Reporter follows literal bible intepration for one year

A.J. Jacobs, a reporter for Esquirer, who previously outsourced his life for one month (he had a team in India do everything for him) recently published a book in which he lives by following the bible literally. He found 700 some rules, and tried to follow all of them. He discusses it on TED, pretty hilarious:

"I spent a year following the literal word of god"

A.J, who says he is not very religion, at one point stating "I'm Jewish in the sense that the Olive Garden is Italian" forces himself to identify and follow every rule, barring only the ones that would throw him in jail.

He grew out his beard as not to trim it's edges. He wears clothing of a single fabric. He even had to buy a chair for himself because his wife, who was quite angry at the "you may not sit on a seat where a menstruating woman has previously sat" rule in the bible had deliberately sat in every seat in the house.

At one point in his year, he actually stones an adulterer.

It's a pretty amazing story, but it brings up a lot of the many controlling laws of the bible. Some of which are rather brutal, but have been discussed ad naseum on this site, I'm sure. This video got me thinking though: To those that follow the bible, do you follow all 700+ laws, the ones involving stoning adulterers, not trimming one beards and severing the hands of wives who grab at testicles during fights? If you don't why don't you?

"Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God." (2 Peter 20-21 NAB)"

It's not up to debate, is it?

Why is it Christians now ignore the majority of laws in the bible?

Following Bible literally is nothing compared to following the Talmud literally, and sadly there are a lot of people you never hear about doing just that.

Well I only follow the love your neighbor as you love yourself rule because, that quite simply is the easiest rule to remember and follow. I'm not a jew wandering amidst gentiles in the middle east aimlessly so the other rules don't apply. Why? What you have a problem with free will?

Originally posted by WolfofWar
Why is it Christians now ignore the majority of laws in the bible?

"But now we are discharged from the [Mosaic] Law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit." Romans ch7 v6

This is the answer to the above question.

If you have a problem with the details of Jewish Law, complain to the Jews.

[edit on 11-8-2010 by DISRAELI]

Originally posted by DISRAELI

Originally posted by WolfofWar
Why is it Christians now ignore the majority of laws in the bible?

"But now we are discharged from the [Mosaic] Law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit." Romans ch7 v6

This is the answer to the above question.

If you have a problem with the details of Jewish Law, complain to the Jews.

[edit on 11-8-2010 by DISRAELI]

So that means that the Ten commandments are no longer in play?

Again, Matthew states the laws of the bible are not open to interpretation. I'm assuming picking and choosing is off the table as well.

Now thats an interesting double standard, when the old testament supports christians beliefs Against something for instance homosexuality they use leviticus to support their argument, but when it comes to following the tenants of their religion as written in the old testament themselves they claim Christ did away with all that leaving us with just one law: Love God with all your heart mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself....well I still dont see that happening either...

Why I stopped practicing organized christianity years ago...too much hypocricy, not enough practicing what you preach and waaaay too much judgement

Originally posted by WolfofWar
So that means that the Ten commandments are no longer in play?

Again, Matthew states the laws of the bible are not open to interpretation. I'm assuming picking and choosing is off the table as well.

My interpretation is that even the ten commandments are now "not in play" as laws of Moses.
That is, where we obey the ten commandments, we do so under the guidance of the Spirit, not because it is one of the laws of Moses.

Have you noticed that most Christians no longer treat Saturday as holy?
That is a change which the early church made, perfectly legitimately, and presumably because they felt they had the permission of the Spirit.






[edit on 11-8-2010 by DISRAELI]

It was also in Mathew something to the effect of: you do to me what you do to the least of you...or some such thing. Did you clothe me when I was naked, did you feed me when I was hungry, did you shelter me when I was homeless...etc...alot of the louder christians seem to forget this poignant verse.

reply to post by DISRAELI


But as I previously stated, you are not open to interpret.

"Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God." (2 Peter 20-21 NAB)"

That's from Jesus. Why would the laws be dissolved and still not open for interpretation. Aren't the letters to the Romans from Peter, not from Jesus? Are those not his interpretations, not the word of Jesus?

reply to post by WolfofWar


Jesus flat out said that most of the sh*t moses did was his own word and not God's.

That's the whole point about Jesus. God gives power to man, man f**ks up. God gives power to his son, he doesn't.

Why do you think that the bible ends with Jesus and there has not been any "God says so" for the last 2000 years added in? Because Jesus is when God gave up.

Christians have MASTERED the art of CHERRY PICKING the good, and IGNORING the bad. They post here, and THUMP ON and ON, and ON in person in regards to the GOOD verses, but completely IGNORE the bad as if they do NOT exist.

When the non-brainwashed folks remind them of the BAD parts of their book they will just get all mad and actually INSULT US for asking them these VALID questions of their "divine" book. UNBELIEVABLE!!!

I think it is a waste of time to attempt to get any VALID answers on this one.

Originally posted by WolfofWar


But as I previously stated, you are not open to interpret.

"Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God." (2 Peter 20-21 NAB)"

That's from Jesus. Why would the laws be dissolved and still not open for interpretation. Aren't the letters to the Romans from Peter, not from Jesus? Are those not his interpretations, not the word of Jesus?

The quotation from Peter is obviously,from Peter, not from Jesus.
It is about prophecy, not law.
It you look at the context, which is always a good thing to do with Biblical passages, you will see that it is about the fact that old Testament prophecy points forward to Jesus. It is not meant to be a blanket condemnation of interpretation in general.

The letter to the Romans was not written by Peter. It was written by Paul.
I accept the teaching as part of the gospel teaching. Are you one one of those people mentioned by Paul in the letter to the Galatians, who wants to "spy out our freedom" in the gospel, and bring us back under the tyranny of the Mosaic law? Two thousand years too late.

[edit on 11-8-2010 by DISRAELI]

[edit on 11-8-2010 by DISRAELI]

Originally posted by Baloney
Christians have MASTERED the art of CHERRY PICKING the good, and IGNORING the bad. They post here, and THUMP ON and ON, and ON in person in regards to the GOOD verses, but completely IGNORE the bad as if they do NOT exist.

who did that?

When the non-brainwashed folks remind them of the BAD parts of their book they will just get all mad and actually INSULT US for asking them these VALID questions of their "divine" book.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Who got mad? Who was insulted?

I think it is a waste of time to attempt to get any VALID answers on this one.

And you decide to still post here?

reply to post by WolfofWar

Anyway, let me get this straight.

The whole point of your OP was that obeying the Mosaic law was a bad thing to do.
OBEY LAW = BAD

The whole drift of your argument since then has been that NOT obeying the Mosaic law was a bad thing to do.
NOT OBEY LAW = BAD

Would you please make up your mind, one way or the other?
This "damned if you do, damned if you don't" approach is just perverse.

reply to post by The Endtime Warrior


I take it then from your reply that you actually dont read any replies from them on these forums then, eh? Either that or you are a new member here to these forums!!

*SIGH* Well, like I said, you will not get any valid ANSWERS from them on this thread!!!

Because no one follows anther to a T. If folks think they can get away with something, fly under the radar, then they will. Very few folks are so principled as to actually follow anything faithfully.

Many teens, even though they consider themselves Christian, still have premarital sex, even if their church teaches them that that is sin. Why? Because they think it is okay so long as they don't get pregnant or have an STD. No consequences? No problem!

That's just how humans work.

reply to post by Baloney


This is a thread, we're not talking about this entire site, or your experiences with "said" christians. You added absolutely nothing, to this topic of the OP. Why are you wasting your time again?

Originally posted by DISRAELI
reply to post by WolfofWar

 

Anyway, let me get this straight.

The whole point of your OP was that obeying the Mosaic law was a bad thing to do.
OBEY LAW = BAD

The whole drift of your argument since then has been that NOT obeying the Mosaic law was a bad thing to do.
NOT OBEY LAW = BAD

Would you please make up your mind, one way or the other?
This "damned if you do, damned if you don't" approach is just perverse.

My point was actually that this guy for a year found over 700 laws in the bible and forced himself to follow them, and nobody seems to do this. I was just wondering why. It's not a "Obey law = bad" I am indifferent to these laws, I'm just curious as to why you only obey 10 out of the 750 some laws.

Originally posted by WolfofWar
I'm just curious as to why you only obey 10 out of the 750 some laws.

If you're just curious, why start quarrelling with the reason I gave you, which is the historic answer to your question?
Paul's teaching was that we are not subject to ANY of them, as laws, but are "under the guidance of the Holy Spirit."
This is not easy to work with in practice, so the church has drifted into the pragmatic solution of treating the "Ten" as a mini-law code.

In other words, Paul actually agrees with the original premise of your OP, that taking the laws literally is a bad idea.
He agrees with you, for heaven's sake, so why argue with him?

reply to post by The Endtime Warrior


Well, I guess you are then wasting time also, eh? WHY dont you try ANSWERING the question of THIS THREAD, then you and I can have a suitable discussion then.

Defend away, I am listening, and eager to engage in a discussion that is not wasteful as you suggest.

[edit on 11-8-2010 by Baloney]