Is Reading The Bible Dangerous?

I’m fairly sure Jesus didn’t talk about getting into heaven in terms of getting the right exam marks, ticking the right boxes, or getting your percentage high enough. He talked about love and grace instead - and subverted the system of the law rather than to try and create a whole new hierarchy. So I’m quite sure that trying to use percentages and grades to inform your reflection isn’t especially helpful.

Having said that, I understand where you are coming from - why choose an opinion of my own when I have other more learned, wiser men who can choose one for me? Perhaps because one of God’s principle creations was free will - the ability to think for ourselves and to develop our own viewpoints. What if by exploring faith and belief for ourselves, by ensuring our faith is reasoned out and sits well with us - even if it doesn’t sit the same way with others - what if by doing these things we are actually truly living life to the full (as Jesus puts it in John 10:10) - living the way the maker intended us to live. To choose him - not because it’s forced on us by others, but because it’s what we’ve chosen.

Just a thought. Anyway, I would encourage you to keep going, keep searching, and keep your focus on God as you try to broaden your understanding of him :-).

I’m not sure if reading the Bible is dangerous, but I do think that bringing the word to flesh or putting the word into action can be dangerous, especially for religious and political elite that rationalize, wrangle and manage God.

But how much should we rely on our own interpretation compared to that of someone else’s?

I’m not Catholic and I find their worship customs and some of their beliefs to be a bit unusual, but their belief that the Church is at least equal to scripture and that private interpretation should ultimately be subordinate to the church, has a ring of truth to it. I must say, it has a very strong ring to it. I don’t think this means you should simply divorce yourself of any reasoning over the scripture. Simply understanding the Church’s interpretation requires a lot of thought.

Also, I can definitely see people using this type of hierarchy as a crutch and as a way to rationalize their lack of passion for studying the Word (and showing themselves approved). “Hey, why should I wrack my brain over all this stuff and risk getting it wrong when the guys at the Church already got it all figured out?” Of course, someone that has an attitude like this should question the sincerity of his relationship with God.

Not to demean something Holy, but we do recognize divisions of labor in society. Certain men are compensated by working in a plant 50 or 60 hrs a week while others may have that many hrs to devote to contemplation. If you heap onto this time ‘advantage’ an intellectual advantage as well, you can see the logic of authoritarian interpretation. Of course, determining truth is not as formulaic as my statement implies. What’s in the heart is the great variable.

There’s obviously SOME room for authority in interpretation. If I tried to interpret the actual, original manuscript and had NO ONE else to rely on for guidance or enlightenment of any sort (including oral assistance), I would venture to say that I would have never known of a Jesus or a God of Abraham.

So, where do we draw the line between or around authority and private interpretation? Is this question also up for interpretation? I’m VERY interested in the Catholic Church and will look into their comments as well.

What’s so weird about all this is how strong my anti-authoritarian bent is. I’m very sympathetic toward the ideas of Anarchism, Libertarianism, Austrian Economics, etc. But I also feel that reason is only useful w/i the realm of an absolute, one that can be invented or appealed to, e.g., presuppositions, axioms, premises, world views, etc. If you’re solely dependent upon reason you run into all sorts of contradictions and paradoxes. Some mysterious mechanism has to first place reason within proper constructs that will enable one to reap the benefits of reason’s power, a sort of super-reason.

A seemingly great source of enlightenment for me is Christian apologetics. I know it’s highly questionable whether one can ‘prove’ God’s existence rationally (though it proves it to me), but the mere endeavour helps me define or clarify my most basic thoughts and helps me to see that the most simplistic assumptions can be the deepest. It’s like the more you strive for simplicity the more you discover complexity.