So why does there seem to be this unwritten rule on the Bible? In my opinion it's because of fear, possibly a justified one. The common fear by church leaders over the past 1,500 or so years has been that if we don't have a measuring stick that is considered perfect, then we can pretty much believe anything. They know our hearts and our minds are weak and without something to measure our feelings and thoughts again, then that's how cults are started. We have a hard enough time all agreeing on what we believe when most of us do think the Bible is 100% accurate. Imagine if we no longer had those words to measure ourselves against.
Having said that, the perceived need to have a perfect measuring stick doesn't make the Bible any more or less accurate than it makes a random stick into a ruler. Many councils filled with many Catholic leaders of the early church came together and decided that certain books and writings were considered God breathed and perfect and others were simply good letters. The God breathed ones were put together into a book and called the Bible. The rest of pretty much rarely been read again.
Then 1,000 years later Martin Luther came along and challenged much of the Catholic beliefs of the time and broke off what we know now as the protestant religion that most non-Catholic denominations stem from today. As part of that he denounced a few of the books that were considered perfect by Catholics and put together his own Bible without them. He also began the idea that Bible's should be translated for commoners to be able to read it. Before that point it was widely considered bad form to do so, as commoners would misinterpret what it says to often and needed the guidance of the priests when doing so.
That's the cliff notes of the history. You will find out later that I am a very strong believer in the fact that we are all human and nothing we ever write or say is perfect. It all is filtered through our imperfect, immoral minds, and we all are just doing our best to define God on our own terms. With that being said, I find it impossible to believe that everything that was original verbally passed down from generation to generation and eventually written in books, which were then decided upon by a council could possibly ever be perfect. I think it's prideful to think otherwise. In a way it's no different than thinking humanity can build a building that can take you all the way to heaven. (See The Tower of Babylon)
So if you feel the Bible is not perfect, then how do you believe anything? What do you believe? In my opinion, believing in it's perfection has only a small bearing on your actual belief system. As long as you believe it was done by good intentioned people who did the best they could, then I think it's still a very valuable resource. I do believe most of what it says is very true. At least it rings true in my heart and life.
But I do think there are some things I have to filter out as more cultural of the time than actual wisdom for the ages. There are passages that wreak of cultural bias of the time, and others that have laws that even most Christians don't even follow anymore. In my humble opinion, most of the modern day church Cherry picks what laws they choose to follow and what ones they don't. Being Gay is still a sin, but eating Pork is not. (Depending on your denomination) Premarital Sex is still a sin but Anal sex is not. I could go on and on with this apparent Cherry picking, but I won't bore you. The church I think rightfully says that certain laws were "cleanliness" laws of the time that no longer apply today. Although we would certainly disagree about many things that were strictly cultural of the times and ones that should apply still today.
Since the Bible is no longer my measuring stick I tend to use a different measuring stick even when I read the Bible or any other religious book for that matter. I always measure it against LOVE. Is what I am reading in the Bible or the way I am interpreting it doesn't somehow correlate with the greatest commandments of loving God and loving my neighbor, then there is a disconnect. I also tend to try to put myself in the time period and take out pieces of what may have been useful advice for the time and throw out other things that no longer seem to apply or have even been proven to be wrong.
A good example of this is the role of women in the church. It was once thought to be a bad idea to have women in leadership roles. Maybe at the time it would have been a bad idea. Maybe in that culture they wouldn't have been taken seriously, or would not have been properly equipped with little real world practice to be leaders? Or maybe it was just flat out wrong? Whatever the case may be I think history has proven that many great women have been great leaders in the church, in big businesses, in their communities, and bring their own unique skill sets to the table that are very beneficial for us all.
At the end of the day I think the Bible is a fantastic book , full of knowledge about God, and ourselves. It should be read by everyone and taken to heart, but it should all be measured against common sense and your hearts to see what you really do believe deep down. And at the end of the day whether you believe in it's perfection or not, you are still filtering it through your own perspective and experiences and imperfections, so your beliefs will never be perfect and neither will mine. To believe otherwise is prideful.
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