In the second of the original Planet Of The Apes movies the astronaut sent forward in time to an earth ruled by apes comes across an underground colony of mutated humans who worship an atomic bomb as their creator and a garbled version of the U.S. Constitution as their Holy Scripture.

From a young child reared in the Bible Belt I was taught that the Bible was God’s holy, error free, and inspired word. It was only during my third year of Bible College in an upper level course called Transmission of the Bible that I learned how the sixty six books of the Protestant Bible were picked from many other books that were considered for the canon (the approved list). The Old Testament canon was closed by Jewish leaders and the Christian New Testament by an early council of church leaders. The Catholic Bible has the same sixty six books as the Protestant Bible has plus it contains several other books in the middle between the Old and New Testaments called the Apocrypha. These books did not make it into the canon but were thought by many to be worthy of consideration.

You have to understand that this selection process was a lot like the selection of the all time one hundred best movies. There are several lists put out by different groups with different opinions and selection criteria. One selection criterion for the Old Testament canon was that each book had to contain God’s Name, translated in the King James Version English as Jehovah. An exception was made for the book of Esther as it does not contain God’s Name. Esther was the last book accepted into the Old Testament canon. I note here that one of the early Christian groups had their own list of excepted books and that they were driven out of business by the “accepted” church of the day and some of there buried books were found some years ago and published as The Lost Books of the Bible. Interesting reading for those curious minds. The childhood chorus was, “Sticks and stones may break by bones but words will never hurt me.” Unless you believe them that is.

The U.S. Constitution that is revered  by many also was written and voted on by men not hand delivered by God as the original Ten Commandments were purported to have been. In the story Moses broke the original copy that God had made and then had to carve a second copy which were later placed in a special gold box and lost. Indian Jones found it in the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Hollywood loves to make movies of stories from the Bible. Let’s face some of the stories read like they were written for Hollywood. They were written by men with agendas, and messages they were trying to get across as were the myths of the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. These were their holy books. Every culture has stories that over time become their holy writ. Bible simply means “book.”

I have in the last ten years read two very large books that purport to be channeled Gospels where Jesus the son of Joseph attempts to set the record straight. Those books are A Course In Miracles and The Way of Mastery. Let me say a word about channeling, it is a supposed type of spirit to person dictation. The New Testament verse most often used as a proof of people’s claim that the Bible is God’s error free, holy, and inspired word is a verse from one of the Apostle Paul’s letters. It reads, “All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof , for instruction in righteousness…holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” At the time those words were penned The Law and The Prophets were the only agreed upon accepted scriptures and those books are only a small part of the Old Testament and Paul’s letters would later be a big part of what we call the New Testament.

I realize everyone may not be as fascinated with how stories evolve over time as I am but it is important to note that things people in the past said or wrote often are given more weight than the speakers or writers ever intended. Heaven knows I have no intention that anyone start a religious movement or cult using quotes from www.theencouragingword.co I don’t think I need to worry.

Abraham Lincoln hastily jotted down a few notes on an envelope for a speech he was supposed to give at the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial dedication. He even says in the short speech “People will not note nor long remember what we say here.” Wrong, why even school kids are forced to memorize those words and a statue larger than life sits in a temple to liberty, The Lincoln Memorial, at one end of the mall in Washington, D.C. For many patriotism is a kind of religion. Words are thoughts meant to communicate a message not to be worshiped. We have a duty to keep the message clear and pick our own words to live by allowing others to do the same.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White