misquoted and misused, over and over and over again for the abuse and suppression of women, in their homes and in their churches. God who created us, men and women, from the same substance, who gave us the same brain and everything that entails to function and live as a human being on this earth somehow made women lower? Where in the Bible does Jesus say that women are lower than men??
Paul, who wrote 13 books in the Bible, went on to say it is because the woman sinned first… well, Adam was right there with Eve when she ate the forbidden fruit, he didn’t stop her. He also ate it as soon as she did, so he wasn’t that much wiser either, or else he won’t have eaten it at all. And God in his infinite wisdom punished them both.
Right here, you might feel the immediate urge to quote Genesis 3:16 which outline’s Eve’s curse, part of it states that ‘the woman will be subjected to her husband,’ in the GNB version. But check this out, the terms grow progressively harsher in some translations: ‘He must rule over you’ (TLV), ‘He shall be your master’ (TLB), ‘He shall be Lord over thee’ (WYC), ‘He will dominate you’ (ISV)…
And check this, the terms are even softer in other translations: ‘He will be responsible for you’ (AMP), ‘You will want to please your husband but he will lord it over you’ (The Message)… So as you can see, depending on your version of the Bible, you can use it to justify the degree at which women are dominated and subjected by their husbands, right?
Wrong! One, it was God’s punishment to her, nowhere does it say it should be enforced by man. Two, it was specifically for Eve and not for women as a whole, because after all, there are countless of unmarried women, some of whom will never get married, who are they ‘subjected’ to then??
Back to Paul, ever wonder that maybe Paul was just a man of his own era with the same perspective that most of the men back then had? Remember, he was a Biblical Jew. And back then, Jewish men didn’t even speak to their wives in public, much less see them as equals, are those really the principles we should be bringing into this day and age?
And maybe, just maybe, Paul was speaking to the specific women at Timothy’s church! After all, he wrote the letter to Timothy, concerning the issues taking place at Timothy’s church. Nothing in the passage suggests that he was talking to any other women outside those New Testament churches.
I had a Pastor who said, when it comes to dealing with things of the Bible, the three most important things to keep in mind are: Context! Context!! CONTEXT!!! The Bible isn’t to be read in parts but as a whole. It is not to be applied to places where it wasn’t written to be applied to.
And even if somehow, someone out there proves my theory wrong, all I know is, Jesus talked to women, he treated them equally and elevated them to heights that people of that era never did. Jesus is God and he came to undo all the curses that sin had brought to our lives, to bridge the gap between God and us, so why on earth do we think the curse of Eve still applies to all women today??
Whatever the meaning is behind passages like these, I am sick to death of men, especially, quoting this scripture to women as a way of suppressing them because they are threatened by them. I am sick of deprecating women, preaching it to themselves and to other women; teaching these wrong messages to young girls and boys and thus continuing the cycle of the inferiority complex based on gender. It’s wrong and frankly disgusting.
Whenever you feel the need to throw such passages at a women why not throw these passages at yourself instead: John 8:7 ‘He who is without sin cast the first stone.’ Or Matthew 7:5 ‘Remove the log from your own eyes before you remove the spec in another person’s eye.’ Or my absolute favorite: Philippians 2:12 ‘Each person should work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.’ (Not other people’s salvation!)
So the next time you feel the need to preach at women and remind them of their place, ‘Biblically’ speaking, remember your own place too: 1 Thessalonians 4:11 ‘Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and to mind your own business…’ See, any part of the Bible can be isolated, taken out of context and weaponized.
All this does is drive people away from God and repel them from the faith. That’s why Christianity is so polarizing today. Because many Christians are self-righteous, judgmental and frankly very off putting, not an accurate representation of what a Christ follower should be like, which is to be filled with love and acceptance, which was how Christ was when he walked on the earth. He hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors, sinners, people considered the lowest of the low. He dined with them, befriended them and ministered to them, because after all, like he said, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor but the sick.’ Mark 2:17. And the world is full of sickness that we need to be healing as opposed to judging and condemning those people.
This is why I can’t stomach conventional Christianity anymore. It breeds hypocrisy because people are held to impossible standards that Jesus never asked any human being to endure. Matthew 11:30 says, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ So you that fasts for forty days and forty night(ish), and you that has never fasted a day in your Christian life are the same in the eyes of God. You that gets slain in the spirit and speak in tongues during every single prayer, and you that won’t be caught dead doing all that, are the same in the eyes of God because at the end of the day, he doesn’t care about any of that. All he cares about is that your heart is pure. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.’ Matthew 5:8
So for those of you that love to judge and throw up your noses because you don’t wear makeup, or relax and style your hair, and for some crazy reason you think that makes you more ‘Christian’ than those that do, well as you roll your proud eyes and engage in all manner of secret depravity, keep in mind the six things that the Lord hates, and the seven things that are an abomination to him, (Proverbs 6:16-19), and realize that you are doing just that, which will land you in the same hell that you verbally and internally condemn others to.
God does not care about that stuff. He cares that you love him, believe in him, love your neighbors as you love yourself and be kind to the poor. Nothing more! So if you like, grow your dreadlocks until it sweeps the floor, paint your face until it scares the neighborhood cats, it does not matter in the eyes of God!
Modern Day Unorthodox Christianity is Christianity that recognizes that most of the things associated with the faith at large have very little to do with God or what he expects of us, but a lot to do with the yokes and bondage humanity loves putting on themselves. God does not care about the mundane, he is eternal and outside of time. ‘A thousand years to us are like a day to the Lord’ (2 Peter 3:8), so we can’t expect that he cares if you have no piercings, one tiny piercing on either of your ears, or, 36 piercings! (Piercings aren’t even directly mentioned in the Bible). It’s your life, it’s your choice. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of your life and eternity. God does not care!
Understanding these facts fully well, this practice enables the individual to worship and honor God in a way that works for them, without conventional Christian views posing as a hindrance, like ‘you must read your Bible every morning,’ ‘you must pray at least an hour every day,’ ‘you must go to church…’ No, not unless you want to.
Sure, the Bible says Iron sharpens iron. Well if you’ve found said iron, good for you, and if you haven’t, or aren’t in a place to ever find what you need? I’d wager it’s about time you sharpen your own iron.
The Lord made us each to be unique, he fashioned our DNA so specifically that we were designed to be unique. Why do we now think he relates to us all on the same level? After all, the way he related to Abraham, wasn’t the way he related to Moses. The way he related to David was definitely not the same way he related to Jonah. He knows us intimately. He made us specifically. We are his children and he is our father so just like siblings have a different relationship with their parents, that’s the way we each relate to God, differently. We relate to him in the way that works for us, and there is nothing wrong with that.
If you feel more connected to God singing spiritual songs more than you do praying because you can’t concentrate, there is nothing wrong with you or that. Relate to God that way. If you can read the Bible for days but cannot meditate even if you’re paid to, enjoy your reading! God speaks and is always speaking, whether we choose to listen or not. If he wants something made known to you, it will be made known, by a circumstance, by the words of another person etc. It is not only by praying for 2 hours that the Lord will hear you. His ears are wider than the vastest ocean, he can hear you whether you pray out loud or wish it in the depths of your heart. He hears as long as you earnestly speak, however way you can.
Lastly, Modern Day Unorthodox Christianity takes away the stress of ‘Am I going to heaven?’ Have you given your life to Christ? Yes. Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Yes. Do you try your best to love your neighbor as you love yourself? Yes. Do you try your absolute best not to sin, like a sheep when it falls into mud, it immediately jumps out and shakes itself off, as opposed to a pig who lies there in the mud and wallows in it?’ Yes. Then you are good to go, heaven goer!
Shake away all the nonsense we’ve been taught. God doesn’t care about the mundane but about the quality and genuineness of your heart, and your love for him and for humanity.
zizbaby 