Christian Carnival #198

has been posted at The Minor Prophet.

In this week’s carnival Josiah Concept Ministries both tipped me off to, and responded to, an atheist, VJACK, who is reading the Bible through and commenting. Both posts make good reading.

But the final comment in VJACK’s post is pretty interesting:

Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad that today’s Christians ignore nearly all of the laws their biblical god hands down in these three books. And yet, I remain puzzled that anyone claiming to be a Christian can ignore all of this, selectively choosing the couple parts that make them feel good while neglecting the bulk of what is actually there. This is the sort of god who is unlikely to react favorably to such neglect. If I believed in such a god, I don’t think I’d go near anything containing yeast!

It’s important to look at when, where, and how particular laws apply. That’s why I like to remind people that nobody actually keeps all the laws in scripture, nor are they supposed to. There seems to be an assumption both amongst many Christians and amongst those who are not but yet study the Bible that it must be taken as a list of commands to be obeyed. But it is embedded in both a mythology and a history, and you have to ask where in this process each thing fits.

Further, you won’t all agree even then, and that’s not necessarily bad. There are more sources of information than the Bible, as I must so often remind my fellow Christians.

Barbara at Tidbits and Treasures discusses the efficacy of official days of prayer. I would say that personally I pray about just about everything, and yet I have a hard time seeing the value of a governor calling for prayer. But Barbara makes some interesting points.