Why Sam Harris Should NOT Interpret The Bible

Sam Harris, Lawrence Krauss, Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkings and other atheists use various verses in The Bible to promote their atheist or no God agenda.  Am using Sam Harris in this posting because Sam Harris has been in many debates with religious people regarding God and religion.  My endeavor is not to promote the false religions that worship God by their will that are in the world.  With that being said regarding God Almighty, God has and is continually given me a few things to say on His behalf by His Spirit through The Bible.  For starters all those that debated on behalf of God with Sam Harris were not supposed to speak.  They are the women that should be silent that know nothing.  Their understanding of The Bible is literally the milk of the word instead of the “strong food”, which you read below how the “teacher… need that one teach you”:

Hebrews 5:10-14 “10 having been addressed by God a chief priest, according to the order of Melchisedek, 11 concerning whom we have much discourse and of hard explanation to say, since ye have become dull of hearing, 12 for even owing to be teachers, because of the time, again ye have need that one teach you what are the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God, and ye have become having need of milk, and not of strong food, 13 for every one who is partaking of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness–for he is an infant, 14 and of perfect men is the strong food, who because of the use are having the senses exercised, unto the discernment both of good and of evil.”

Sam would make a point similar to the woman that is caught in adultery is to be stoned.  His interpretation of The Bible is based on the dead spirit within the man to interpret scripture.  We can see the very same parallel as the Jews in John 8 that brought a woman caught in the very act of adultery before Jesus to pass judgment.  The judgment the scribes and pharisees had in view was to stone her.  Let us first read what The Bible has recorded in Leviticus about adultery.

Leviticus 20:10 “10 ‘And a man who committeth adultery with a man’s wife–who committeth adultery with the wife of his neighbour–the adulterer and the adulteress are surely put to death.”

Well Leviticus 20:10 was pretty straight forward adultery would require being put to death.

Here we read what Jesus says about adultery and even makes it more difficult to keep the law by tying in the very desire of adultery.

Matthew 5:27, 28 “27 ‘Ye heard that it was said to the ancients: Thou shalt not commit adultery; 28 but I–I say to you, that every one who is looking on a woman to desire her, did already commit adultery with her in his heart.”

Below you read the verse about the woman that was brought to Jesus and was caught in the very act of adultery.  The Jews (Pharisees/Lawyers) are testing Jesus’ understanding of the law and how what judgment he is going to execute upon the woman.

John 8:3-5 “3 and the scribes and the Pharisees bring unto him a woman having been taken in adultery, and having set her in the midst, 4 they say to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was taken in the very crime–committing adultery, 5 and in the law, Moses did command us that such be stoned; thou, therefore, what dost thou say?’”

Now we can read what Jesus’ response was to the woman taken in adultery:

John 8:7 “7 and when they continued asking him, having bent himself back, he said unto them, ‘The sinless of you–let him first cast the stone at her;’”

Note Jesus in the verse above tied the carrying out of judgement to he who was “sinless”.   Now you see what happened next:

John 8:9 “9 and they having heard, and by the conscience being convicted, were going forth one by one, having begun from the elders–unto the last; and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.”

All of those Scribes and Phraisees that wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery could not stone her when Jesus had revealed that only the sinless could execute the judgment.  They were reading the law with a dead spirit within them.  The Bible through the eyes of a dead spirit always yields a bad interpretation of The Scripture.  Just as Sam Harris reads with the same spirit as the pharisees and scribes that attempting to discredit The Bible because their works are evil.  You can see below that Jesus did not pass sentence on the woman:

John 8:10, 11 “10 And Jesus having bent himself back, and having seen no one but the woman, said to her, ‘Woman, where are those–thine accusers? did no one pass sentence upon thee?’ 11 and she said, ‘No one, Sir;’ and Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I pass sentence on thee; be going on, and no more sin.’

Jesus had confronted the scribes and pharisees erroneous interpretation from almost 2000 years ago.  The Bible recorded that they were reading the word in darkness without the Light of The Spirit “unto this day”.  Had added the emphasis of “unto this day” because you will see in this verse below how God exemplifies “unto this day” is eternal from eternity past to eternity future:

2 Corinthians 3:14 “14 but their minds were hardened, for unto this day the same vail at the reading of the Old Covenant doth remain unwithdrawn–which in Christ is being made useless–”

Because Sam Harris is looking at The Bible in the same manner as the Scribes and Pharisees except that Sam is using that for his own purpose to cast down God.  That would put Sam Harris in the same condemnation as the Pharisees and Scribes in John 8 when Jesus says this to them:

John 8:31, 32 “31 Jesus, therefore, said unto the Jews who believed in him, ‘If ye may remain in my word, truly my disciples ye are, and ye shall know the truth, 32 and the truth shall make you free.’”

Jesus is saying that the scribes and pharisees are not free and we can also add all those mentioned like Sam Harris.  Of course the very next thing someone like Sam Harris or a scribe and pharisee would say:

John 8:33 “33 They answered him, ‘Seed of Abraham we are; and to no one have we been servants at any time; how dost thou say–Ye shall become free?’”

They can say that from the perspective that they “think” they are controllers of their own destiny.  They have a mind to think!  They are the seed of GOD The Father.  They are born Jews and therefore the seed of Abraham.  Doesn’t matter which one of them you choose essentially you are saying you are not in bondage.  Oddly enough the Jews of that day were in bondage to ROME…  You see just like everyone is in bondage to the devil…

Below Jesus righteously and truthfully declares that the force of freedom is in the hand of Jesus not MAN!  The sin to believe you are like God by your will and thereby in control of your destiny is the sin from The Garden of Eden and if you have fallen unto that sin that sin is in control of you.  Also because they are the seed of Abraham they are seeking to Kill Jesus!  How might they be seeking to kill Jesus?  Why would Jesus say that?  Before answering those questions note that the very reason they are seeking to kill Jesus is “because my word hath no place in you”.  The Spirit of Jesus is not within them therefore they seek to kill Jesus in their endeavoring everyone to either keep the law in the distorted understanding of the scribe or pharisee or in the casting down of God as Sam Harris does!

John 8:34-37 “34 Jesus answered them, ‘Verily, verily, I say to you–Every one who is committing sin, is a servant of the sin, 35 and the servant doth not remain in the house–to the age, the son doth remain–to the age; 36 if then the son may make you free, in reality ye shall be free. 37 ‘I have known that ye are seed of Abraham, but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you;”

Below Jesus makes a distinction of what Jesus has seen by His Father He “speaks” and what the scribes and pharisees have seen with their father and “do”.

John 8:38 “38 I–that which I have seen with my Father do speak, and ye, therefore, that which ye have seen with your father–ye do.’”

Below the scribes and pharisees state their relationship to Abraham and Jesus’ response:

John 8:39 “39 They answered and said to him, ‘Our father is Abraham;’ Jesus saith to them, ‘If children of Abraham ye were, the works of Abraham ye were doing;”

Jesus stating that the scribes and pharisees (Sam Harris) are seeking to kill Jesus for speaking to truth Jesus heard from God and how Abraham did not do that.  Now you might be saying how can Sam Harris seek to kill Jesus who was on earth 2000 years ago?  We are getting to that.

John 8:40 “40 and now, ye seek to kill me–a man who hath spoken to you the truth I heard from God; this Abraham did not;”

Again Jesus points to the works of their father.  The scribes and pharisees say they are not of whoredom in that they are fulfilling the law being the sons of God.

John 8:41 “41 ye do the works of your father.’ They said, therefore, to him, ‘We of whoredom have not been born; one Father we have–God;’”

Here we see Jesus declares:

“If God were your father, ye would be loving me” therefore they are not of Jesus’ Father they hate Jesus.  “I came forth from God, and am come;” Jesus came forth from God in the past and now.  “for neither have I come of myself, but He sent me;”  God sent Jesus in the flesh as God also sends Jesus into the heart of man.

John 8:42 “42 Jesus then said to them, ‘If God were your father, ye were loving me, for I came forth from God, and am come; for neither have I come of myself, but He sent me;”

Jesus declares to them a rhetorical question about why they don’t understand what Jesus is saying.  Here it is what we have been waiting for: “because ye are not able to hear my word”!  They can’t hear the word of Jesus because the WORD from Jesus which we just read in John 8:37 “because my word hath no place in you;”.    The word of God or Spirit of God which is the word in the heart of man is not inside the scribes and pharisees or those like Sam Harris.  Also remember John 8:31, 32 “31 Jesus, therefore, said unto the Jews who believed in him, ‘If ye may remain in my word, truly my disciples ye are, and ye shall know the truth, 32 and the truth shall make you free.’”  You see the word that the true believers have in John 8:31, 32 is not inside the scribes and pharisees.  Therefore they won’t understand what Jesus is saying.  Therefore their interpretation of The Bible is very different from that of the True Believers.

John 8:43 “43 wherefore do ye not know my speech? because ye are not able to hear my word.”

Who is the father of the scribes and pharisees and those like Sam Harris?????

John 8:44 “44 ‘Ye are of a father–the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do; he was a man-slayer from the beginning, and in the truth he hath not stood, because there is no truth in him; when one may speak the falsehood, of his own he speaketh, because he is a liar–also his father.”

 

There is so much in the verse above let us look at this point by point:

The Devil is their father!

The desires of the devil they will do!

The desire of the devil was a “man-slayer” from the beginning.

In the truth the devil did not stand just as the scribes and pharisees and Sam Harris.

There is NO TRUTH in them!

When they speak they speak falsehood.

They speak of their own falsehood.

They speak falsehood because they are liars just as the devil their father a liar.

Now we might want to say how did Sam Harris become a “man-slayer”?  Well we will answer that again a little later.  Let us look at the next verse where Jesus declares He is saying the truth and the scribes and pharisees don’t believe.  They don’t believe because it is impossible for a liar to understand the truth because they have a lying spirit within them.  They are the sons of the devil who was a liar from the beginning therefore it is impossible for them by their will to see the truth of God.  Notice the very next part of the verse says “Who of you doth convict me of sin?”.  When you consider that by having a lying spirit within them the scribes and pharisees (Sam Harris) by default will look to convict Jesus of sin.  The clear record of Jesus’ crucifixion is proof of this.  Again Jesus asks them why don’t they believe if Jesus speaks the truth.  They don’t believe because only those that are of God’s Spirit are capable to believe.

John 8:45-47 “45 ‘And because I say the truth, ye do not believe me. 46 Who of you doth convict me of sin? and if I speak truth, wherefore do ye not believe me? 47 he who is of God, the sayings of God he doth hear; because of this ye do not hear, because of God ye are not.’”

 

To be continued.