Friday 20 February 2009

Taking Bible verses out of context

There is a story about the man who decided to seek guidance from God by opening the Bible at random and sticking a pin in the page, and trusting that the words where the pin stuck indicated God's will for him.

The pin landed in the latter part of Matthew 27:5, describing the actions of Judas Iscariot: "he went and hanged himself."

Not satisfied with the result, the man tried again, and this time the pin landed at the end of Luke 10:37: "You go, and do likewise."

Now, I have not been trying this method of seeking divine guidance, but something spooky has just happened. I read that the wording on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia was a quotation from the Bible. (In fact it says "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X."

Being a Christian Libertarian, I thought I ought to look it up, and it found the verse actually begins "And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants."

Consecrate the fiftieth year? And proclaim liberty throughout the land? Hold on - it's only a matter of weeks until my 49th birthday. Does this mean that I'm supposed to be dropping everything else and dedicating 12 months to advancing the cause of liberty and opposing the erosion of freedom in Britain?

No comments: