Oddly enough, I do.
The Old Testament to me is one of the attempts to understand God before Christ.
It is on the same level as the Avesta of the Zoroastrians. It is on the same level as my ancestors’ One-Eyed God, the Father God Odin who sought knowledge and simple truth instead of a childish Oriental Wisdom.
I have read the Old Testament, and I honor it.
One thing that really impresses me about the Old Testament is the fact that those who wrote it are absolutely unidentifiable, as Mark Twain pointed out. There is no ego in it. They speak of Jehovah, they speak of prophets, but they never speak of themselves. Their only interest is the truth as they see it.
The Old Testament is **A** version of the truth before Jesus gave us a little glimpse of the Father.
If you think the Old Testament is **THE** exclusive Word of God, then I am denigrating it.
But if you understand that, to me, there is only one Testament, and that is only a partial one, you can see why I resent those who put the Old Testament down for its imperfections. I am a Bible Belter, and I respect the Bible.
The Old Testament is the book I was raised on. I honor it, I do not like it to be insulted. Nonetheless, the Old Testament is not THE Revelation.
I am 99% atheist. But the mustard seed of my faith is in Jesus.
There is only one simple truth, the facts for which my Father God Odin suffered on the world tree Yggsdradil.
That is myth but it is the myth our lives are now based on. It tells us how the real fathers of our civilization thought.
Also, if there is a Final Revelation, there is only one: The one for which Jesus Christ died on the cross.
But if you believe in the the one Revelation, don’t try to drag the whole Middle East in with it.
#1 by JC on 12/02/2004 - 8:44 pm
Bob, from reading your blog and articles, I think I get a good feeling for your belief structure. Or, maybe not. But, you make a lot of comments about your faith in “Jesus”. You seem to have a problem with “Jehovah”, though. Question: Is “Jesus” “Jehovah”? Like in the “Trinity”? Personally, I don’t have much use for the “Trinity”. It explains absolutely nothing to our pathetic intellect. But, I get the feeling that, for you, “Jesus” = good, loving, while “Jehovah” = cruel, sadistic bastard that likes to torture humans. That somehow, the Creator had one standard for his children under the old testament but completely changed that with the new testament. If so, would you enlighten me on these two verses: The prophet Malachi wrote, “For I, Jehovah, change not . . .” (3:6). And in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yea and forever.” Because, to me, that implies that nothing changed, other than the law of ordinances (meaning the sacrificial rituals). And that didn’t really change. It just substituted a permanent blood sacrifice of a “lamb” for a periodic one of another kind of lamb. Not that I care what you believe about things none of use know anything about…. In fact, I still think Jehovah enjoys torturing humans! Seems to enjoy doing it to me!
#2 by Mike on 12/02/2004 - 9:29 pm
I believe the real revelation, and the event to celebrate, occurred when he rose from from the dead, proving that he was from God, and that his message was from God. If we heeded his message, their would be no conflict in the Middle East.
#3 by Bob Whitaker on 12/03/2004 - 4:17 pm
JC, I don’t care what the Prophet Malachi wrote about his Jehovah. I have said that so many times I get tired of repeating it.
Are you saying that somewhere in the seven hundred thousand words of the Old Testament there are some words about Jehovah that sound like words that are in the New Testament about Jesus Christ?
Big deal!
#4 by JC on 12/03/2004 - 6:16 pm
What are you saying? Say what you mean. What relationship do you see between “Jehovah” and “Jesus”? Any? None? Is one a mindless superstition while the other isn’t? Keep in mind that “Jesus” and Jehovah” aren’t/weren’t their names, but for the sake of discussion we’ll use them. OK?
#5 by Mike on 12/03/2004 - 8:41 pm
Hey Bob, I don’t normally paste things on blogs but your “respect” for the “old testament” requires it:
#6 by Ralph Jones on 12/04/2004 - 6:28 am
The entire message of the New Testament is keeping out of Hell. Actually, there was no Hell till Jesus invented it, assuming of course that Mark did not put his words in Jesus’ mouth. So thanks, Jesus, for inventing Hell and, provided we are willing to accept what you say on your so, to give us an escape hatch. The plain historical, and continuing, fact is that Hell is not a burning issue for the Jews.
#7 by Bob Whitaker on 12/04/2004 - 6:37 pm
JC, if you will read what I keep saying, I use the term JHWH for Jehovah over and over and over and over and over. I have known since my Bible Belt childhood that Hebrew script had no vowels.
And Jesus was “Joshua.”
You are teaching your grandmother to suck eggs.
And the Apostles did not call Him Jesus “Christ.”
Saint Paul was a master propagandist. He used the term “christos” to appeal to the GREEK Jews, who became the Christian Church. He used the name “Jesus” because he saw it as a great advantage over saying “that particular Joshua.”
If there is a special relationship between Jehovah, JHWH or whatever and Jesus, then I am not a Christian.
Are we clear now?
#8 by Bob Whitaker on 12/04/2004 - 8:55 pm
JC, your comment is the first one I have ever deleted that an actual reader wrote.
It was nasty and indecent.
#9 by JC on 12/04/2004 - 11:10 pm
Sorry if you felt that way. But, you didn’t address the issue. And you never will face up to your mental and spiritual contradiction. Like Diogenes, I’m looking for an honest man. You didn’t make it. I won’t waste anymore of your time. Or mine. Good luck and best wishes in awakening brain dead White men.
#10 by Bob Whitaker on 12/05/2004 - 8:45 pm
JC, you feel very stongly about your beliefs. You blow your top when you are contradicted.
And even as you tell me goodbye, you never forget for a moment what the battle is about.
If you ever want to come back to us, you are more than welcome.
#11 by Richard L. Hardison on 12/09/2004 - 10:32 pm
Rockwell sure could misquote the OT.
YHWH, or JHWH, if you use the German form, is usually reconized as the “Father” of the NT. The word Jehovah simply borrows from the Masoraetic text vowel points to add the vowels. The two major semitic languages in use today, Hebrew and Arabic, do not have consonants. The “Angel of The Lord” in the OT is usually reconized as the preincarnate Christ.
I disagree with Bob as, after long study, I agree with the above. I’m not sure if you can be a Christian and disagree with that. I am, however, very quick to add that the word “heresy” is bandied about far too much. A heretic is a person who sincerely holds a belief that separates one from saving grace. I’m not sure Bob’s belief falls in that category.
Paul certainly was a masterful preacher. The Greek word Cristos, is the closest Greek word for the Hebrew Messiah – anointed one (Jesus, or Iesous, in Greek, was another such translation of Yeshua, or Joshua). Paul spent most of his minstry in the Greek speaking world, so concepts had to translated somehow.
Actually, there was a hell before Christ. Tartarus was the place of torments in the Jewish religion. The concept of “hades” in Greek was used by Paul to convey the concept to the gentile world.