The older I get the more I have been struck by the violence in the Bible.
It’s easy to get high and mighty about such violence; to cast a critical eye on it and call for the whole book to be tossed aside.
What we don’t realise is that the only reason we find the violence in the first part of the book so distasteful, is because of the second part of the book!
Jesus; His life, teaching, and death, caused a seismic shift in Western thought. Because of Jesus, now violence is seen as wrong and morally corrupt!
It’s ironic; it’s only because we have the end of the Bible that we want to dismiss the start of the Bible!
To do so is to miss the point. It would stop us seeing how far we’ve come, and why Jesus had to come!
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.
PICTURE: Ali Taylor/www.freeimages.com
