The God You Thought You Knew

By Etta Anderson

Many people tend to read the Bible at the surface level and accept and obey what is there unquestioningly. This book takes an entirely different approach. It encourages readers to be honest and bold to acknowledge seeming shortcomings and question them. Who is bold enough to admit that the Genesis account of our origin is a weird story too difficult for an intelligent mind to accept and embrace? Even worse is the story of the Fall that sounds more like myth than fact. Why couldnt God forgive a mere peccadillo and let the couple continue living in paradise?

The book is not a call to rebellion or irreverence. It appeals to intelligence, maturity and imagination to read between the lines, dig deep, connect the dots and uncover the rich treasures hidden there. It even veers into hallowed grounds and dares to question piously held views. How did Jesus, for example, end up with Judas in his camp of hand-picked disciples? What was he thinking? What a price he paid for what was clearly a bad choice!

The book forges into areas where readers have been mum, bringing to the fore violence and brutality, and questions how they could be associated with God the Father of his gentle Son, Jesus. But the pauses are mere signposts of something rich hiding underneath.

The God You Thought You Knew is a compendium of rich treasures gathered from a trip across the Scriptures that will generate a new excitement for Gods holy word.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512749397

Etta Anderson

Etta Anderson carries an excitement for Bible reading that is contagious. She is an educator by training, with a Ph.D. in the field and she brings the discipline from that field into her own private reading and groups that she leads. Her style empowers participants to dig into the Scriptures for themselves and uncover the treasures that are hidden there. She is not afraid to question traditional and familiar positions on some selections that are difficult to understand or fit into what we would like to believe. She separates narrow and pre-mature views from the bigger picture of God’s original purpose. Anderson is not an ideologue. Her writing is convincing but readers are left to draw their own conclusion.

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Copyright © 2016 Etta Anderson.

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.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ All rights reserved.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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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.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-4940-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4941-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4939-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016911199

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/19/2016

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

1 The Beginning

2 Our World

3 God’s Friend (Genesis 12–25)

4 The Onion Man (Genesis 25–37)

5 The Dreamer (Genesis 37–50)

6 A Would-Be Liberator (Exodus 1–14)

7 Chaos, Confusion, Conflicts

8 The Smell of a Rose (Ruth 1–4)

9 Tough under Tension (Esther 1–10)

10 Mountain Climbing

11 Coping with Love Hosea 1–3

12 Mad at God Jonah 1–4

13 Wait and See

14 Plan and Implementation

15 Words and Deeds

16 Jesus and the Development of His Disciples

17 The Death of Jesus

18 Two Possible Impactors

19 Afterwards

20 Growing Pains

21 What Next?

Acknowledgements

About the Author

PREFACE

People have accomplished great things beyond their wildest imaginations. They were inspired by compelling urges, or they seized opportunities to fulfill long-held dreams, or they were moved by circumstances that tore at their hearts. Some would say that God called them directly and gave them visions. This work, however, is of humble birth.

I found myself in circumstances that I considered not only painful but also long lived; time moved on, but there were no changes. In my prayers I complained, but I admitted that through them I had learned a lot about God, about myself, and about the world. At the same time, I asked, But what is the good of learning if it is all for myself? I thought about past opportunities when I’d shared scripture study with others, recent invitations that had been politely turned down, and openings that I’d sought but found closed.

The Lord’s response to my complaints was surprisingly plain and simple: "If you can’t find people to share it with, put it on paper. Write it! I was shocked. Write?" I asked. I couldn’t see myself even putting my thoughts together, let alone organizing them around a theme and finding enough subject matter for a manuscript. Impossible! I thought, That could never happen, at least not now. Maybe sometime in the distant future, when I don’t have anything else to do, I will give it some thought. The Lord’s response was soft and gentle. Just write what you have learned. That’s all.

I thought about the most recent thing I had learned, and it became the first chapter of this work. I had read the Genesis story of creation over and over when I was a child in elementary school. I knew the story well and never questioned it. It was biblical truth and meant to be accepted. The thought of questioning the Bible was not only remote; it was also nonexistent. In a recent reading, however, I was perplexed by what I thought was a woefully simplistic and discombobulated account. As I meditated on it, I asked myself, Does God really expect me or anybody else to believe it? What is there to believe anyhow? Why is this account in the Bible, and what am I supposed to do with it? What purpose does it serve? I did not think I would gain or lose anything if I quietly shoved the account aside and continued with my reading in Genesis.

Some things I had learned in my field of education came back to my mind. They were about content area reading and how to get all we can out of a reading selection. I had practiced and taught them, but now they had come home to me in a new way. The elementary level of understanding is where we gather the basic facts without questioning. At the next level, we try to interpret what the writer is saying, look for things that are hidden between the lines or implied, and connect the dots. Finally, we ask ourselves what it all means, especially to us as individual readers. When I applied this principle to my reading in Genesis, I was amazed at what was unearthed. Things were hidden between the lines just waiting for a mature mind to dig around and find them. What I discovered changed my entire vision of God—a God who is awesome in goodness, boundless in power and might, and firm yet tender, gentle, loving, and patient. I found that this God remained consistent across the scriptures from beginning to end. This God is identical to the God that we meet in Jesus Christ. How fortunate we are as human beings to have the privilege of knowing him and sharing our lives with him! It is the highest honor that any human being can have.

In this work, all I have done is share what I have learned. I hope it will enrich your life as it did mine.

INTRODUCTION

In the literary world, the Bible emerges year after year atop the best-seller list, yet biblical literacy compares very poorly with the popularity of the Bible. One reason may be a perception that the Bible is about God. God is a mysterious, invisible, and distant Being that has nothing to do with the activities and concerns of ordinary human beings on this small planet, so involvement with writings about such a Being had best be left to the professional clergy who themselves carry an air of mystery. So people content themselves with a weekly one-hour visit to a place of worship, listen to a brief reading, accept whatever the clergy person teaches, go back to their regular lives, and return the following week. There is a perception of mystery around the Bible as if ordinary people are not equipped to read and understand it for themselves, and so people deny themselves the thrill and adventure of delving into this marvelous book, exploring its contents, discovering its riches, applying them to every aspect of their daily lives, and, greater still, encountering the God who is there.

The Bible is not as mysterious as is commonly believed. It is written in simple language for people with ordinary literary skills; its reading level is elementary, at about the fifth or sixth grade. It is true that the King James Version is somewhat awkward to read, and there are parts whose contents are foreign to our culture and experience, but we cannot condemn the entire book because of some of its parts. There are scores of other translations and paraphrases that make reading less challenging. Furthermore, the marketplace is loaded with supplementary help. There are Bible dictionaries, concordances, cross references, background history books, works from archeology and anthropology—enough to help a mature individual make a go at reading the Bible. It is inconceivable that people unravel and understand the complex language of knotty contracts, manuals of instruction for complex equipment, and information even in other than their first language, and yet they shy away from the Bible as too difficult and mysterious. Why not bring to the Bible the same level of intelligence and sense of purpose with which we approach other kinds of literature? What a difference it would make!

Let us assume we gear up to read the Bible. How does a mature reader read? We should come to the Bible with open minds, stripped of all preconceived ideas that made us shy away in the first place. We have been told with strong passion that the Bible is inerrant from Genesis to Revelation, that holy men wrote it as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that there is doom and gloom to those who modify or amend it in any way. So whatever is written therein should be accepted and obeyed without question. Human beings are equipped with intelligence, but we cannot exercise it and benefit from it if we approach the reading with predetermined restrictions. We should also drop notions that we have picked up about God, particularly the God of the Old Testament—a God of anger and vengeance who gave the nod to the slaughter and annihilation of peoples, the stoning of a man and his entire family because he stole some money and some clothes, and who so terrified people that they were afraid to come near the place designated as holy. We cannot let baseless fears keep us from discovering all the riches that the Bible contains.

We approach the Bible then with a mind that is clear, free, inquisitive, and uninhibited. The first thing we will want to do as we start reading is to gather information. We seek out the bits of information, facts, beliefs, advice, and the like, that the selection (verse, chapter, or book) conveys. Information gathering is a necessary but superficial level of mature Bible reading. People who stop at this level are the ones who strike fear in the hearts of would-be readers, for they credit the Bible for irrational things they do and hurtful ideas and prejudices they shelter. They do that because they can only quote and repeat what is written, but they try to argue, debate, or pontificate.

Information is to be used. Yogi Berra was quoted as saying, I didn’t really say all the things that I said. We can turn this statement around and apply it to the Bible. The Bible does say a lot of things that it doesn’t say. There is plenty of information that lies hidden in what is written, but as mature readers, we have to search, probe, question, dig, read between the lines, converse, connect the dots, and compare. We will be amazed at what is there. Let us look at an example.

When Jesus was on the cross, he said, Woman, behold thy son … behold thy mother (John 19:26–27 KJV). There is a wealth of information in that statement, enough to make a story by itself. The statement is an indication that Jesus was concerned about the well-being of his mother, which in itself suggests that he had been her support all along even in spite of his busy ministry and his living away from home. (She lived in Nazareth, and he had headquartered in Capernaum.) We learn from cross-referencing that there were adult siblings in the home, at least four males, whose names are mentioned in Mark, and at least two sisters (Mark 6:3 KJV). In spite of that many people in the home, Jesus did not feel comfortable leaving his mother to their care; now that he was leaving, he wanted to take her out of that family situation. This suggests that Jesus did not have a happy home life, and that is underscored also in John 7:3–5. The brothers jeered and mocked him. Jesus was a dutiful son. He wanted to make sure that before he departed, his mother would be in the best situation possible, so he entrusted her to the care of the disciple who was closest to him, John, the disciple known for love and compassion. His mother’s well-being was so important to him that even though he was in extreme pain and had only a matter of minutes left to live, he made sure to attend to this piece of business. It was not until it was done that he cried in triumph, It is finished.

All of this information is garnered just by asking questions and allowing our imaginations to take off. How can a man who is writhing in pain and near death be thinking about his mother when there are adult siblings who can take care of her? Conditions must have been bad at home that Jesus could not with a good conscience leave her in that situation. What was the home like? Were they short of money? Were they always contending, and if so, what were they arguing about? Did they believe that Jesus was the favorite son and thus undeserving? Was Mary subjected to nagging and accusations of favoritism and constantly had to defend herself? Were they disrespectful to her? Did Jesus foresee a situation for her of I told you so after his ignominious death?

Bible reading is more than a mental and intellectual exercise. We put together the information that we have gathered and draw conclusions and act. How do our attitudes toward our parents compare with Jesus’s? Are we dutiful enough? Is their well-being included in our plans? What are our homes like? Is there constant squabbling because of the perception or evidence of unfairness? What do we think about our relationship with Jesus now? What do we think of prayers that have gone unanswered for longer than we expected? Has he forgotten, or is he too preoccupied with other things? Can we take comfort from this incident that he will not say, It is finished, until it is done?

The selections in this work represent the reflections of a layperson. My love for the Bible began after an encounter with the living Christ. He found me as a high school youngster when I was not looking for him. I discovered that the God of the Bible was the same person I had come to know intimately, and I was always excited to learn more about him. The riches of the Bible were not obvious, but I had the freedom to read and dig and probe, imagine and question. I came to know some of the characters very well because in many ways I was like them and they like me. I understand their mistakes because I make them, their pain and confusion because I experience them, and I have been encouraged by their courage and the kindness and patience that God showed them. The stories are retold as I thought they happened and as I learned from them. No particular theme was chosen, but the reader will not escape a loving God who from the beginning has been seeking and pursuing us with kindness. My hope for all readers is that they begin a new adventure in Bible reading and come to know in a richer and more personal way the God about whom this good book is written.

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THE BEGINNING

The events of the first three chapters of Genesis are difficult to understand or imagine. If we try to understand, we cannot form a picture in our minds of what we understand. And if we do not understand, can we imagine anything? Take for example the account we have in the King James Version (KJV): In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Genesis 1:1–2). Do we have before us a planet that had somehow been reduced to waste, perhaps through some cataclysm or huge volcanic eruption that left only darkness and putrid water? If so, did God create the earth out of this waste? It suggests that something was there when God began to create the earth. Something had happened before, but what it was and why we are left in the dark. Is this the fissure through which the theory of evolution made its way?

And God said, ‘Let there be light: and there was light (verse 6). We can picture light, but where did it come from? Our planet is lit by the sun, but the sun was not yet created. And when it was, what was the relationship between the sun and the light that was created on the first day? We know that interaction between the sun and our planet brings about day and night in which the darkness is separated from the light. So how was there a first day and day and night when there was yet no sun?

A lot of creative activity went on before the appearance of the sun: the heavens (the writer’s and our view of the blue sky?) and rain clouds, the space between the planet and heaven (on the second day), and the oceans, continents, and vegetation, including fruit trees and grass (on the third day). Then came the sun on the fourth day: Lights to divide the day from the night, to distinguish time—days, months, seasons and years (verse 14). The moon and stars were created also to give light upon earth … to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness (verses 17-18). Were the sun and moon now fulfilling the purpose for which light was created on the first day? If so, what and where was the original light? That light apparently sustained the vegetation of the third day. After the creation of the sun, creation of animal life followed: aquatic animals, moving [creatures] that [have] life, and fowl that may fly above the earth (verse 20)(on the fifth day), and land animals and human beings on the sixth day (verses 24-27).

Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all scripture was given by inspiration from God. Did