Freedom From Bad Bible Series
What Is The Freedom From Bad Bible Series?
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The Freedom From Bad Bible Series uses Biblical scholarship to undo the harm done to innocent people in the name of the Bible.
This is not typical Bible study and it does not promote or deny faith in any part of the Bible. Instead, it intends to refute claims about the Bible that are often accepted without challenge as biblical, by both believers and non-believers alike.
Bad Bible
The foundational idea in the series is the term, “Bad Bible.” Bad Bible is not a judgment about the Bible itself. Instead, Bad Bible refers to the use of the Bible as a weapon of power against innocent people.
Bad Bible operates within a vision of human life that sees life on Earth as a test of obedience to God’s rules, which are clearly defined in the Bible. With this focus, human life becomes an obedience test for sinners.
The ultimate Bad Bible goal of human life is heavenly salvation. Therefore, “getting into Heaven” is the carrot at the end of the stick. If you obey the rules, if you do what you are commanded to do and don’t do what you are commanded not to do, and if you ask forgiveness for your sins, you will probably be admitted to Heaven.
When The Bible Becomes A Rulebook
With this Bad Bible vision of human life, the Bible becomes the only rulebook for life on Earth. What you must do and what you must not do is clearly defined in its pages. The Bible is therefore the only infallible guide to life and practice.
With this vision of “life as an obedience test,” and the Bible as the ultimate source of God’s rules, Bad Bible focuses heavily on matters of authority. Who has authority? Who must obey authority? The Bible will tell you.
Authority is defined by roles determined by sex, age, and social status. This is why Bad Bible is so defined by limitations, restrictions, and exclusions based on sex, age, and social status, as it separates the ones who will be saved from the ones who will not, based on whether or not they are obedient to the rules laid out in the Bible.
The Results Of Bad Bible
What are the results of this Bad Bible concern with following rules and obedience to authority? Fear, doubt, anxiety, guilt, and shame become constant companions for people who are continually told that they are not worthy of salvation, but can be saved it they are sufficiently obedient to the Bible.
The Origin Of Bad Bible
How did the Bible become Bad Bible? This kind of use of the Bible tends to be a distinctly Protestant phenomenon. As part of the Protestant Reformation, ultimate authority for determining God’s will for human life was displaced from the Roman Catholic hierarchy to the Bible itself.
The claim that the Bible is without error and the only infallible guide in faith and practice is a relatively new phenomenon in Christian history. It began in the late nineteenth century in the United States and became the foundation of fundamentalism and evangelicalism in the twentieth century. Bad Bible emerged from this belief in an error-free Bible as the ultimate authority over Christian life.
The Freedom From Bad Bible Challenge
The Freedom From Bad Bible approach to the Bible uses Biblical scholarship to challenge the Bad Bible use of the Bible by demonstrating how often Bad Bible distorts the Bible itself, by creating rules from out-of-context Bible verses and ignoring “Whole Stories” and the social, political, historical, geographical, and economic contexts of the ancient writings in the Bible.
What About Belief?
The Freedom From Bad Bible Series does not intend to persuade you one way or another about belief in God, Jesus, or the Bible. Instead, the goal of the series is to set you free from much of the fear, doubt, anxiety, guilt, and shame you have experienced from Bad Bible and the Bad Bible Bullies who are so eager to deprive you of your freedom make your own life choices.
For Your Freedom,
Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson
Creator Of The Freedom From Bad Bible Series
Tags: bad bible, bad bible verses, Bible, bible verses, biblical scholarship, freedom from bad bible seriesCategories: Tags: bad bible, bad bible verses, Bible, bible verses, biblical scholarship, freedom from bad bible series
The Role Of Women, Bible Authority, And The Missing Verb In Ephesians 5:22
By Kalinda Rose Stevenson
Those who use the Bible to define “the role of women” in biblical marriage often cite Ephesians 5:22 as the primary requirement for biblical marriage.
My earlier post, “The Role Of Women And Bible Interpretation: Why Ephesians 5:22 Does Not Command Wives To Submit To Their Husbands,” had one intention.
The post referred to the Greek text to make the point that there is no verb in Ephesians 5:22. This means that every translation that turns a verbless phrase into a complete sentence is mistranslating the Greek. Read more…
Tags: authority of scripture, Bible, bible interpretation, bible verse, bible verses, biblical marriage, christian beliefs, christian marriage, ephesians 5, Ephesians 5:22, mistranslation, mutual submission, role of women, submission, translationsChristian Money Teaching About Debt: How Does Christian Debt Relief Relate To Teachings About Prosperity And Tithing?
By Kalinda Rose Stevenson
Christian money teaching about debt relief has become a significant topic in Christian churches as more and more Christians struggle with debt, foreclosure, and bad credit. How does Christian debt relate to Christian money teachings about tithing and prosperity? Read more…
Tags: abundant life, alan wolfe, Bible, bible money, bible verse, bible verses, biblical tithing, christian beliefs, christian debt, christian debt counseling, christian debt help, Christian Debt Relief, christian money, churches, debt free christian, debt relief, God, jesus money, money is evil, money is the root of all evil, prosperity, prosperity gospel, tithingCategories: Bible Money, Christian Debt Relief Tags: abundant life, alan wolfe, Bible, bible money, bible verse, bible verses, biblical tithing, christian beliefs, christian debt, christian debt counseling, christian debt help, Christian Debt Relief, christian money, churches, debt free christian, debt relief, God, jesus money, money is evil, money is the root of all evil, prosperity, prosperity gospel, tithing
Christian Money Teaching About The Poor Widow: It’s Not What You Were Taught In Sunday School
By Kalinda Rose Stevenson
Jesus money teaching about the poor widow is not what you were taught in Sunday School. Much Christian money education uses the poor widow as a model of sacrificial Christian giving.
This is what I learned in Sunday School. When I went to Sunday School, the major topic of many of our opening exercises was raising money for the poor. We made little church-shaped cardboard boxes to hold our nickels and dimes so that we could help buy chickens or a cow for people in some poor village somewhere. Every Thanksgiving, we were supposed to collect food for the poor. And so we brought in cans of green beans and boxes of Jell-O to donate to the poor. We heard many times about the poor widow who gave everything she had to live on as an example of what God wanted us to do. Read more…
Tags: ancient palestine, Bible, bible money, Bible story, bible verse, bible verses, biblical context, christian money, Going Broke With Jesus, interpretation of the bible, jesus money, kingdom of god, patriarchal family, poor widow, teachings of jesus, widowsChristian Money Teaching About Poverty: Do The Beatitudes Teach That Christian Believers Must Be Poor?
By Kalinda Rose Stevenson
What is Christian money teaching about poverty? In the Bible-verse oriented approach to Christian teaching, one Bible verse is singled out above all others to claim that Jesus advocated poverty for believers, based on the words “blessed are the poor” from the “Beatitudes” in both Matthew in “the Sermon on the Mount” and in Luke in “the Sermon on the Plain.” Read more…
Tags: agrarian society, beatitudes, beggars, Bible, bible money, bible verse, bible verses, blessed are the poor, christian beliefs, christian money, God, jesus money, kingdom of god, money beliefs, sermon on the mountJesus Money Teaching In the Lord’s Prayer: When Bread Is Scarce and Debts Are High
By Kalinda Rose Stevenson
Jesus money teaching is an important part of the “Lord’s Prayer,” which are probably the most well-known words from the Bible.
Versions of the prayer occur in both the “The Sermon On The Mount” in Matthew 6:9-13 and “the Sermon on the Plain” in Luke 11:1-4. Although it is not immediately obvious to most people who pray this prayer, this prayer is deeply concerned with economic issues. This is a prayer about money and debt. Read more…
Tags: Bible, bible money, bible study guide, bible verse, bible verses, christian money, daily bread, economic issues, financial debts, forgiveness of debts, forgiveness of sins, Jesus And Money, jesus money, kingdom come, lord's prayer, prayer jesus, sermon on the mount, the lords prayer, trespassesCategories: Bible Money Tags: Bible, bible money, bible study guide, bible verse, bible verses, christian money, daily bread, economic issues, financial debts, forgiveness of debts, forgiveness of sins, Jesus And Money, jesus money, kingdom come, lord's prayer, prayer jesus, sermon on the mount, the lords prayer, trespasses
The Role Of Women And Bible Interpretation: Why Ephesians 5:22 Does Not Command Wives To Submit To Their Husbands
By Kalinda Rose Stevenson
The role of women in biblical marriage and church leadership is often defined by a handful of Bible verses and Bible interpretation that restrict human beings to the social practices of ancient societies.
As a prime example of this kind of Bible interpretation, many Christians confidently point to their Bibles and claim that Ephesians 5:22 commands wives to submit to their husbands. Read more…
Tags: Bible, bible interpretation, bible verse, bible verses, biblical marriage, christian bible study, christian marriage, english bibles, Ephesians 5:22, ephesians bible study, female submission, mike huckabee, mistranslation, mutual submission, religion and politics, southern baptist convention, submit to husband, translations, wives submitCategories: Role Of Women Tags: Bible, bible interpretation, bible verse, bible verses, biblical marriage, christian bible study, christian marriage, english bibles, Ephesians 5:22, ephesians bible study, female submission, mike huckabee, mistranslation, mutual submission, religion and politics, southern baptist convention, submit to husband, translations, wives submit
Christian Money Beliefs: What Does The Bible Really Teach About Money?
Christian money beliefs are controversial because they claim to be based on Bible money teachings. The Bible is a controversial book. People have such different beliefs about the Bible. Some treat it as literal truth. Some regard it as literature and moral guidance. Others think that it is all nonsense.
No matter what you believe about the validity of the Bible, the Bible continues to affect what people believe about many important topics, such as the meaning of human life, human worth, marriage, slavery, war, sex, government, and money. Let’s pick just one topic that affects all of us. What is the Biblical teaching about money? Read more…
Tags: agrarian society, Bible, bible and money, bible money, Bible story, bible verse, bible verses, biblical context, capitalist, christian beliefs, christian education, christian money, economic system, Eye of the Needle, Going Broke With Jesus, Heaven, Jesus And Money, jesus money, kingdom of god, kingdom of heaven, money beliefs, money is evil, rich man, words of jesusCategories: Bible Money Tags: agrarian society, Bible, bible and money, bible money, Bible story, bible verse, bible verses, biblical context, capitalist, christian beliefs, christian education, christian money, economic system, Eye of the Needle, Going Broke With Jesus, Heaven, Jesus And Money, jesus money, kingdom of god, kingdom of heaven, money beliefs, money is evil, rich man, words of jesus
Christian Money Teaching And Mother Teresa’s Crisis Of Faith
By Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.
Money And Mother Teresa
Christian money belief that Jesus money teaching wants you to be broke was personified by Mother Teresa and her work with the poor.
For years, she was widely revered as an example of Christian selflessness. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Calcutta among the poorest of the poor.
The mega-hit movie, “The Secret,” perpetuates this assessment of Mother Teresa. According to the movie, she knew and used the “Law of Attraction,” and did “so much good in the world.”
To challenge this public image of Mother Teresa as the epitome of Christian virtue is something like saying you don’t like dogs, that you are against motherhood, and you hate baseball and apple pie. It is a taboo, a sacred cow. Who could possibly say anything critical of Mother Teresa? Read more…
Tags: Bible, bible verse, bible verses, christian education, christian money, Going Broke With Jesus, jesus money, life of mother teresa, mother teresa, mother theresa, time magazine