{"id":14681,"date":"2013-05-28T14:35:33","date_gmt":"2013-05-28T18:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=14681"},"modified":"2013-05-28T14:35:33","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T18:35:33","slug":"the-bible-lens-or-blindfold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/05\/the-bible-lens-or-blindfold.html","title":{"rendered":"The Bible: Lens or Blindfold?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2013\/05\/diagnosed-with-bible-blindness\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">David Hayward posted another thought-provoking cartoon<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/files\/2013\/05\/bible-blind-550x550.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"550\"><\/p>\n<p>There are so many points that one can make in relation to this. The problem of looking for God <em>in<\/em> the Bible, when by definition any reality worthy of the designation \u201cGod\u201d is not to be found in a book. The fact that so many atheists are convinced that there is no God because ancient authors of the Bible held beliefs about both God and the world that are unpersuasive. The fact that focusing on what authoritative texts say is depicted time and time again\u00a0<em>within the Bible\u00a0<\/em>as interfering with people heeding God\u2019s call.<\/p>\n<p>But most importantly, the Bible points to God, a God that is to be known and experienced not on its pages, or at least not there alone, but beyond its pages, in experience, in reality.<\/p>\n<p>If the Bible itself is what you see, then you are doing something wrong. The Bible can only serve as a lens or as a blindfold.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Hayward posted another thought-provoking cartoon: There are so many points that one can make in relation to this. The problem of looking for God in the Bible, when by definition any reality worthy of the designation \u201cGod\u201d is not to be found in a book. The fact that so many atheists are convinced that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,131,139,163],"tags":[1140,1243,1625,1846,6472,10940],"class_list":["post-14681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-christianity-religion","category-fundamentalism-religion","category-progressive-christianity-religion","tag-bible","tag-blindness","tag-cartoon","tag-christianity-religion","tag-lens","tag-scripture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Bible: Lens or Blindfold?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Hayward posted another thought-provoking cartoon: There are so many points that one can make in relation to this. 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