The Bible has been loudly and publicly criticized for centuries. At the same time, it’s most vocal defenders have been those who demand that it be treated as a mandatory oracle. And so the public has been given a binary choice: Either the Bible is horrible, or else it’s divine and you’ll go to hell if you don’t think so.
I think that’s a false choice., but after some looking, I couldn’t find a reasoned defense of the book. Hence this post. Whatever flaws the Bible may have (and only atheists take the worst passages seriously), they pale in comparison to its virtues.
Compassion for the Other
Consider how many lives have been senselessly lost because of stirred-up hatreds. Almost like clockwork, rulers and their intellectuals go on sprees of portraying the outsider as an object of threat and disgust, often ending with mounds of corpses.
So, can we ignore the benefits of a book that teaches the opposite? That teaches love of the other rather than tribal hate? This is precisely what we find in the Bible, and especially from Jesus. Consider what he says in this passage:
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Here’s one that addresses the same thing from a different angle:
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
Here’s a call for loving outsiders from one of the earliest books in the Bible:
The Lord your God… executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner therefore; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Where but from the Bible or from people influenced by the Bible do we find such civilized and civilizing thoughts?
Integrity
Where’s a young person to learn integrity these days? It’s not likely to come from the political and educational hierarchies. It does, however, come from good families, good teachers, good coaches, and so on, but even those channels usually link back to the Bible.
From the Torah passage above (you were sojourners, so you should help the sojourner) to the wonderful story of Nathan condemning David for his lack of integrity, to the following sayings of Jesus, the Bible teaches integrity over and over.
Whatever you would have men do unto you, do so to them.
With whatever judgment you judge, you shall be judged.
By your words you will be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.
Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors.
It would be hard to teach integrity more directly than that, and those are just some of the relevant passages. And integrity carries benefits into all areas of life, with follow-on effects that long endure.
Benevolence
There’s really nothing that cultivates human happiness, that supports human civilization, more than simple benevolence. Without it, we’re pretty well doomed. And demands for benevolence are found abundantly in the Bible. Here are a few of the more notable instances:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Let love be genuine.
If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge… but have not love, I am nothing.
He who does not love does not know God.
And Much More
There’s much more to be said, including things that don’t immediately leap to mind for most of us. Here are a few:
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- Endless calls for justice.
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- A God who speaks to the powerless, rather than to the mighty.
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- An individual spirituality rather than a collective spirituality.
The Bible teaches individuality by making God a distinct individual. With this pattern in the minds of men, they are less afraid to think as individuals. As a result, they tend to come up with better ideas and to produce better results.
The Bible glorifies men who have deep changes of heart. This not only allows us to start anew and improve, but it removes guilt for our past actions. This has massively assisted human improvement.
A second-order effect of things covered above is the assumption of co-dominance: I’m not dominating you and you’re not dominating me; we can both be strong and friendly at the same time. Where this is absent, anger festers, compassion fails, grudges are never released, and endless volumes of energy are wasted in posturing and scheming. Where it is present, cooperation rules and massive accomplishments can arise. This teaching is also seen explicitly, here:
The rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones control them, but it shall not be so among you.
If You Still Don’t Like It…
If you still don’t like the book, fine, that’s your choice. But if you want our civilization to drop the Bible and move on without it, you’ll need to provide an appropriate replacement beforehand: something that teaches these lessons better than the Bible does.
Anything less would rip the heart from our civilization.
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Paul Rosenberg
freemansperspective.com