It's taken me longer to get the taste of Old Testament law out of my mouth than I counted on. I wanted to have this review done and over by now, but where I skirted some portions of the OT, I found myself practically savoring Whole Books of the NT. Part of the reason is the style of language The Message/Remix version is written in, but mostly it's because it contains my three favorite parts of the whole Bible: the life of Jesus, the influence of His apostles, and Revelations.
Most of us "get" the birth of Jesus, as the images saturate our lives every year. But it's such a damned good story of a blessed event that it's recounted repeatedly. The general twist that starts the story is a virgin pregnancy. It's my understanding that this first of NT miracles signified that the OT law was crumbling, that a Salvation from these ways was at hand, and it started with a newborn lying in a stable.
When he got older, Jesus said and did a lot of interesting things, according to the source material. But the common thread in the stories of His life was His love for His fellow man. Jesus would go out of His way to give you something to eat when you were hungry, to make you feel better when you were sick, to give you hope when life was making cancer-nose out of you.
Love one another.
It's what He really had to say.
Now his apostles? They said a lot more.
After Jesus was convicted of political crimes and put to death, His followers went into action to secure his place in the history books. This really starts rolling in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke's continuation of Jesus' story. In it, Luke teaches that Jesus hasn't left us any more than God has left us. He is still In Us.
Another apostle, Paul writes to the church in Rome,
"Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate. Fortunate the person against whom the Lord does not keep score."
Through Paul's letter-writing campaign, more and more churches are united by the simple act of proclaiming Jesus Lord over their congregations. This, of course, moved into what we know today (a church on every corner).
The New Testament ends with a spectacle. Revelation (or A Love Letter to Ty) was written by a man named John of Patmos in the late first century A.D.
While this book deals forthright with the worship of God as a way to combat evil in the world, because there are visions of End Times included, most of the focus tends to be on that Evil. The Beast and its Number, The Great Whore of Babylon (that killer of rainbows), Demi Moore and the Guf, Cusack and Peet: it's all in there, waiting for some dark metal band to draw cover art inspiration from it.
Having once had a child-like faith in these stories, re-reading them as an adult was very difficult.
I recommend not reading the Bible as a novel, but as a great book of verse. If just One verse stands out and helps you along your way, then a Holy Scripture it is.
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I told you Revelations is badass!
ReplyDeleteNicely done. I'd read it, but I'm pretty sure that my hands will burst into flame if I touch it. Kind of like your no-no.
ReplyDeleteGeep, I am a devout believer in the Triune God - Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I am a Christian in the sense that God is very real to me and a part of my every moment in this life. Having been raised in and repulsed by the Baptist Church, I abandoned organized religion in my teens, although I did learn to love the kindliness of the Methodist Church late in life. I've even spent time as a lay minister, delivering sermons and all of that.
ReplyDeleteAt this point in life, I believe (as do most Methodists) that wherever two or more gather in his name, it is "church" and that's good enough for me. We're having church right now.
The New Testament, through the life of Christ, is God's understanding of the human condition and how screwed up we are. He loves us unconditionally as long as we take the words of the new covenant to heart and do the best we can as human beings to adhere to those doctrines of love, compassion, forgiveness and understanding. The mistreatment of religious belief by most "faiths" is a sickening spectacle and makes me ashamed for all of them... Catholic, Protestant, Jew and Muslim alike.
Great review of the world's best seller.
Sweet review gp! I tend to read both the old and new testaments from a historical perspective, with an aim to understanding the place and times that the authors lived in, as well as the message that they try to convey.With the exception of Paul (Saul)'s letters, all of the gospels were written centuries after the death of Christ when Christianity was not only a new way of theosophy, but also a political & social catalyst to change during the fading years of the Roman Empire.As such, I find that the 'essence' of Jesus often gets lost in a lot of political maneuvering.If you're interested in this sort of thing I recommend this book (if you can find a copy of it):
ReplyDeleteSaint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus by Donald Harman Akenson
Well the good news is you enjoyed your read and you got the review done! ;) Yay you.
ReplyDelete♥Spot
You know, I was raised Catholic ... I know - boo ... hiss. I have been in a crisis of faith for years. My children were refused by my local Catholic church when I wanted them baptised. Wanna know why?? Because my hubby and I were not married in a Catholic church. Wanna know why?? Because he had been married before and divorced. Ergo, he no longer belonged to the Catholic church.
ReplyDeleteNow, any organization touting the name of Jesus Christ that can put that BS line of wisdom out into the world is nowhere I want to be... ever - but it is what I know.
I am not well educated in matters of religion (actually, I am not well educated in most matters, truth be told) - and I can't in good conscience offer an opinion based on knowledge. So I will offer one based on emotion (as always with me).
I admire you for your choice in reading material. I have actually learned a few things by reading your reviews - I think that is really cool.
I detest organized religion. But I am really glad that I have been lucky enough to read your blog. (I'm sorry for rambling)
Pardon the pun, but I'm seeing the New Testament in a new light now. My church experience was something like: years of sunday school about all the fluffy stuff, hit the teenage years and discovered that was just the half of it, and the rest was all kinds of nasty, that too many people were using to justify extremely shitty behaviour. Disillusioned, I ran, very fast and very hard, in another direction.
ReplyDeleteI'm far too analytical for organised religion. But I don't know if I can get through life without a kind of faith, and a sort of home-made philosophy to raise me above my inner monkey. Your review has made me think that the new testament might be worth reading as an adult, not to become a christian, but to see if there's anything there that, well, sings to me. Thanks gp.
Oooo this is really awesome. Why can't more smart, cool, compassionate people write stuff like this about the Bearded One's teachings?
ReplyDeleteI feel inspired.
ReplyDeleteDanica and ScienceGeek are probably my "spiritual twins" in some universe.
I think I am pretty analytical and the hypocrisy of organized religion has totally turned me off. I like rules that EVERYBODY follows, not "do as I say not as I do". I am a teacher and in my classroom we have rules for EVERYBODY. I don't care who your parents are or what grades you have or what other teachers think of you or who your family is - everybody is responsible for their own behavior. And they cannot dismiss acting stupid or getting away with stuff just because of who they are.
{{stepping off soapbox now}}