What In God’s Name Is The Bible About?

Meditations On A Maligned Book’s Surprisingly Inspirational and Relevant Message

By: Anonymous

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

From The Introdcution

I was very frustrated by my early religious education.

Between the ages of eight and thirteen, three times a week after public school, I would attend an afternoon religious school and sit there in the back of the room bored out of my wits. Sometimes I would doodle and sometimes I would pass notes to friends. Most of the time, though, I would just stare out the window.

During my non-productive (or rather anti-productive) days at this school, one book temporarily caught my interest, A Child’s Bible. It was not the school’s book, however. Someone bought it for me and I read it outside of class. It was nothing more than the stories of the Old Testament presented in a colorful and appealing way. I remember remarking to my parents: “Why couldn't they teach this instead of the boring and useless stuff they always teach?”

My enjoyment of A Child’s Bible is ironic because no one at this “religious” educational facility thought of teaching it. They probably considered it too “religious,” or, more to the point, they thought the Bible was just an outdated relic of the past, quaint perhaps, but best kept in the basement of their children’s minds.

And that is exactly where I came to put it as I grew up: locked away inside a hermetically sealed basement of my mind and heart. College and an intense interest in 19th century philosophy sealed it away further by giving me the tools to intellectualize my skepticism. To me, the Bible was old-fashioned, archaic, and, ultimately, irrelevant. At best it belonged in a museum.

Then one day I began to reevaluate my life. I wanted to get back to the root and reassess my beliefs from the ground up. First, I realized that the idea of a Creator was not so far-fetched. Then, I began to harbor the suspicion that perhaps even the Bible could have something relevant to say on the subject. Perhaps my early education had not given me the full picture. Perhaps it had even prevented me from seeing the picture clearly -- or at all. I had to read it and reevaluate for myself.

It was not an overnight process -- by any stretch of the imagination. But one day somewhere along the line after much soul searching it dawned on me: My God! The Bible is really saying something. There is an idea to it, a basic theme from which all else springs. And that theme is intensely relevant to me. In fact, there could hardly be a more relevant theme to center a teaching upon.

I entitled this work “What In God’s Name Is The Bible About?” because I really did once ask myself: What in God’s name is the Bible about? Nevertheless, I had – and have -- reservations about this title, because the Bible should not really be called “The Bible.” What should it be called and why should it be called that? Read on.

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• Thank you for all the thoughts and insights. They are great!
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• This isn’t a self-help book that’s going to spell everything out for you, hold your hand and tell you how to overcome your life challenges. But the truths resonate so loudly it may change your life.