Chapter 31

The Bible as a possible document

Essenceism is a system that approaches the problem of God's existence from the "scientific side". The point is that it does not deduce His existence from the contents of any holy book. These, considered inspired works, are most often the basis of faith for countless religious denominations. The most famous book of religion, the Bible, is the basis of several of the world's great religions. It is about Judaism, which accepts its older veneration, and about Christianity, which, thanks to Catholicism, has accepted all its books. The Koran also contains facts taken from its content.

Unfortunately, from the point of view of the methods of work of a scientist, the Bible cannot be the basis for recognizing historical facts, creating precise theories, hypotheses and unambiguous views. So far, science does not take into account revelations, supernatural phenomena or spiritual visions arising in a different mental state of man. The main obstacle to considering this book as a reliable source of information is the fact that it was written under completely "unscientific" circumstances. The sources of information contained therein are lost in the distant, unverifiable future. Large doubts, especially concerning the oldest period, are raised by the lack of established authorship, the fact that events were written down by non-objective people, the uncontrolled way of translating oral testimonies or referring to unverified revelations, descriptions and accounts.

Additionally, essenceism draws attention to the ambiguity and unclearness of the content of the Bible. Thousands or even millions of interpretations drew contradictory conclusions from it. The very fact that thousands of religious denominations, often fighting each other, have arisen on its basis, proves the uselessness of biblical descriptions for effective scientific research.

All these facts give a high probability of transferring false information into the sphere of faith that people accept. It is of little concern when these confessions treat the content of the Bible as teaching parables, for which truth does not matter. It is worse when the biblical content is read as the actual state of events. The worst thing is when you want to feel the solutions contained in this book literally.

Essenceism assumes that we can understand the Bible properly when we use the maximum of our intelligence and intuition, and when we find the right code to decode it. In imparting their knowledge of Jesus, the apostles claimed that he spent much of his time with them explaining to them the Scriptures we know today as the Old Testament. Meanwhile, for hundreds of years before Jesus, the scribes explained to the Israelites the secrets of the books that exist until today. It can be seen that Jesus knew a certain code unknown to anyone before and explained the content of the Old Testament books in a completely different way than the scribes of the time. It exposed himself to the Jewish leaders, especially the Pharisees. Undoubtedly, Jesus revealed to the apostles an important code or some kind of "key" to decipher the Old Testament. This later helped them and their successors to prepare the contents of the accounts and testimonies that make up the New Testament. The proof of the lack of knowledge of this code by the then Jewish clergymen can be the assertion of Jesus that no one at that time understood that these ancient Scriptures speak of Him. This is important information. Apparently, after hundreds of years of studying the prophecies and the Scriptures, a New Teacher, Jesus Christ, came and made known to everyone what their proper meaning was. Unfortunately, despite His efforts, hardly anyone in the Jewish people believed Him.

The fact of drawing different, even contradictory conclusions from the content of the Bible continues until the present day. For thousands of years we have been reading the books of the Old and New Testaments with different understandings. There are still new interpretations. The older ones, on the basis of which hundreds, if not thousands, of different Christian denominations were founded, are still relevant today. Meanwhile, new interpretations actively stimulate the formation of new churches, associations and religious sects. Each of these denominations considers their interpretation of the Bible to be the most appropriate, leading to conflicts and even wars.

Essenceism assumes that the Bible was written in good faith for the purpose of telling us some important truth. My system even assumes that it was written by inspired people, although not everyone shares this view. Unless it is accepted that the Bible was written by inspired writers, it does not make sense to consider it as a source of proper religious knowledge, especially as a book presenting important knowledge of the existence of God. Without inspiration from phenomena beyond rational evaluation, and without taking into account the ubiquitous inspired symbolism of the facts described, it becomes only a voluminous volume describing certain past events in a biased, inaccurate and sometimes even inconsistent with reality. The practical value of its content can be compared to the value of the parables that Jesus preached. They often sounded like typical stories of ordinary events known to people from another version. However, it is worth accepting that their meaning was much deeper. These were the inspired teachings of Jesus behind the events told. Since the Teacher of the Apostles did it, it means that this method of analyzing the content of the Bible should be appropriate. It is written in many places in the Gospels that Jesus was quoting these Scriptures. However, it was not written that he showed any errors in them. Rather, his explanations consisted of a careful analysis showing that these Scriptures were speaking of Him, and the assertion that the religious leaders of that time did not understand them properly. It seems that the biblical texts were credible to Him.

Many people wonder if the Bible is the true transmission of knowledge about God? Essenceism explains that this book was primarily intended to help the nation of Israel recognize the Messiah in the person of Jesus. Therefore, it is His who can be called the Truth that I am looking for. Meanwhile, this nation did not read the truth from it, neither with capital nor small "p". He did not understand that it was a guide to discerning the expected Messiah. Only after His resurrection, that is, after appearing among the living, the apostles could understand the proper meaning of His teaching and with certainty answer the question what is the truth according to the Bible. Moreover, Jesus himself explained it when he said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 16: 6). So, Truth with a capital "P" is not a description or theory. This is a specific Person. He is the embodiment of what the Bible teaches, which Christians call the Word of God.

According to essenceism, the Bible does not represent truth in itself, especially the truth with a lowercase "p". It describes historical facts that, according to other sources, looked completely different or might not have happened at all. It presents words that have not necessarily been made to specific or supposed listeners. Today we know these words only from accounts and we can understand them completely different than in the old days. However, they don't necessarily have to do with actual events. However, it can be argued that the Bible is a book that leads to the truth using ways that appeal to human intelligence.

According to science, it is difficult to judge what of what the prophets, the patriarchs, especially Jesus, have said, has come to our day authentically. Therefore, it would be best for science if we could have authentic recordings of words from that time, which of course is impossible.

So I claim that it is a didactic book. By means of various pictures, descriptions, metaphors and parables, he tries to teach not only the right thing to do, but something much more important. An example of this is the parable of the Good Samaritan told by Jesus. He wanted to define the concept of his neighbor through it, and it does not matter whether the described event took place at all. As a teacher to the apostles, Jesus often used such didactic methods so that simple people would understand difficult concepts. Further, he wanted to make every recipient of His parables be guided by both love and wisdom resulting from logical thinking. For he wanted only love to reign in the world. This was one of the main purposes of His teachings. Perhaps this conclusion boils down to the educational value of the Bible.

The above considerations lead to the conclusion that the Bible is an open book in which billions of people try to find "their" Truth in their own way. The idea of ​​essenceism presented here wants to help them in this, primarily using logical thinking. Essenceism rejects the notion that in the case of getting to know God, one should not be guided by our human logic. Such an unauthorized claim is most often used to "brainwash" believers, which in turn leads to unnecessary fanaticism and inappropriate attitudes towards people. Uncritical acceptance of the dogmatic findings of the biblical content deprives people of the right to their own path in getting to know their Creator. Therefore, essenceism claims that through analytical and logical reasoning opens the way to understanding God in our own independent and original way. That's what the Bible is for.

Thanks to these explanations, anyone can understand that the Bible cannot be a document on the basis of which science can acquire proper knowledge about the Creator of the universe. Rather, the Bible is a book intended for the individual so that he himself can find "his private", unique Heavenly Father.