Boring But Insightful

So, I'm sitting in an 8 hour class. I'm typing this blog in the middle of class. This class meets Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Yes, five days. That's 40 hours. I get less sleep than that in 5 days. What are we learning?

Church History.

Yes, its boring. My butt is numb now. I've dosed off numerous times already. I can't really hear what the prof is saying because of my internal dialogues of complaints. But every once in a while, I tune in.

I'm glad I did.

Man, you can learn a lot from church history. There's a lot of things that would make you say, "What? Christians did that?" History is filled with mistakes. I've met so many people today who say, "All you need is the Word of God." This was the motto of many Americans in church history.

This led to slavery. Did you know its hard to make an argument against slavery if you are a biblical literalist? Did you know science can't advance if you take the bible at its word? Here are a few examples: Jesus said that the mustard seed is the "smallest of all the seeds of the earth." (Mark 4). 2000 years later, we know this is not true. There's a seed in the Tropical Rain Forest called the epiphytic orchid (spelling?). "Well, it must have been the smallest seed known to the people back in Israel 2000 years ago," some may say. Not true. Jesus' audience would have known of other seeds smaller than a mustard seed.

"But that's not the point Jesus was making!" Yes, exactly. But literalists get stuck on these small details. American history is littered with these examples. Jesus is talking about the amazing things we can do with little faith. However, there are people (even today) who argue that the mustard seed is the smallest, just because the Bible said so. Even after showing them the Epiphytic Seed, they continue to argue for the Bible. In a way, they're afraid that if there's an error in the Bible, then God is mistaking about everything, including their salvation. Is our salvation rooted in the size of a mustard seed? Is the existence of God dependent on the world being created in 6 days? I would hope our faith is based on something more solid.

In my ministry, I have met many college students. I least look forward to students who claim that the Bible is to be literally interpreted. They are very closed off, they are skeptical of everything, and they protest over the smallest things. They protest over things like, how women should not speak in the church, the church needs to revert back to the Acts 2 church, baptism should be only submerging, etc.

God is love. Christians do everything out of love. Literalists care more about being right or upholding righteousness.

Ok, back to zoning out in class. haha