The Bible Beyond the Words: A New Perspective on the Bible and Christian Beliefs

By Fred Snider

The Bible Beyond the Words reveals hidden mysteries within the biblical narrative by going beyond the writers words to the deeper meanings of which Christ himself is the author. These revelations include a heretofore unknown mystery in the great flood that changed the course of human life beyond the obvious and a very important but little-known mystery of Christs experience on the cross that points toward a very different heaven than most of us expect. It also removes the ambiguities that surround Gods Old Testament versus New Testament encounters with his people. And finally it definitively answers the question Why do bad things happen to good people?

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Oct 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781489713810

Fred Snider

A gifted writer, Fred Snider traded a career in the business world for a retirement/writing career in 2002. Many years as a lay minister, including the better part of 18 years as a pastor and associate pastor, plus studies in Religion, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, English, and Creative Writing at Park University in Missouri and the University of Maryland makes him well qualified to write this book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 Fred Snider.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

LifeRich Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.liferichpublishing.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Scripture taken from the King James Version. (Public Domain)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-1380-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-1381-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017912402

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 10/18/2017

Also by Fred Snider: The Bonds of Antiquity: Making Christianity relevant to today

Parts of this book do not agree with the doctrine of the church where I worship. I am solely responsible for its content.

To my daughter Deanna whose help was invaluable in creating this book. And to my Sunday school class whose input helped to recreate it

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1 The Bible: Truth? Or Fiction?

2 The Words Versus the Word

3 Science: The Other Study of God

4 What Makes Sense About the Creation Story

5 Why Does the Bible Say God Created Everything in Six Days?

6 The Making of Man

7 Making Sense of an Evolving Adam

8 More Talk About Doctrine and Truth

9 Avoiding the Maze

10 The Truth About Life and Death

11 Life After Life: God’s Answer to the Perceived Unfairness of Life

12 Multiple Lives: More Evidence From the Bible and From Life

13 Where Do We Stand Today?

14 The Truth About Temporal Hell

15 The Apocalypse and Eternal Judgment

16 The Truth About the Eternal Hell

17 The Benign Fire

18 The Truth About Heaven

19 God’s Kingdom Versus the Kingdom of Heaven

20 Jews, Gentiles, And God’s Plan of Salvation

21 Christians, Jews and (Israelians)

22 The Principle of Light and Darkness

23 How to Live in the Light

24 God’s Nature: Love Versus Retribution

25 The Real Jesus

26 How Can I Know Which Church Is the True Church of Jesus Christ?

27 Finding the True Church

28 About Angels

29 The Truth About Homosexuality

Appendix

End Notes

Preface

This book is an appendage of sorts to a book¹i I published in 2004 on the same general subject; that is: the relevance of Christianity in the modern world. However, because this work covers a much wider and deeper scope, and since I am no longer fond of the title of the earlier book, I chose to write this one as an entirely new work. While I have revised and repeated some of the information found in the first work, my insights have grown far ahead of what they were then. So this book will not cheat those who read the previous one. This new effort represents my continued learning in doctrine and my growth in Christ in the years since.

This is not a scholarly volume. It comes partly out of fifty plus years of reading books and articles about the gospel of Christ; preaching and hearing it preached from the pulpit and explained in seminars and classes; reading books and articles on science; and reading and rereading the scriptures; all while praying for the ability to discern what is true. But much of it has also come from the inspiration of the still small voice revealed in I Kings 19 that comes to me often, as it does to all Christians who are seeking a closer walk with God, in spiritually felt witness; and sometimes to my mind in real, though unspoken, words. My arguments are not founded on orthodoxy or tradition, but on the conclusions I have arrived at—and been led to—through the above circumstances.

Please keep in mind as you read, that the theme of this book is simply, what makes sense. Like all things that come to the table of religious thought through the filter of humanity, it is surely imperfect. I do not offer it as full and final truth. But it is significantly ahead of the pitiable—even poisonous—religious diet that Christians have been fed consistently over the past 1500 years or more. Hopefully it will stir some higher thought about why Christian influence has so greatly waned as knowledge has increased in the world; and end Christians’ inclination toward blaming the world for our own failure to draw people to Jesus Christ.

The scripture references¹ should be read as you come to them. They are not there just to lend authority to my words, although that is one of my purposes in using them. More importantly they are there to clarify what may otherwise be hard to accept when measured against the reader’s present comprehension of the gospel. That is why I have included most of them in the narrative rather than as footnotes. Study those scriptures well before you reject the assertions found here. They are indispensable if one is to understand the truth of this text.

It is equally important to know the whole before you judge the parts. To fully understand what this book is about, you must read it in sequence. Each chapter, page and paragraph is a prequel to what comes next. Jumping ahead to parts that at the moment may seem to be more meaty or interesting will only lead to confusion.

One final recommendation: Above all, as you read, ask God’s blessing in witness of truth and/or the ability to discern error, and let the Bible speak directly to you—not through me, not through your pastor, and not through the many voices of dissent against God’s existence.

Introduction

There are two great fallacies that hinder today’s Christians in their efforts to rationally proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of them has been with us almost from the beginning of humankind. I do not know just when the other one was introduced, but it has been around for a long while.

Fallacy number one: Adam brought on physical death by eating the forbidden fruit.

Satan first twisted man’s future out of kilter in the Garden of Eden by telling Eve and, by extension, Adam the first and biggest lie of all time; which was that by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil man would not die but would, in fact, become Godlike. The second part of his story was actually true. By that first act of disobedience, all mankind, instead of being forever innocent through blissful ignorance, would have the opportunity, by knowing sin and running up against temptation, to develop strong spiritual character. Thereby, as we grew in Christ-like stature, we would become like him.

If you think about it, that biggest of all liars only applied what many politicians and business people today refer to as spin to the truth. His purpose in this ruse was twofold. First, it was to establish in our minds that our physical demise—which Jesus would later refer to as the temporary condition called sleep—was the death that God meant when he told them they would surely die. His second purpose was to make us believe that physical existence is the only life there is and thereby make it more tempting to live in the most self-indulgent way possible.

Obviously, it was a remarkable success. Much of humankind accepts the premise still today that we die physically because of Adam’s sin. They believe that this death is final. But knowledgeable Christians know that there is also a spiritual death; and it was to this death that God was referring when he spoke those words to Adam.

We do not inherit life by being born on this earth; we inherit death. We are born alive. But each of us becomes a partaker of that well-known tree of death known as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil when we first sin. From that moment on we are as the walking dead until we re-enter spiritual life by being born again. The first purpose of our mortal life is to reach toward that spiritual rebirth. In that quest both the possibility and the process of salvation reside.

But our reaching must be guided by the freedom and ability to reason intelligently. Such freedom was assured in the beginning on the condition that men would retain a close relationship with God. But they soon traded it for a fleeting moment of self-indulgent pleasure and thus were separated from God. To regain that intelligence, Adam and Eve had to re-establish their relationship with God. Everyone born into this life thereafter has been exposed to sin. And we are, therefore, required to follow that same process.

Fallacy number two: We are saved by grace alone. Works are not involved.

Grace is the most important instrument of our salvation. But, however much importance we give to it, it is not the only instrument. Salvation is by grace in that it is impossible for us to merit. Without it there would be no hope. But grace only provides a way for us to gain access to the kingdom of heaven. We still must make the effort to get there.

A convenient way to understand this process is to picture it as a stairway that leads upward from an ignoble worldly life to ever increasing heights of glory in heaven. Spiritual rebirth sets our feet on the first landing. When we step up, we begin a process of ascension to our reward. It is by our works that we build the spiritual strength to ascend to whatever level of heavenly reward we hope to receive. However, as we ascend we are still functioning under grace. Although these rewards are gifts that God freely gives, and all the works we can possibly do are not sufficient to earn what awaits us; we still must put forth the effort to climb to where they are and receive them. Once we enter the door to salvation by yielding our lives to Christ, we are free to remain at the bottom of the stairs if we so choose. That will gain us eternal life—but our rewards will be minimal at best. It is through ascending that stairway that we earn treasures in heaven. It is not an escalator. We must ascend on our own volition through spiritual growth.

In many religious circles, grace has been overemphasized to the extent that works have largely been reduced to insignificance. However, how far we ascend that stairway will determine the extent of our reward. That climb, through reaching, learning, growing, and practicing, is what being a Christian is all about. What follows in this book is spiritual, biblical, and scientific information that will hopefully stir the reader to become fully engaged in that process.

All that stands between us and a place by the throne of God is the extent of our willingness to diligently pursue the full knowledge of truth and the ultimate reward of that pursuit—which is absolute bliss, power, and glory in the presence of God. If we pursue a relationship with God with full intent, we will find the way open and well marked. But, let us remember: by grace we are saved—not by works; by our works we are judged—not by grace; by grace we are forgiven—not rewarded for works not accomplished.

1

The Bible: Truth? Or Fiction?

For many years there has been a rising din of doubt about the truth of the Bible and, consequently, the relevance of Christianity in today’s cultured society. For nearly two millennia Christians have been led to believe that the Bible is a factual account of God’s dealings with humankind. But as more and more people have been exposed to higher education, secularist teachers have taught successive generations that this mainstay of Christian belief does not reflect reality. Simply put, their reasoning is that most of what the Bible teaches is rooted in myths that were invented by primitive people to explain their origins and assuage their fears of both life and death.

Those teachers might be right—except for one confounding assumption. That is the assumption that people made up these stories out of thin air. In truth, they are factually based metaphors, some of which God fashioned (for example, the creation story) and some of which were formed by primitive humans in their attempts to describe visions and insights that God granted them.

These were people who, by and large, had only the rudimentary knowledge that fell within the sphere of their, so far, limited experience to draw from. Therefore, the full truth of these so-called myths was beyond their educational capacity to fully understand, and their linguistic ability to accurately describe. The account of creation, for instance, was built around things they could see: land, water, plants, dirt, the sky, the stars, moon, and sun. Visions of such things as innumerable galaxies and an endless and still expanding universe that began with a gigantic explosion of energy into matter would have meant nothing to them. It is hardly comprehensible to most of us today.

However, the secularists are not the only culprits in this confounding of the record. Many religious purveyors of God’s word, in their passionate opposition to science, have also done mischief to the truth by tightly closing their minds to the possibility that God did not dictate every truth—or, according to some, every word—of the Bible verbatim. Both sides, however, base their arguments on scant knowledge of what the Bible actually says.

The fallout from these discordant viewpoints is that we believe and yet do not believe in the Bible. On one level, we believe in the basic doctrines gleaned from it because we have been steeped in our religious culture. We are willing to accept the words we read in the scriptures and hear from the pulpit at face value. On another level, we doubt, because scientific discoveries have made the case that those words cannot all be true.

The internal conflict created by this doctrinal dissonance leads to such uncertainty that many give up on the scriptural record that we are asked to accept on faith in favor of the more obvious case that is presented by observable truth. But, in this world, both scientific and biblical truth, like an iceberg in the sea, is only partially visible. To see the rest, one must dive into the unseen depths.

Why Does the Bible Not Reveal the Whole Truth?

When God first spoke or inspired his prophetic servants to speak to humankind, his message was for all generations. But because earlier generations did not have the educational capacity and linguistic skills that later generations would develop, he conveyed these truths in metaphors and similes;² stories that would reveal truth that, while not to the letter, can be fundamentally understood through their telling. The depth of the truth so revealed would always be dependent on the intellectual capacity of the hearer or reader.

One might think that the creator of humankind would have endowed them with knowledge for their own sakes. But that was not compatible with his purpose for them. Just a moderate amount of scripture reading will lead one to the discovery that the Creator God designed humans to be intellectually and spiritually growing entities. We were meant to contribute to our own salvation and post-mortal quality of life through our individual and collective efforts—in this case, learning. These stories would be adequate to teach the basics of a particular thought or subject to those who were not sufficiently learned to grasp the full meaning of it. Yet, on more enlightened examination by future generations, they would reveal the fuller