I received this via email. Read it and be blessed. Read the full article here

[align=center]The Bible
By Darin Hufford[/align]

Just about everywhere I go when I am traveling, I always ask the same set of questions to the audience I am preaching to. I ask them, "How many of you feel like you probably don't read your Bible as much as you should". With every congregation, regardless of the denomination, almost every hand in the building goes up. Then I ask, "How many of you feel self conscious about your knowledge of the Scriptures". Again, every hand in the building is raised. Then I ask them, "How many of you feel condemned in your spirit every time the subject of Bible reading comes up". All the hands go up again.

I ask these questions because after years of feeling like this in my personal walk, I began to suspect that I wasn't alone. As I speak with people from all over the world about this subject I have become more and more convinced that the Christian teachings about the Bible are quite possibly the main cause of condemnation and oppression in the body of Christ today. I don't believe that I have ever met another Christian brother or sister who is not under some sort of religious bondage when the issue of Bible reading is brought up.

The following article will either challenge you and set you free, or infuriate you and cause you to shut down. Some people who read this will copy it and send it to everyone they know, and others won't make it half way through the first page before tearing it up and burning it. Some will call me a hero while others will call me a heretic. All I ask is that while you read this; sincerely THINK ABOUT IT. Don't just shut down out of religious obligation to not listen to anything that doesn't sound like what you have been taught all your life.

Disclaimer

Before we get started I would like to plainly state that I firmly believe that the Bible is inspired by the Spirit of God. I don't question it's authenticity for one moment. I have read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation at least 10 times, and in no less than 5 translations. I've spent hundreds of hours in Bible collage classes and thousands more, studying on my own time. I've read commentaries on almost every book of the Bible and have personally taught on every single book in the Old Testament and New Testament. I've studied Greek and I've studied the Hebrew. For many years of my life I spent an average of about 7 hours a day doing nothing but reading and studying this wonderful book. I even would purposefully fall asleep listening to the Bible on tape so I could completely memorize entire books. I say all that to say this: I respect the Bible and I hold it close to my heart. There is not other book in the world like it. The content in the Bible is absolutely life changing.

What I am about to say in this article is on behalf of PEOPLE. Though I love the Bible and all it has to offer; I love people even more, and nothing grieves my heart more than to watch people being hurt or condemned by what has been taught them concerning the Bible. This goes out to everyone who just needs a break from the constant guilt they feel for not being as faithful to the Bible as they've been taught they should. I write this to the person who is riddled with insecurity every time a conversation comes up about particular stories or passages they feel they should know, but don't. This is for the one who has basically given up on hearing the voice of God in your life because you can't understand the Shakespearian dialect or the theological principals of the original Greek or Hebrew. More than anything I want to bring a breath of fresh air to those of you who feel like you're a million miles behind other Christians because you haven't spent the time that they have reading your Bible.

The Great Exchange

At the end of Gideon's "deliverance career" the Israelites wanted to make him their king. Gideon refused, and said that instead of becoming their king he would like them to each bring him a gold ear ring from the plunder. Everyone brought a portion of gold and Gideon melted it down and made a "golden Ephod". The Ephod was the vest that the priests put on when they entered the holy of holies. In the pocket of the Ephod were the lots, which were used when they "caste lots" in order to determine God's will in a certain situation. When the priest entered the temple wearing the golden Ephod, he could actually hear the voice of God audibly. You might remember one time when King David told the priests to "bring him the golden Ephod". David put it on and went into the temple to ask God whether or not he should attack the Amalakites. David heard the audible voice of God tell him to attack.

The story of Gideon goes on to say that after the golden Ephod was made, "all of Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping the Ephod". Think of this for a moment. They actually worshiped the way in which to determine God's will over worshiping God Himself. The story later goes on to say that it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

So what does this have to do with the Bible? One of the things we are taught about the Bible is that it is the way in which to determine the will of God. Just as the Israelites prostituted themselves after the golden Ephod, I believe that modern day Christianity is doing the exact same thing with the Bible. We have prostituted ourselves after the Bible and there is no doubt in my mind that it has become a thorn and a snare to almost every Christian in America. In fact I think many Christians have actually traded God for the Bible. Many others have even come to the point where they think God IS the Bible. I truly believe that the Bible has become the golden Ephod of our time.

Who's Your Daddy?

It's interesting to me that we actually call the Bible "The Word of God". The Bible doesn't make that claim about itself. In the book of John it says: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God", but then it goes on to say, "The Word became flesh". The Bible outright tells us that JESUS is the Word. Not the Bible. There wasn't even a Bible put together when this passage was written. When we teach people that the Bible is "The Word" we are flat out exchanging Christ for the Bible.

I want you to imagine what goes through the mind of Christ when he sees Churches that call themselves "Bible Churches". Think about that for a moment. Christ Himself said "I will build MY Church" and today we have "Bible Churches" in every city of America. The name alone gives our intentions and true feelings away. We are no different in this generation from the Pharisees in Jesus' day. They had a very similar view of their Old Testament scriptures. Jesus confronted them and said, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life" (John 5:39-40). The Pharisees were making the same trade that millions of Christians have made today. Another point about this passage is that Jesus clearly makes a distinction between "studying the Scriptures" and "coming to Him".

Most Christians believe with all their heart that a person is not even saved unless they "believe in the Bible". Churches advertise themselves as being a, "Bible believing Church". Toss that around in your head for awhile and truly think about it. Where in the Bible does it say that we have to "believe in the Bible" in order to be saved? It does say to believe in Christ, but for some reason we have raised belief in the Bible to the same spiritual level as believing in Christ Himself. In the New Testament times the Christians met together to study God, and today when we meet together in someone's home it's for a Bible study. If the Bible isn't brought out and studied at some point in the evening the entire event is looked upon as an unspiritual waste of time.

I understand that most of us have never stopped to think about these things, but if you step back and take an honest look at the landscape of our religion, I think you'll surprised at how right I am. The American Christian system has wholeheartedly exchanged God for the Bible! This is precisely why so many sincere hearted people go into a full fledged panic attack the moment anyone suggests that there might be errors or discrepancies in the Bible. Most Christians will outright tell you that to even entertain such a thought is blasphemy. Because we have made the "God exchange" we have to insist that the Bible now takes on the attributes of God Himself. This is why it is imperative that everyone believe the Bible is infallible. It is equally grieving to my heart when I hear people say things like, "If there is even one thing wrong in the Bible, our entire faith is worthless". Their entire existence as a Christian stands on the belief that there are no errors in Scripture. If they were to be shown a true discrepancy in Scripture that could not be explained away, it would literally cause their entire religion to come caving in on them. I've heard people openly admit, "If you can't believe it all, you can't believe any of it". Their entire faith stands on Scripture instead of Christ. Make no mistake about it; there has been an exchange of monumental proportions!

This is why so many Christians judge the strength and status of their Christian walk by how much time they spend reading their Bible. It seems to be a constant thorn in the side of every single Christian I know. They always feel guilty for not studying it every day of their life. They just know that God is upset with them for not reading it more. The cycle goes on and on until it becomes a permanent snare in their walk. The looming shadow of performance based Christianity is always there to put them in their place the moment they feel a shred of confidence, contentment or joy. What's worse is that every one of us are set up for emanate failure. We are constantly pressured to "be in the Word" but we are never told how much is enough. No matter how much time we spend studying it; it's never enough. If we read it one hour, we could have read it two. If we read it eight hours, we could have read it nine. No matter what we do, we're always left feeling like we fell short. It's almost like it was set up that way in order to prevent growth of any kind in our lives and keep us down.

Let me be the first to say that I am sick of it!

I am quite honestly sick of all the manipulation and oppression that has been put on people in the name of religion. I'm sick of all the half truths and outright lies that have been made up about the Bible in order to force people to submit and serve their local Church. I'm sick of the guilt and condemnation that so many people live with because they can't keep up with the rigorous demands of an impossible system. And most of all, I'm sick of the empty (and quite frankly the unbiblical) promises concerning what the Bible's purpose is in our lives. Most of the things we are taught about the Bible are found nowhere in the Bible; they come from a religious spirit that seeks to whittle people down to a spiritual nub in an effort to gain control over their minds. Without a doubt, this wonderful book has been used to cuff the spirits of millions of sincere hearted people who honestly what to connect with God's Heart.

The Irony of "Bible believing Churches"

The thing that perplexes me more than anything else concerning this subject is the fact that Churches who hold up the Bible as their ultimate guide in life, almost never follow a single thing in it. Every time I hear a Pastor thunder the words, "we do everything according to the Word of God in this Church" I am always puzzled as to exactly what he's talking about. In fact, I've struggled to find just one thing that we practice in modern day Institutional Churches that coincides with Scripture.

Where in the Bible did they have "Worship Services" lead by a "Worship Leader"? Perhaps you might find a few places in the Old Testament where something similar might have occurred, however in the New Testament it simply never happened. Almost every Church in America promotes "Corporate Worship" as though it's a Scriptural principal that we all must adhere to. This is simply not found in the New Testament Church.

Every mention of Worship in the New Testament was in reference to it being a private intimate matter between each individual believer and God. Paul said to "sing and make music in your hearts". Ironically, even worship leaders know that this is true. They will almost always tell everyone in the room to "forget about everyone around them and get alone with God" before the service even starts. They know this, however they insist that everyone meet together to do it.

Where in the Bible do we find "Youth Leaders" who are specifically paid to lead the younger people in the Church? For that matter, where in the New Testament did they EVER separate families the moment they walked through the door of a Church? The fact that we do this in modern day institutions is absolutely flabbergasting! This practice entirely defeats the purpose and picture of what Church is all about. Ironically the same Pastor, who signs the paycheck of the Youth Leader and Child Care Workers, also preaches that "The Family is the most intimate form of Church". Separating those families before Church begins is not only unbiblical, but it's down right destructive............

Read the full article here

Wow that was a great article, sure put a lot of things in perspective for me as I've been contemplating the book lately. Thanks Bernie!

That is a good article, Bernie and I plan on giving it to a few of my friends who think the Bible is God's word.

Hey Bernie: I really like the way Darin Hufford thinks and this article in particular. A great read for me! I Love this quote. Amen!

Thanks again, Bro!

In His Love, John

[quote="SeekerSA"]I received this via email. Read it and be blessed. Read the full article here


I bear inner witness to the truth revealed in this message, most often it feels more like a burden than a blessing to me to be able to see the truth in the message this article delivers simply because the truth in this message is not promoted or is brushed aside and kept out of the teachings in most traditional church institutions and I have known that for a long long time , especially about the churches teaching that worship must be literaly corporate, and holding the bible up as being the Word instead of Christ who is the Word, and promote these lies like they are also a requirement to salvation, I have heard from enough church leaders and members of various church denominations who have come out of these churches that this lie has been and is promoted repeatedly from behind the pulpits of many countless numbers of institutional churches, in many cases (not all) to purposely manipulate, control and keep church members in their clutches, to keep them in conformity to that particular churches viewpoints and teachings, this is nothing more than religious bondage.

It appears that these traditions aren't going to change regarding what is taught about these things in churches: ( ONE ) that worship must be corporate worship and (TWO) that the bible is the absolute word because as long as there are profits to be made by the preachers for hire, church leaders, board of directers, church programs, youth group leaders, comfortable positions of authority and such they are going to continue to do as they are doing until folks are drawn one by one in spirit to worship in truth and in spirit in the temple not built by the hands of men and freed from religious bondage, if a Church leader or member is drawn out of religious bondage and preaches the truth about these things the church usualy sends them on their way out of what ever church they were in anyway.

Fire Walker

That relieved me a bit .
I remember that in the bible in Revalation ,there was a place that said, that if i disclame or say that even the smallest thing there is not true,i was in a big sin and this is not good...I still dont know what to think about this . It will be good if someone gives me an opinion .
You posted this article just in time Bernie ! I felt very unhapy ,becouse of the bible stuff saying this .
I still dont wanna disclame enything ..about the things that are said in it . I just say that i dont understand it properly and that does it .
But i do not believe in raptures and stuff like that either even if i dont disproove them .I say my God has power to do as He wishes ,but i do believe He is Love aswell ,so i dont believe everything that is put in to my mind no matter from where it comes .