Is Bible a Collection of Fairy Tales?

The Bible is a collection of fairy tales written by illiterate goat herders back in the Bronze Age. The Catholic Church cherry picked which fables to include to mind control non-thinking tithers. (???)

( From this link--The Bible is a collection of fairytales written by illiterate goat herders...

Oddly enough, the Bible contains no mention of fairies, pixies, leprechauns, elves, sprites or the like. By definition, a fairytale is a tale about such creatures told to amuse children. I'm sure you would agree that the Bible is hardly written for the amusement of children. Nor is it a highly implausible story told as an excuse for something, but an accurate representation of human history. The Bible is a historical work. It is more than just a book, it is a library of books spanning several genres, around 40 authors, written over roughly a 2000 year period!
 
How one could be illiterate and write is beyond me, but one can hardly say that writers of the Bible were unintelligent men even if they weren't all highly educated. We have Moses who would have received the finest Egyptian education. He wrote down 5 of the Bibles 66 books. David indeed started as a Shepherd, but by the time he was writing much of the Psalms, he was the King of Israel. Solomon had wisdom that surpassed any who came before or after him (with the exception of Jesus), with his contributions to the Bible being Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Songs of Solomon. Luke, the writer of Luke and Acts was a doctor. Peter was a fisherman. Paul was a tentmaker. Yet these men managed to turn the world upside down and silence the greatest minds of their time. Add to this that it is likely they spoke at least 2 if not 3 languages, something the UK government would die for when it comes to todays students!
 
It is also odd that one would use "Bronze Age" as a means to undermine the Bible as if people living in the Bronze Age were somehow unintelligent. I suppose the Egyptian Pyramids are a collection of childrens blocks built by uneducated sand-dune-dwellers?
 
It is a common misconception that the Catholic Church formed the canon of the Bible. The Bible canon that we have today was well established by the end of the 1st century AD. Peter refers to the letters of Paul as scripture and we can reconstruct 99% of the New Testament writings from the quotes of early 2nd century church Fathers. Many believe that the Bible canon was decided at the council of Nicea by Constantine. Interestingly, the Bible canon was never actually discussed at the council and Constantine had no voting power. If you wish to see what they did discuss, you can find it all here.
 
Whilst it is true that many do cherry pick which parts of the Bible to follow and some have even distorted the original text, we have enough manuscriptual support (more than that for the existence of Julius Ceasar or Socrates I might add) to conclude that not only is the Biblical text reliable, but that the original spirit of the Bible is alive, well and set in stone. To quote Bart D. Ehrman (a New Testament textual critic):

"It would be a mistake. . .to assume that the only changes being made were by copyists with a personal stake in the wording of the text. In fact, most of the changes found in our early Christian manuscripts have nothing to do with theology or ideology. Far and and away the [sic] most changes are the result of mistakes, pure and simple—slips of the pen, accidental omissions, inadvertent additions, misspelled words, blunders of one sort or another.”

Was Jesus' Family Illegal Immigrants in Egypt?

Refugee Jesus and Paula White

BY MARK D. TOOLEY

...Recently Florida pastor Paula White, often cited as a Trump spiritual advisor and a health and wealth preacher, weighed in, per The Christian Post:

I think so many people have taken biblical scriptures out of context on this, to say stuff like, 'Well, Jesus was a refugee,'" White responded. "Yes, He did live in Egypt for three-and-a-half years. But it was not illegal. If He had broken the law then He would have been sinful and He would not have been our Messiah.

Of course Jesus was only a toddler when His parents took Him to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod. So He wasn't morally culpable for their actions. Did Joseph and Mary break the law when fleeing to Egypt? It's often fashionable to describe the Holy Family as perhaps the first illegal immigrants.

They were refugees but there's no evidence Joseph and Mary broke any laws when entering Egypt, which also was part of the Roman Empire. As biblical scholar James Hoffmeier points out in his bookThe Immigration Crisis: Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible, their likely route to Egypt included many Roman forts, and likely they proceeded openly and legally. Probably they lived among Egypt's large Jewish community before returning home after Herod's death.

Claiming Jesus was an illegal immigrant is just one of many trite pseudo biblical political points common in religious advocacy on immigration. Other talking points focus on Old Testament calls for hospitality towards sojourners as supposedly definitive commands for the U.S. to install more permissive immigration policies.

Most of the recent Christian conversation about border policies has been shrill, reflexive and often reliant on weaponizing Bible verses for contemporary political advantage. America isn't ancient Israel. And as Hoffmeier explains, ancient Israel didn't practice open borders or anything close to it.

On the conservative side, evangelical scholar Wayne Grudem recently argued that a border wall with Mexico was supported by the many God-ordained walls in Scripture, such as the rebuilt wall that Nehemiah prophesied for Jerusalem. Grudem was widely mocked, but many of his critics have exploited scripture in the same way for opposing stricter border security.

Some denunciations of Paula White's comments have insisted Jesus was indeed a law breaker, for which He was ultimately crucified. This claim misses the point about Jesus, who was Himself the very fulfillment and perfection of the law. His enemies distorted the law with their own self serving pharisaic interpretations, which He repeatedly admonished.

We Protestants in our politics often want to think we have direct guidance from Him on public policy issues, as proven by a few select Bible verses we learned in Sunday school. But the Bible almost never gives us such detailed counsel for contemporary statecraft. Instead we have Scripture, the church and Christian tradition offering broad principles about human dignity and divine justice that should inform our debate and decision making.

None of us can claim infallible authority in our political preferences. And we should be reluctant to deploy Bible verses as political debating points. Paula White's misuse of scripture to support current border policies instead of provoking ridicule should instead inspire reflection on why we Protestants, conservative and liberal, repeatedly make her mistake.

Originally posted at juicyecumenism.com