Christian's Don't Actually Believe The Bible

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]No Christian actually believes the Bible literally. And no, I'm not saying this is like a cheap attack. It's just it's literally impossible to not interpret the Bible. Do you follow every law in Leviticus? Do you think that the slavery in the Bible is morally acceptable? Do you believe that the earth was created in six literal days? If the answer to any of these is no, then you're already interpreting the Bible. Because the question isn't really whether you believe the Bible literally. The question is actually what parts do you take literally and why? This is the silent republic.

[00:00:40][music] >> A lot of people say they believe the Bible literally, especially fundamentalist evangelical Christians, but what they really mean is I take the parts I agree with literally. They take any section that's uncomfortable, such as slavery or God commanding genocide or even the cosmology within the Bible and they negotiate with the text. They interpret it in light of other scriptures or bring presuppositions or even hermeneutical traditions to the table. And so the framework of early Hebrew cosmology kind of gets brushed away. They say things like, "Well, it doesn't literally mean four corners of the earth and with four gates for the wind." Right? That's not literally what it means. They even try to explain away the explicit genocides that God commands on the Canaanites within the scripture.

[00:01:35]And it's just really reads as dishonest because they have to take these texts of scripture and make them say things that they aren't actually saying. And they have to do this because these sections make them uncomfortable. But the Bible also can't be flawed. And so there's like this tension that they have to explain away because they can't have the Bible be incorrect or flawed in any way.

[00:01:59]And then by the same token, they have to like grapple with morality. And they can't admit that the Bible is actually a collection of books written across a large period of time by a large number of hands and edited by scribes and updated on multiple occasions to suit the needs of any given time. And I don't think this is even like up for debate at this point. We have the Dead Sea Scrolls and they've been translated into modern English and the bottom line is when you look at the Bibles we have today and then these English translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, they don't match. And it's not just like minor scribbal errors. I mean, there's plenty of those as well, but there's like some serious issues and and changes that have taken place over time from these ancient texts to the versions that we have today. And that's just clear. And so people do this across the Bible to this day. And they work very hard to harmonize passages that simply can't be harmonized. And it's because they bring presuppositions and worldviews to the Bible and have to figure out a way to make that work. And so they subordinate what the Bible is actually saying to maintain their conscience or not look foolish. But I mean, come on. Is this supposed to be the divine word of the all powerful, allloving creator of the universe?

[00:03:16]Is this how about this?

[00:03:23]Like, you're telling me that God prohibits gay people from having relations, but it's okay to sell your daughter into sex slavery? Like, really?

[00:03:31]You can't take the Bible literally. You say you do, but you don't, especially where it's uncomfortable. And I already know what like a lot of Christians are going to say because I said some very similar things in the past and it's going to be some version of but you don't understand our interpretation. The way we interpret these texts is the the correct interpretation because we come from the correct tradition you know in whatever tradition that is that they're biased toward that's what they're going to say it about that that they have maintained the true doctrines the true interpretation and what Christ was actually saying. Nearly every Christian tradition makes this claim. I do think it's true that some might have a better claim to that. I mean, Orthodox Christianity, which has its roots in the 8th century AD, probably has a hell of a lot better claim than, you know, 19th century evangelicalism, right? I mean, even the original church, right, the Catholic church makes that claim. But the truth is when the Catholic Church supposedly founded like the bishop in Rome wasn't supreme. There were many bishops across many different churches.

[00:04:32]Marology wasn't a thing. celibate priests didn't exist at the time. Not to mention the brutal line of succession for the papal seat that happened during the medieval period where the line of succession literally became just like this political office that people were fighting over. Like come on, you can't tell me that there's like a legitimate form of Christianity or even anything resembling what Christ supposedly taught. Okay? Like come on. I mean the list is like truly endless here and I could just keep going on. But the point is is that the supposed true version of Christianity is lost to time. I mean, there's good evidence that early Christians didn't even agree on who exactly Christ even was, whether he was God or not. They disagreed on the continuation of the Mosaic law on whether non-Jews, Gentiles, even had a part in this new covenant. Every given Christian doctrine now was developed over time through renegotiation with the Bible as the canon or the version of the Bible that we have today was literally still being written and formed. And that's just the Protestant Bible, not to mention the Catholic Bible or the Ethiopian Bible or other texts like the Book of Mormon. Because to even reach the point of saying you take the Bible literally, like what do you mean by Bible? Which version? And I know it may feel like I'm just picking on Christians here, but this is what I know best because I was raised on it. But I mean, every high demand religion does this.

[00:05:58][snorts] They renegotiate uncomfortable text and they use traditional lenses through which to interpret the texts.

[00:06:04]And I know that there are storied hermeneutical traditions. Okay, I'm not ignorant to that. And some are more rigorous than others. Some have more historicity than others. And so I'm not trying to just collapse this rather complex topic into simple binaries of good or bad. And I'm not saying that truth can't be discovered. I'm just saying that this issue is complex.

[00:06:27][snorts] And modern evangelical framing is like mostly ignorant to all of that.

[00:06:32]And they're very self assured in their assumptions. And that honestly just pisses me off because I find it extremely fascinating. And even though I don't personally believe it anymore, I still find myself drawn to it. I love to study and read. And I'm just saying if you believe, do so. But hold that belief loosely and remain curious and open. And even though as humans, we're incapable of not having biases, try to recognize what your biases are so you're aware.

[00:07:00]And the bottom line is this is how humans interact with belief across society and culture. Because a book that was written by semi-nomatic people living in Palestine a th000 BC don't approach the world the same way Westerners in the 21st century do. And they don't approach it the same way that the Jewish people living in Jesus's time did or the early Christians after them or Christians or believers from any era because the conditions change and the beliefs change with them. And the truth is that if Christianity still exists in a thousand years, it will not look like the Christianity of today. It will evolve and change to suit the needs of the people that are living in their time with their issues. So the question isn't whether you interpret the Bible. The question is, are you honest about it?

[00:07:52]This is the silent republic.

[00:07:55][music] Tell me what you want. What you need?

[00:07:59]Tell me. Tell me. Tell [music] me. Tell me what you want. What you need? Tell me. Tell me.