Question Authority

 This rides on the coat tales of a blog posted by my brother in law: Questions are powerful

I personally learn by asking questions. I have always been a question asker (this is another one of my made up words). More importantly...I am a listener. I have a great ability to hear and learn. When I was young, I would stand close to groups of grown ups at family gatherings or parties and listen with great interest to ALL the differing points of view. I continued this practice through my teenage years and found myself welcome in conversations that other people my age weren't accepted in. I "usually" kept my mouth shut and heard each point of view before expressing my opinion and when I did open my mouth...my thoughts echoed years of listening to many opinions (If any of you know my family, you know that we are all very opinionated).

The result of this practice was again and again told to me. "You are very wise for a person your age"

In my first blog  Took The Leap I laid a foundation for my coming blogs. I said "I want to use this blog in a way to create and shape a better me and a better world through deep, meaningful conversations with questions or concerns and not with definitive stances or harsh judgement." And that sums up my learning experiences through life. All that to say, I ask questions without agenda. Well, maybe I have an agenda...but that is to better myself.

So there is my "motive/agenda" behind these last few controversial blogs.

Why am I bothering to tell you this? Because I feel a certain disdain in the answers to the questions I am asking. I'm not bashing anybody for giving me their opinion. That's what I asked for, but why am I getting answers to a different question than I asked?

The questions I am asking are not easy, hence the fact of me asking them. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.I have been told that these questions aren't bringing fruit, That they aren't helping build up anyone, That they are causing or can lead to spiritual doubt. That's simply not true. I have had countless conversations stating otherwise. It may not be on the blog for the world to see but it's happening AND I can see fruit from it. In me and others :)

I do believe that certain questions can be destructive. But there is a significant difference between questions that bring wisdom and fuller understanding than the kind of questions that simply seek to validate the world and its ways.

What are we Christians so afraid of? If you truly believe that the bible is God's word and that it's infallible and without error and it's perfect and so on and so forth. Then there is nothing to be worried about. If I can be stumped or proven wrong about the bibles perfectness then I'm believing a lie. Do I want my faith founded on lies? No.I say ask away!


I think the real fear is: if you start to doubt one tiny part of scripture, then where do you stop?

New Trinity

One of the hardest concepts that christians are expected to understand is the trinity. It goes like this: God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are 3 seperate intities but all are 1 simultaneously. I read a book called "the shack". The author did a fantastic job explaining the trinity and I highly reccomend it to everyone (christian or not). He paints a beautiful word picture on the trinity and sheads an even "beautifuler" (I make up words, you'll have to get used to that) light on the heart of God towards his creation.

There was a man named John who was a disciple of Jesus. He wrote a letter/gospel and started it by explaining or at least trying to explain the trinity. It starts like so: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made".


I've never met anyone that disagrees that john is referring to Jesus when he uses the word "word"(the Greek word is logos. The definition is: a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (that is, Christ). If you have a different interpritation or disagree totally please step forward. I would love to hear your thoughts.  Most people skip past vs 4-13 and go right to this part for their proof that Jesus is the Son of God. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth".

To wrap this whole trinity thing up, here's a synopsis of  what we are expected to understand. We have God who created all things. We have Jesus, His Son who was/is God in human form and walked this earth but was crucified and died but rose from the grave and there's this Third illusive part of the trinity called the Holy Spirit that could only show up permanently after Jesus died (see Acts Chapter 2).

As hard as it is to understand or wrap my head around, I believe this to be true. Do I have physical proof to back up my beliefs? No more than an atheist has to disprove it. I have experiences in my life that I would love to share with anyone who wants to hear them that I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt prove my beliefs. (This next part is where the religous hackles go up) I was taught that the "holy bible" is our physical proof. But a book isn't physical proof to me. Now don't get me wrong, I love reading the bible. I gain a lot from it but one of my biggest problems with modern day christian teaching is that you are told not to base beliefs on experience but to base it on "the word"(the bible, not the logos). The emphasis has been shifted because its too "dangerous" otherwise. You might get mislead or think for yourself if you dare stray away from the only book you should ever read. Too much emphasis is put on the bible and not enough on the actual relationship you should have with (the real trinity).

I was taught an illustration for as why to think this way. The story goes like this. When the federal government trains treasury workers to find fraudulent/fake currency. They lock them in a room with the real thing. They study it. They feel it. They eat,breathe, sleep it. That way they will recognize a fake when they see it because its nothing like they've ever seen before.


So it's taught that you only read the bible so when you hear anything else you will know it's "a fake".
Christians are isolating themselves from the world by doing this. Below is a clip with an example of what I'm trying to say.

Agnostics vs. Believers game show clip
As you can see, the christians are out of touch with reality and are completely isolated. When I saw this I was utterly embarrassed to be lumped into the "christian" group.


OK, I'm tryin to wrap this up...
 In a nutshell, by only reading one book we have replaced a member of the trinity. This is what I like to call "The New Trinity". Which consists of: God, Jesus and the holy bible.


I'm on a personal quest to open the "blind eyes" to see that the new trinity isn't a good change. In this instance, Change isn't good. Bring back the original trinity :)
(steps off of soap box)