Why the Bible is not hate speech



Table of Contents




The purpose of this website

This website will succinctly present the true meaning of the Bible — including a concise outline of certain Bible stories and their inspired meaning. Our earnest hope is that this website will explain “Why the Bible is not hate speech” with enough clarity that you will seek to read and study both The Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy (both of which are cited throughout the following text). But first...




Do hateful liars use and abuse any power they get? Of course...

It is important to state the obvious: Plenty of hateful liars use, and have used, Christianity and the Bible as the vehicle by which they claim “divine authority” to do everything from obtaining elevated positions for personal gain and societal influence, and all the way to laying waste to entire indigenous peoples while stealing their land and gold. This statement should shock no one.

Will people abuse any power they end up having? That is a proven fact. No human system is immune. Just as liars use math to lie; and use interpretations of the law to hide unlawful activity; and use clever engineering to make trash and then engage in deceptive marketing to convince people to buy that trash; etc. — it can't really be all too surprising that hateful liars will use the Bible to justify hate and lies.

While people will use their power to say the Bible is hate speech, they would never try to demonize math, the law, or advertising, etc. It feels wrong to have this double-standard which admits any “normal” shady or illegal activity is because there is something wrong with the person, unless Christianity is involved, and then it isn't the person's fault, its the Bible's teachings which are to blame.

Let us focus on the character of the individual, and have them be accountable for what they do. I am hopeful that if a misguided Christian reads this, they start to see their way clear of hate and stop undermining the teachings of Christ Jesus and the Bible. I hope if a non-Christian reads this, they can take what they have learned here and show the misguided Christians in their life that a hateful interpretation of the Bible is anti-Christian, and harmful to humanity as a whole.




If the Bible is not hate speech, then what is it?

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. — John 1 : 5

The entirety of Genesis 1 : 1 to Genesis 2 : 5 deals with what is termed ‘creation’ but in actuality it is the individual revelation from God to you that all He made is “very good.” (See here for more) If the world around you — and your place and purpose in it — feels dark and “without form, and void” at this moment, then it's important to know there is a way to “Let there be light” through the correct understanding of the Bible, because as long as the darkness of misunderstanding remains, all will seem mysterious, magical, confusing, or even nightmarish.




Where does this misunderstanding come from?

Reality might at this moment feel dark to you because of what happened in Genesis 2 : 6 — “there went up a mist from the earth.” This mist, or veiling, is the error that works to obscure truth to the human mind. Most of what happens in the Bible after this verse is predicated by, and in reaction to, this darkened sense man took on. This darkened sense of life has been termed “The Adam-dream” and we will use that term for the rest of this text for clarity. It is within this Adam-dream that the impersonal God, good, — who is Truth and Love — becomes a personal Lord God who is seen as subject to human emotions and general jerkish behavior.

Once that mist goes up, man starts being told that the ground is something one should look to for abundance, to such an extent that the Lord God even uses it to ‘co-create’ woman. These beliefs (ground, dust, and later field and soil) appear to be what the Adam-dream first used to direct thought away from the one and only God, and to start believing there is “life, truth, intelligence, [and] substance in matter.” (S&H, p. 468)

With that initial wedge already driven, here comes “the serpent” (Genesis 3:1) who “was more subtil than any beast of the field” trying to make man believe the only “god” needed is oneself, with human knowledge calling the shots. However, since “Wisdom is not gained of knowledge that brought sin and death into the world” (S&H, 1875, p. 90), this doesn't work the way they hoped, and — instead of going back to Truth and Love in repentence — man continued to look to matter for life, truth, intelligence, and substance.

And then the beliefs of lack, pain, suffering, and death come in; Man starts to believe that life is dependent on how well one tills the soil to build up their own corner of the Adam-dream; and the “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” of false theology begins to lay hold.

But “Man is not made to till the soil.” (S&H, p. 581) Mary Baker Eddy further explains that “The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream.” (S&H, p. 306) There is no reason for us to try to figure out the dream logic of this Adam-dream. The why of it is not important because there is no why other than the lie of error. Therefore, when we are sick of eating the husks as the prodigal son was (Luke 15:11-32), we only need to find our way back to our Father's house, while taking “nothing of thine own with thee.” (Mis. p. 327)

This is why the teachings of Christ Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy are so needed: They help us to know what sin is, and how to avoid it.




What qualifies as sin?

It's important to understand that the meaning of sin is simply to miss the mark. If you are aiming for the bull's eye, and the arrow goes anywhere else, then you've missed the mark. If you profess to follow Jesus’ teachings and yet fail to “love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:39) then you have missed the mark. Knowing that God is Love, if your idea of godliness is to express hate then you miss the mark. Likewise, since God is Truth, then bearing “false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16) misses the mark. And, if you are using the Bible as a tool to give authority to your ungodly behaviors or feelings, then you are missing the mark. When you are ready to stop missing the mark, then do as Christ Jesus said — “go, and sin no more.” (John 8:11)




Okay, then what is the right way to see everything?

We've already uncovered the concept of the Adam-dream being the darkened, erroneous sense of life, and also the idea that the word light in Genesis 1 means the true understanding of God's creation coming to you. Just by reading this, the process has already begun!

We then need to know who and what God really is, who the Son of God really is, and who we are. For this, we will pull from the “Some words on Christian Science” section of our website explaining who Mary Baker Eddy is, to clarify:




The Bible's weird stories are warnings!

We thought about countering specific grievances with the Bible, such as the story of Lot, but most weird stories presented in the Bible are obviously there as warnings, not to greenlight specific behaviors, or to make hate and fear (or perversity) seem acceptable in God's sight. Lot was entrenched in the Adam-dream, and therefore he saw lack and fear and hate where Abraham (then called Abram) saw God's abundance and love, and so Lot took his family closer to the nearest big city where he saw human security and prosperity, and he nearly paid for it with his family's life. Every foolish decision from there on out was built on that initial lack of understanding of God, and only got worse and more weird as the story progressed. A cautionary tale, for sure. We are not to think that the Bible is saying, “Be sure to flee disasters with enough alcohol to get drunk on and then engage in perverse acts.” That would be a very un-inspired interpretation!

And what about all the strange rules that Moses came up with after God gave him the Ten Commandments? Every single time people fail to go directly to God themselves, and instead look to some one else to be their king, prophet, or priest, there are going to be issues. Rulers will feel its their place to make human laws that dictate human morality, rather than allowing a divine sense of morality (meaning that which comes from Truth and Love) to dictate our behavior. The prophet Samuel even tried to warn Israel of all the turmoil having a king would bring here:

“And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” — I Samuel 8 : 10-20

When we read the Bible with inspiration — which can only come from the one God who is Truth and Love — we see what to accept and what to watch out for. If we read the Bible while firmly in the Adam-dream, we read the uninspired word and give it our own interpretation and make life hell for ourselves and others. If your interpretation of the Bible makes others feel as though God's light will never shine on them, then your interpretation is uninspired trash. As II Corinthians 3 : 6 says, “for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” The light (understanding) of God (Truth and Love) is freely available to all, and not one of us have any right to pretend otherwise.

Christ Jesus explained it with these words: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13 : 34, 35) Does this mean only loving the people close to you? Jesus also gave a firm answer here: “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?” (Matthew 5 : 46) Therefore, if your interpretation of the Bible doesn't have that love for all people everywhere, then you are not following the Christ, and you are the reason people think the Bible is hate speech! You are also the reason Christ Jesus had to say:

“yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” — John 16 : 2

Instead, this whole time, you should have been saying exactly what Abraham said to Lot:

“Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.” — Genesis 13 : 8