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Letter: Your attitude: Does it follow the Pharisees?
Op-Ed · June 16, 2016


Kris Clark, in a recent edition of the Tipton Conservative, shares her newfound curiosity about the contents of the Bible, admitting that she has very little personal knowledge of what it says.
I hope that this will encourage more people to read it on their own, to ask questions and consider views from outside their comfort zones.

The first part, the “Old Testament,” is a collection of stories, poetic verse and rules. All of these contributions were gathered by many authors, over nearly two thousand years. It is much harder to read than a modern book, written in a short, specific era, by one person, with a clear message.

Although some sections deal with dates and events and genealogies and it is used as a valuable source of information regarding the past, it was not specifically written as a historical text. The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, relates the journey of both a people and the God that created them to find relationship with each.

The New Testament is the story of God giving us the gift of relationship with Him, by having Jesus take up, once, and for all, the guilt of our failures. God has realized that we are incapable of earning relationship. All of Jesus’s actions and sermons differ from the actions and attitudes of the religious leaders of His lifetime, who are simply following the rules from the Old Testament. Knowing what Jesus said and did in specific situations, is essential in choosing to be a follower of His. When we read these accounts on our own, with open hearts and minds, looking for spiritual growth rather than justifying Old Testament customs, then we honor our relationship with God.

I encourage everyone to read this book on their own, to envision themselves standing either with the Pharisees following the Old Testament, or with Jesus in His attitude of mercy and grace.

Laura Twing

Tipton