Sofiyah, my golden doodle companion, and I often walk to a nearby park in the late afternoon. On some of these walks, a dark gray Honda CR-V pulls up beside us. A pretty blonde in her early twenties leans out the passenger-side window to share her favorite Bible verse, John 3:16, and remind me that Jesus loves me and wants me to be with him in heaven. She never mentions Sofie in this regard, most likely because Jesus’s dismissal of dogs in Matthew 15:24 suggests that, despite animated movies to the contrary, dogs don’t go to heaven. In my view, this is reason enough for me to give Jesus and heaven a hard pass as well.
Usually, my blonde evangelist and her SUV driver speed away afterward, but sometimes they stay long enough for the girl to ask if I have a favorite Bible verse. “I do,” I say happily. “It’s Job 2:9-10.” “Thanks!” she replies with a big smile, clearly unaware of what the verse is but pleased that I have one. “Jesus loves you!” she shouts as the Honda drives off. I imagine her turning to her friend and saying, “Another soul saved.” I imagine that because that is what I say to mine, “Well, Sophie, another soul saved.” Wishful thinking on both our parts.
John 3:16 is a powerful affirmation of the salvific power of faith in Jesus: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That is from the 1782 Aitken King James Version of the Bible, the official state book of Tennessee. As we Tennesseans say, “If the King James was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us.” I can’t argue with that, and there is no arguing with them.
Two things about John 3:16 bother me. The first is that the Jew who wrote it still believed in a god who demanded blood sacrifice, even if it is the blood of his son, despite centuries of Jewish argument to the contrary.
“For I desired mercy, not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God, more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6, KJV).
“Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them... But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:22, 24, KJV).
“What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:6-8,KJV).
Connecting eternal life with blood sacrifice makes it hard for me to believe in John 3:16. Not wanting eternal life from the start makes it impossible.
I’m in my mid-seventies. Every evening, I watch an episode of the British detective series Midsomer Murders. The series aired for 24 seasons, which is much shorter than eternity. What would I do with an eternity of evenings after that? People who crave eternal life often don’t think about these things.
Of course, if I ask the girl in the Honda about this, she might say I’m missing the point and that it won’t be “me” who lives forever, but my soul. But if she says this, I will say she is missing the point because if it isn’t “me” who gets eternal life, then why is it “me” who has to believe that God so loved the world, etc., etc.?
No, unless Betty Willingale and Brian True-May, the producers of Midsomer Murders, also gain eternal life and keep producing seasons of Midsomer Murders forever, I don’t see the point of eternal life at all. And I think I’m speaking for my soul as well.
I will admit, however, that my favorite Bible verses, Job 2:9-10, are just as hard for people to accept. After God allows Satan to ruin their lives, kill their children, and afflict Job with shingles, Job’s wife, seeing her husband scraping his open sores with a broken piece of pottery, yells at him, saying, “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9, KJV). Technically, the Hebrew is, “Bless God and die,” but she, Job, the reader, and God all understand what she truly means.
Job responds with one of the most profound truths found in any scripture: “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10, KJV). God isn’t categorized as either good or evil, but, as Isaiah 45:7 states, the source of both: “I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil; I the Lord [the Hebrew is YHVH, the Happening of all happening], do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7, KJV). To borrow from Chinese philosophy, God is the Taiji, the nondual Supreme Ultimate that embraces and transcends all opposites and manifests all things.
My guess is the occupants of the Honda weren’t listening when I shared my Bible verses. Or, if they were, they didn’t know what Job 2:9-10 was and didn’t bother to look it up. Which is fine. I doubt they would have been persuaded to my point of view even if they had. The fact is, those of us who quote the Bible only cite those verses that confirm what we already believe to be true, whether or not the Bible is involved. We don’t believe what we believe because of the Bible; we quote what we quote because of what we believe.
So, what’s your favorite Bible verse?
We don’t believe what we believe because of the Bible; we quote what we quote because of what we believe. As I've come to expect, excellent commentary.
OMG! You’re from Tennessee??!! You surely don’t sound like it. I wandered in that wilderness for seven years of famine. People were politely cruel in ways no New Yorker would ever dream of being.