NONSENSE FROM THE BIBLE (12 page)

Another of David’s songs, this one is a lament of his personal suffering but again used as a prophecy of the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

The Fulfilment? 

John 20:25

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them,
Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

Prophecy? Nonsense!

PROPHECY THAT HIS BONES SHALL NOT BE BROKEN

The Prophecies:

Exodus 12:43-47

And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: But every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

Psalm 34:18-22

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous
:
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken
. Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

The Fulfilment?

John 19:31-37

The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

As you can see, there is nothing to link the claimed to be prophesies to Jesus, apart from saying that no bone shall be broken.  The verses in Exodus refer to food, meat and that the bones should not be broken. The verses from one of David’s Psalms are about the righteous in general and not a prophecy concerning a future Messiah.

Prophecy? Nonsense!

PROPHECY OF HIS SILENCE WHEN SUFFERING

The Prophecy:

Isaiah 53:7

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

The Fulfilment? 

Matthew 27:12-14

And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?
And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.

Imagine you are a guru, prophet or holy man at the time of Jesus and you wished to convince everyone that you really were someone special, let’s say, the Son of God. You have studied the scriptures over and over for many years and you work out some parts which you could use. Then it is just a matter of acting out those things and claiming that you were in fact fulfilling the prophecies from the holy books. There is plenty of suitable material even for contemporary self-appointed religious zealots to use to justify their particular interpretation of the scriptures, as we have already noted by many cult leaders in the recent past.

Prophecy? Nonsense!

Not only were the so called prophesies of Jesus nonsense but there were also:

FALSE CLAIMS MADE BY JESUS

Luke 18:31-34

Then he took [unto him] the twelve, and said unto them,
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge [him], and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things
: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew the things which were spoken.

NO such claim/prophecy exists in Old Testament!

John 5:43-47

I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one after another, and seek not the honour that [cometh] from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is [one] that accuseth you,[even]
Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses; ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

Moses made no mention of Jesus anywhere in the Old Testament.

Matthew 2:19-23

But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel:  
  
for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: not withstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:
And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

There is no reference to Nazareth in the Old Testament as Nazareth did not exist during the writing of the Hebrew Scriptures - The Old Testament!

JESUS TOLD THE HIGH PRIEST THAT HE WOULD SEE HIM COMING IN THE CLOUDS

Matthew 26:62-65

And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? What [is it which] these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.
Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you
,
Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power
,
and coming in the clouds of heaven
. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold ye have heard his blasphemy.

Mark 14:60-63

And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what [is it which] these witness against thee?
But he held his peace, and answered nothing
.
Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed
?
And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven
.
Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses
?

In answering the High Priest, Jesus claimed that he, Jesus would be seen sitting on the right hand of God and coming in the clouds of heaven!

It never happened!

More Bible nonsense!

 
BIBLE NONSENSE NUMBER 6

The creation story is obviously an invented story or myth or legend originated by human beings rather than a divinely inspired explanation of actual events. The Bible begins with the Book of Genesis which contains the story of the creation of the sun, moon, stars, the earth, human beings and every type of animal on the earth, under the earth or above the earth.

We are expected to seriously believe that ‘God’ did all this in a period of six days and then he rested on the seventh day! Bible scholars, pastors and teachers generally agree and believe that this all happened just 6,000
*23
 or so years ago. Some, when challenged, have suggested that when the Bible quotes ‘days’ - it may mean ‘years’ or hundreds or even thousands of years. This is because of a Bible verse which we have already noted in chapter one: 

2 Peter 3:8   

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 

This of course is nonsense and Jesus confirmed that a ‘day’ - (or daylight) is twelve hours. (John 11:9). In view of scientific and geological evidence it seems that it would be impossible for anyone to now believe that the world is only 6,000 years old. Unfortunately, there are millions of Bible believing Christians who accept Bible dating as absolute fact above any other source. I call that belief or attitude ‘Bible blindness to reality!’ They are of course, the same people who fervently believe the entire creation story and consider that evolution is a lie.

The enlightenment of evolution began as an explanation for the development of species by drawing logical conclusions from observable evidence. Darwin’s conclusions have not only stood the test of time but are continually being reinforced by modern scientific technology and findings that were not available in Darwin’s day. Evolution is a process proved beyond doubt. It is totally incorrect to persist in labelling it a theory in the sense of it being an idea based on unproven conjecture. This is emphatically not the meaning of ‘theory’ in its scientific application.

All notions of religion in its various forms were invented in the minds of primitive mankind. During the following thousands of years, thoughts on the origin and formation or creation of the earth, the universe, mankind and all life matters were expanded. As human intellect developed, thoughts began to extend beyond the needs of mere survival. Death obviously was a known, but unpleasant fact. The question was how to deal with it? The concept of death being final was not, and still is not, easy to digest. How much better it would be to think about another life ahead, after death. Thoughts of reincarnation or of a future life in another world were born. Heaven, paradise, nirvana or such, were pleasant thoughts and eagerly accepted as viable alternatives to the end of life at the point of death on earth. Once again, imaginations, dreams and fantasies would abound. Inventive stories would be told to comfort children and the elderly. 

So exactly what does the Bible say about the creation of the world? I will not add the entire first chapter of Genesis, but here is a summary of the content which is believed entirely by fundamentalist Christians.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS!

DAY 1:

God created Heaven and earth - which was without form or light. God said ‘let there be light, and there was light’ - he then divided the light which he called ‘day’ from the darkness which he called ‘night’

DAY 2:

He made the sky and waters under the sky and he made waters above the sky which he called heaven.

DAY 3:

God spoke ‘let there be’ waters under heaven in one place and lands to appear. He called the dry land ‘earth’ and the waters gathered together he called seas. God said let the earth bring forth grass and herbs yielding seed and various fruit trees.

DAY 4:

God spoke into being lights in the sky to divide day and night and to be signs for seasons and for days and nights and to give light on the earth. And he made the sun and moon and the stars and set them in the sky.

DAY 5:

God spoke into being the fish and all creatures of the sea in abundance and the birds in the air. He blessed them saying ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.’ 

DAY 6:

God spoke into being every living creature. Finally he made man and woman ‘in his own image’ and he told them that he had given him everything to sustain life, herbs, cattle, fish, fowls of the air and every living creature. He blessed them and told them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

DAY 7:

God’s day off! He needed to rest from all his work! Well that’s what the Bible says!  Would God get tired?
  

There it is! - God created the sun, moon and stars and the earth which he then changed into a virtual paradise with everything anyone would ever want, so then he made human beings - male and female. The Bible says he was pleased with his work on each day of his creation.

This is all in Genesis Chapters one and two. In Chapter two there is an explanation about the growth of the plants and trees. As there had been no rain, there was therefore no growth and also no one to farm the land. There was, however, a strange ‘mist’ from the land which covered and watered the whole face of the earth during this time. It must have been this which prompted God to create human beings to work on the land - He needed gardeners! So he ‘formed’ man from the dust of the earth and then he breathed
the breath of life
into the nostrils of the man and he became a living being.

God then made a garden in the land he called Eden and the Bible says:
He took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
(Genesis 2:15) God had already planted every kind of tree including, as we noted in Chapter 3, the special 
Tree of knowledge of good and evil.
 The garden also had a river running through it which then divided into four rivers.

So far this all sounds very good, we can imagine that God was making something to keep him occupied and which would also amuse him. It all reminds me of my childhood when I had a toy farmyard set with all kinds of animals and trees and models of a farmer and his wife. Unfortunately, God’s thoughts and motives were not as innocent as mine as a child. God began to reveal his character almost immediately after he made the first human beings to inhabit the earth.

It all began here in the Garden of Eden when God told the man he could eat from any of the trees except that tree of the knowledge of good and evil - and gave the warning that if he did eat of that fruit he would die! Then God decided to make a mate for the man, and this is when the man is suddenly named in the Bible as Adam. The writer of Genesis obviously though it would be a good idea not only to name the man but also that it would be a good way to explain how the animals were all named if God gave Adam that task. So the story continues with God bringing all the animals to Adam for him to name! There is no mention in Genesis how long it would take to name a few million species. Possible God only created so many and the rest simply ‘evolved’ - no, that wouldn’t fit in with the creation story would it?

After Adam had named every living creature including bugs etc, God caused a ‘deep sleep’ to fall on Adam so that he could remove one of his ribs! God completed the surgery and closed up Adam’s flesh. Then God made a woman from the rib! Simple - then God presented the woman to Adam. Adam’s reaction was not ‘wow!’ as we might expect but in fact he made a very clinical statement by saying
this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh
 - I question here whether Adam would even know that his body contained ‘bones’ - when he didn’t even know that he was naked, so the Bible says.

This drama is of course all nonsense, and is sheer imagination from ancient human minds to explain the creation of the world, the sun, moon and stars, human beings and the world as they perceived it all.

Adam and Eve, according to the Bible, were the only created human beings at the time and they produced two sons, Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-2) so there were then four human beings on earth. Now this is where it gets really interesting! How do they populate the world?  Easy, and only possible answer!  Cain and Abel have sex with their mother as she was the only women available. Presumably, Eve gives birth to at least two daughters and maybe more sons. Then there could only be further incest and sexual intercourse between brothers and sisters an so on in order to produce new generations of human beings.

The creation story as recorded in the Bible is by no means unique; almost all known civilisations had similar creation stories, most of which, pre-dated the Bible version by thousands of years. Bible believing Christians who are willing to accept the Genesis story also believe that the world is less than 10,000 years old. This is proved beyond any doubt to be to be false, in fact it is complete nonsense!

There are many ‘creation’ myths recorded in ancient religious beliefs including those of Egypt, China, Japan, India, Roman, Greek, Aztec and others. There are numerous Gods and deities and religious rites and traditions which existed or still exist in all parts of the world.  All have their origin in the human minds of the world’s earliest inhabitants and were passed on as stories from generation to generation.

International academies of science accept that, from evidence based on facts derived from observations and experiments in multiple scientific disciplines, the universe has existed for around 13 billion years and that the earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago with life first appearing at least 2.5 billion years ago      

The Bible creation story which is claimed to have been written by the Prophet Moses
*24 
continues with the explanation how sin, suffering and death came into the world. It was all a woman’s fault! According to God that is, as he blamed her!

As I remarked previously, God revealed his character and his motives here at the beginning of the Bible in the Book of Genesis. God had provided everything for a perfect and everlasting life for Adam and Eve but he had also set up and set in motion a test which would have disastrous consequences for humankind.

The Bible has many references to ‘the love of God’ even claiming that God
is
Love! Perfect unconditional love, it is NOT! We are to believe that this God created the universe and everything in it. It is claimed that he is all powerful (omnipotent), he knows everything (omniscient) and he is everywhere (omnipresent) all at the same time. Here we have to question his so called intelligence as he created the perfect world and then made it possible for that to be replaced by so-called sin and sickness and death for every human being from that moment.

God had, for reasons only known to him, also at some time during his creation created an angel named Lucifer, the most beautiful of all the angels. But at some time this angel rebelled with a third of all the angels against God. What would an intelligent all powerful God do in this situation? What would you or I do if we were God? Simple answer just zap the whole bunch - end of rebellion - end of story! Sadly, this God has less intelligence than us - he decided to cast this Lucifer,
*25
 now called the devil, down to the earth where he could walk about and do all kinds of evil as he desired.

Now the devil had seen God’s created human beings Adam and Eve and heard the condition which God had given them in order to live forever in the paradise called Eden. He appeared in the garden, remember, as a talking snake! He then spoke to Eve and tempted her to eat the fruit from that tree of knowledge. This she did, and then shared the fruit with Adam. At that moment God was immediately on the scene and saw that they had discovered they were naked and had covered their genitals with aprons of fig leaves. He asked them how they knew they were naked and had they eaten the fruit of the tree which he had forbidden them to eat?

The entire episode is nonsense:

1. God did not need to allow the devil even to exist. As God is supposed to be omniscient, He would have foreseen what would happen and could have prevented it. He didn’t, according to the Bible.

2. God then reveals his nasty dark side, having offered these so called first created human beings everything; He then allowed the treacherous devil not only to exist, but to tempt Adam and Eve - two innocent beings who did not even know they were naked.

In Chapter Three - Family Values and the Bible - we looked the verses in Genesis which refer to God’s retribution against all involved in this event - the serpent, Eve and Adam. Women were to suffer pain in childbirth and a woman is to obey her husband and he is to rule over her. This was the sentence for all future human beings based on the innocent mistakes of Adam and Eve. Is this truly a demonstration of God’s Love for human beings or a revelation of schizophrenic and devious mind?

According to this Bible verse God created EVIL!

Isaiah 45:6-7  

 
That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
 
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these 
things. 

Fortunately, it really is all nonsense as there is no evidence, apart from the Bible, for the existence of God, angels, the devil, demons, heaven, hell or an afterlife!