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If you missed my previous posting, I am writing a (hopefully) brief series of essays in response to a YouTube video that supposedly lays out the dirty truth behind what a Biblical marriage really is. In the course of the video approximately fifteen examples of “marriages” are brought up, each one completely outrageous and jaw-dropping if you’ve never heard of them. Each one is also actually in the Bible. However most of them are not examples of a Biblical marriage.
Just because something is in the Bible doesn’t mean that it is in fact biblical. The Bible doesn’t just show you what you’re supposed to do and the people who did wonderful things, the Bible also shows people in their real lives doing real things. And as we all know, real people doing real things includes a lot of outrageous, jaw-dropping actions that you wouldn’t believe if you hadn’t seen it for yourself. Does that mean that those actions set the standard for relationships, job protocol, families, etc.? No. Which is the very reason why they’re outrageous and jaw-dropping in the first place.
When there is no standard, there can be no deviation. Where there is no ability to have deviation, there is no room for shock or shocking behavior—it’s just behavior. So if there’s shock, somewhere out there is a standard that is being deviated from.
All of that said, I’m going to discuss the first set of examples raised in the YouTube video. Please keep in mind what I just made note of: Not every situation noted in the Bible is also biblical. When we use the term biblical we can mean either “Of, relating to, or contained in the Bible” (as defined in TheFreeDictionary.com) and something that is godly, where godliness is defined as “Pious; reverencing God, and his character and laws; obedient to the commands of God from love for, and reverence of, his character; conformed to God's law; devout; righteous; as, a godly life.” (from BrainyQuote.com).
You don’t have to get very far in the Bible to find people who, although they should be living up to the second definition of what it means to live a biblical life, are living lives that are just “contained in the Bible.” The very first people, point in fact. ( Read more... )
Just because something is in the Bible doesn’t mean that it is in fact biblical. The Bible doesn’t just show you what you’re supposed to do and the people who did wonderful things, the Bible also shows people in their real lives doing real things. And as we all know, real people doing real things includes a lot of outrageous, jaw-dropping actions that you wouldn’t believe if you hadn’t seen it for yourself. Does that mean that those actions set the standard for relationships, job protocol, families, etc.? No. Which is the very reason why they’re outrageous and jaw-dropping in the first place.
When there is no standard, there can be no deviation. Where there is no ability to have deviation, there is no room for shock or shocking behavior—it’s just behavior. So if there’s shock, somewhere out there is a standard that is being deviated from.
All of that said, I’m going to discuss the first set of examples raised in the YouTube video. Please keep in mind what I just made note of: Not every situation noted in the Bible is also biblical. When we use the term biblical we can mean either “Of, relating to, or contained in the Bible” (as defined in TheFreeDictionary.com) and something that is godly, where godliness is defined as “Pious; reverencing God, and his character and laws; obedient to the commands of God from love for, and reverence of, his character; conformed to God's law; devout; righteous; as, a godly life.” (from BrainyQuote.com).
You don’t have to get very far in the Bible to find people who, although they should be living up to the second definition of what it means to live a biblical life, are living lives that are just “contained in the Bible.” The very first people, point in fact. ( Read more... )