To All My Readers

By Leocthasme

From Leo C. tha’s me, the ol’ preacher hisself, whoever.

 Seems as I got this here query from one of my Bible story readers.  Wanted to know what is it I believe in anyway?   Thought I had a lot of nerve makin, fun of the ‘Lord's Word’ so to speak.  And (musta' been another preacher of some sort), really wanted to know if I even ever read the  ‘Good Book’.

Well now, the answer to all that there is (hafta' start with the last, first), yep, I done read the ‘Good Book’ a few times.  First time I done it, I read it like a novel from front to back.  Then one time I tried to read it maybe like one a’them there preachers (since I got one a’ them certificates too, even if’n I got it mail order), but never finished readin’ that there way ‘cause it didn’t make no sense pickin' a chapter or verse here or there.   So, then got me a CD what contained the whole works with some earlier interpretations and word history,  like where some a’ them translations come from.  Now that was interestin’ and then I started into findin’ associations of all them ancient words.

Now, that there was the way (I figured) to read the ‘Good Book’.  Done found out more things than this ol’ preacher could even absorb.  Got into all sort a’ things like Ancient Mythology; Astrology, the forerunner of Astronomy; Ancient History, not just the Greeks and Romans, but them old cats way back when, what started writin’ and recordin’ things, maybe even before Moses wrote some of the first chapters of the ‘Good Book’.  Them was the Phoenicians and the Babylonians, who were not only good recorders of events, but great mathematicians, and even world explorers of sorts.  They explored as far as the Straits of Gibraltar and probably some went further but whatever happened to them nobody ever found out for sure.  My (educated) guess is that some of them drifted off to sea and floated to the new world.  Might even drifted off to Ireland and became my ancestors.  But, be that as it may. 

So the answer to the last question was, ‘Yep, I done read the ‘Good Book’, and of course that brings up the question of ‘Do I believe it?’,.  Well now, that is a Yes/No kinda’ question.  Yes, I believe some of it as it is a sort of history of the Israelites (I won’t use the name Jews as they are only one tribe of the Israelites, The Tribe of Judah).  And, from the time of Moses, when he started recording what was happening to the 12 tribes in the desert  and the books of those that came after Moses and kept up with the history  after they got to the ‘Promised Land’, and even tells us what happened to them up 'til the time of Jesus Christ.  Seems to be fairly accurate history, so, yep, I believe that.  So, my assessment of the ‘Good Book’ as a history book is that I believe it to be a fairly accurate account of a certain part of history. 

Well, what about the rest?  Now, some of the rest is some tales and stories about certain individuals, like Adam  and Eve, and like maybe Esther, and Job, and a few others that were picked out and recorded.  Are they true?  Who knows? I get the idea they were like the stories you might tell your kids with nice outcomes (‘see what happens to good little kids’). Those kind of stories were not only used in the Bible to point out how to live and be good but even carried over to all sort of nationalities to more or less point the way.  So my assessment of the ‘Good Book’ as a story book is that you can take it or leave it.  They are just stories that point the way, so to speak.  They tell what happens if'n you are ‘good’ and what happens if'n you are ‘bad’.  Even the books of Psalms and Proverbs is a sort of ancient  ‘Poor Richards Almanac’, sayings to live by.

So, what’s left?  Well, we got some books of Daniel and a bunch of Prophets, and even John’s Revelation.  Do I believe that?  I guess I have to believe it in the light of past history.  If I am going to believe in a Supreme Being, then I am going to have to believe in some of that Being’s manner of informing us of what we might expect.   Now here is the part of the ‘Good Book’ that starts the rebellions rampant with religion.  Nobody, it seems, understands Daniel or John.  They think of Daniel as dreaming and John as an ol’ goat about to die and lookin’ fer an out.  But, then both said they were inspired to write these things by an angel of God.  And, both wrote essentially the same thing although centuries apart.  It seems Daniel was trying to tell the Israelites, who at the time were headin’ downhill, what would befall them in the last days of civilization.  And, John was inspired to write to the new Christians to inform them to ‘keep the faith’ ’til the end of  time.  Both of these books tell the same tale.  And, based on mankind’s ways and mankind’s inhumanity toward mankind, I would have to believe we will bring all these woes upon ourselves.  God, a Supreme Being, or even the ‘Big Guy’ won’t have to do a thing except clean up the mess we make in trying to annihilate ourselves. 

Do I believe it will happen?  You bet I do.  We are headed toward an end which will be the result of wars, famine, disease, hunger, and all sort of human caused problems.  We are selfish so the most selfish will try to control the worlds resourses..  We are greedy, so the greediest will try to end up with ‘the works’.  We are lazy so the laziest will want the less lazy to do their work.  We are jealous of each others possessions so want the same as everyone else and will even go to war to get it.  We are mostly overindulgent in everything and this planet just cannot support overindulgences.  So our overindulgences will eventually strip the planet of life giving necessities. We all want everything we can get without regard to the needs of the rest of mankind so some of us may get it but by that time it will not be worth having.  So is this outcome inevitable?  Yep, the only thing that will save what is left of mankind is the ‘Big Guy’s  intervention.  If I read John and Daniel and the Prophets right, we have no recourse because by our greed and passions we will just kill ourselves.  The ‘Big Guy’ will just come around and pick up the pieces that are left and make something (good) out of them.

So, do I believe the Bible?  Well, I guess it tells what happens when we were told not to eat green apples and we did, anyway.

Ya’ll take care now, ya’heah

The Ol’ Preacher Hisself,   

Leo C. tha’s me!!!