This week in church our pastor announced that he would be doing a banned questions sermon series over the summer. The idea was that the series would touch on the much grumbled about, but never discussed questions about the Bible.
I was instantly intrigued. I’ve always struggled with a few untouchable questions about the Bible and I’m sure many others out there feel the same way.
Since our pastor wanted to make sure he touched on the most contemplated ideas, he ask us to submit our own banned questions.
Which got me thinking—what are my top ten banned questions about the Bible?
So here they are in no particular order.
- How do we reconcile the Old Testament God with the New Testament God (i.e. the God that wipes out people with plagues vs. the loving God we see in Jesus Christ)?
- How do we reconcile the different accounts in the Gospels about the life of Jesus?
- Did Jesus really have to die for our sins?
- Did Jesus have to die in such a violent and degrading manner?
- Should we believe that there was divine intervention in the creation of the common day Bible (i.e. was God leading people to decide what text to include and exclude or was that a man made decision)?
- Were the authors of the Bible divinely inspired to write their Gospel accounts or was God “telling” them what to write?
- What would God think about divorces in the case of abuse (domestic violence or drug/alcohol related)?
- What should we take away from the fact that Jesus never discussed homosexuality?
- How does God judge people with serious mental disorders who have no control over their actions?
- Is the Bible ever evolving (i.e. should we interpret it in light of today’s circumstances or the circumstances in which it was written)?
Obviously, those are just my short order questions. I certainly have a lot more that I struggle with on a day-to-day basis. And when in doubt, I always try to err on the side of love, since I truly believe that is what Jesus would want us to do.
What would be on your banned questions list?
