I have read through the Bible many times. I have memorized many verses and passages. Bible Memory Association gave me fun rewards for every increasingly difficult verse I memorized. I loved a good challenge with rewards! Pioneer Girls gave me badges. I won Sword Drills. Into adulthood I continued to memorize, including most of the book of 1 John just because I wanted to. To learn more about the Bible I went for a two year diploma at a Bible School, I attended courses at a Bible College, got an MDiv at a Seminary and attended or lead many, many Bible studies. Why did I do this? I loved God and I loved the Bible.
Even as I read, memorized, and studied the Bible, I knew there were many troubling Bible verses and passages. I chose to ignore them or to learned to explain them away. I knew that some were ‘beyond my understanding’ and was ok with that. My view of the Bible has become an understanding of it as a group of books written by men to explain their view of who they thought God was and what they thought he saying and doing through history and their lives. They were putting together their understanding of the world, evil, suffering and how God and Jesus are saving a select view of those who believed the right things. A different group of men put together the books, called a canon, which lined up with these beliefs. As the books were copied and recopied, the message was controlled so believers could share the beliefs. This is my simple explanation of how the 66 books came to be what is known as the Bible.
I have read many books about the Bible and a few that I recommend considering are
Rob Bell What is the Bible? How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything
Peter Enns How the Bible Actually Works In Which I Explain how an Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers - and Why That’s Great News.
Bart D. Ehrman Misquoting Jesus: the Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
Today I want to look at some troubling Bible verses. This sacred book contains many Bible verses, the good, the bad, the ugly. Why write about this? In order to look at verses and see how my perspective changes things. Verses I used to love I now see cause harm. The way I read, explained or ignored verses when I was a Christian is different then post Christianity. Perspective changes everything. (All verses are NIV unless indicated otherwise.)
The Good Verses
The Bible contains many verses that are wise and stories that are interesting which teach of good lessons. There are beautiful passages and interesting people. For Ex-Christians who have been hurt and traumatized by misuse and abusive use of Bible verses, it is hard to see that there are good verses. If that is you, that is ok. You don’t need worry about that. There may come a day you want to deal with anger toward this book or you may always hate the book as a representative of the evil done to you. Either is ok.
I had many favourite verses. Here are a few…
Zeph 3:17 “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
The sentiment is beautiful, though now when I look it, I wonder why he was rebuking me. I also know there is a context here that I never looked at, I just longed for this delight and rejoicing.
Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
The chapter is full of promises of God being attentive, hearing the righteous and delivering them from all their troubles, even “protecting all his bones, not ones of them will be broken.” The promises are amazing, but I seen Christians with many troubles, broken bones, diseases, accidents, rapes and more, where is this protection? I did feel myself to be one of the blessed chosen ones, unlike most of the people of the world. I know longer believe that.
Hab. 3:17-19 “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
Here is where the cognitive dissonance sits with me. The righteous man (male word used here to show how frequently I needed to hope it meant women too) is to be protected from all trouble, yet here is plenty of trouble. What must the righteous do, believe the promises of protection, and when they don’t come, rejoice and be joyful in the one who promised but didn’t deliver.
2 Tim 1:7 “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
Since leaving Christianity, things haven’t changed. When I was a Christian, I struggled with timidity. I still do. When I was a Christian, I had times of power, love and self-discipline and lots of times without. The same is still true. I can develop these with learning, practice and have lots within myself that is good and helpful.
There is good. 1 Cor 13, the love chapter is beautiful. The Beatitudes contain wisdom as does much of Jesus teaching. There is also much good in all the sacred writings of the world.
The Bad Verses
By bad, what I mean is verses that have damaged people and been used to hurt others.
Verses Undermining Personal Responsibilities and Abilities:
Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
Jer. 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it.” Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
These verses, along with the doctrine of original sin and other verses, have shown us that we ourselves are worthless and sinful. We can’t trust our own inclinations or our own mind. It is a way religion uses verses and teaching to control people. You believe what is told you and don’t trust yourself or your mind when you doubt.
Jer 19:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
This verse has caused people to have unrealistic expectations of God. It has been taken out of context. That doesn’t stop the harm that it has done.
Verses Breeding Hatred and Intolerance
John 14:6 “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
This verse has caused Christians to believe the only way to heaven is believing in Jesus. Therefore anyone who believes differently is wrong and going to hell. This has caused arrogance, hatred and fear. The exclusivity of believing in a chosen people and judging others for their sins has caused violence and wars.
Ephesians 5:22-24 “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
This verse has been used to abuse women physically, sexually, emotionally and spiritually. It also is used to keep women from being all they can be in their marriage.
I Cor. 14:34 “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”
This verse has stripped countless women from being all they can be and has furthered misogyny.
The Ugly Verses
These verses are self explanatory containing horrow and evil, apparently ordered and approved of by God.
Jer 19:9 "I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.”
Deut 20:13, 14 ”When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies.
Psalm 137:9 "Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.”
1 Samuel 6:19 NASB “He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD . He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter”
Other translations say 70 men, including the NIV. There are disagreements about which it was. Why did God have to kill anyone who looked into the ark?
Acts 5:1-11 is the New Testament story of Ananias and Sapphira who kept back some money and didn’t give it to God and lied about it. Both died for this sin of lying. Seems like God is still killing in the NT.
Zech 14:2, 3 NASB “For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be taken, the houses plundered, the women raped, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be eliminated from the city.”
Judges 19 Graphic and tragic story of a concubine who was raped, murdered and her body mutilated. The stories of Tamar and Bathsheba as well as others also talk of rape.
2 Kings 2:22-23 “From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys."
Disturbing Verses about God
Is 45:7 KJV “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”
Prov 16:4 NASB “The Lord has made everything for its own purpose. Even the wicked for the day of evil.” Note that the verse before this, Pr 16:3 is well loved. “Commit your works to the Lord,And your plans will be established.”
Exodus 9:12 “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.” Why would God stop Pharaoh from doing the right thing?
These are just a few of the good, the bad and the ugly verses in the Bible. There are more. The way I read these verses post-Christianity and the way I tried to explain them away when I was a Christian is not the same. Perspective changes everything. It can blind us to truth. I don’t want to be blinded to the good and beautiful, and I don’t want to be blind to the inconsistencies and the damage that toxic teachings of the Bible causes. I wish that for Christians as well, that they see not only the good, but also the bad and ugly and work through what it means.
Val Martens - Validheart.ca
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