Ed Dowding

The Bible as a word cloud

Asides

One would have thought a book on how to live a better life would be more focused on words like ‘enjoyment, love, sharing, empathy, compassion, care, reciprocity, imagination, play, Eden, Heaven on Earth, nature, wisdom, knowledge, respect, responsibility’…

Instead this suggests that the Bible is not much more than a history of a bunch of hierarchy-sensitive people living in the Middle East, and their story of maintaining a sense of identity during a land dispute.

The Bible as a word cloud
Source

Ed Dowding

Ed Dowding

Founder, strategist, writer, gadfly, TED talker, world-record holder, and (foolishly) reality-TV farmer. DOES: Innovation, Product, Advocacy THINKS: Regenerative Systems, Institution design, 300 year horizons

Comments

  1. I think you’ve come to a biased conclusion. Obviously the main topic of the Bible is God/Lord and what He has said. The secondary topic is the people and land of Israel. So, I think the better conclusion is that the Bible is about God and His relation to the people of Israel, which most theologists would agree with.

  2. Was glad to find this word cloud (thanks!), but I’ve gotta tell you that the Bible is not simply about how to live a “better life”. You could go to any self-help book section for that.

    The Bible is God’s revelation to us, written through divinely inspired authors. The Old Testament is indeed an account of God’s people, the Israelites. The New Testament is an account of Jesus (God’s Son), His life on earth and the beginning of God’s mission to reconcile us to Him.

    Being a Christian isn’t about living a better life on this earth; that view is so short-sighted in the context of eternity. Being a Christian is about building a lasting relationship with God and telling others how they too can have a relationship with Jesus Christ as well. God’s aim is to reconcile creation back to Himself, to bring us back from our fallen states to the creation He meant us to be.

    You can be reconciled to God too. I’d suggest reading the book of John to get a better sense of the mission that Christians are meant to embark upon. One becomes a Christian by confessing that he or she is a sinner (based on God’s standards) and accepting Jesus’ death on the cross as the payment for his or her sins. Afterward, Christians are called to be witnesses of God’s love to everyone around them, in order that others can also be interested and come to have a relationship with Jesus Christ too. New Christians can learn how to be growing Christians by reading and applying the different principles in the New Testament. These teachings aren’t at all easy (again, the Bible isn’t a self-help book) but they are what God wants us to do. Make sure you read the Bible in context too; that is, in all it’s historical and cultural context, before you make modern day applications.

    Cheerio.

    Cheerio.

  3. You should read the Bible šŸ™‚ Starting in Matthew…and then to Revelation…and then the Old testament if you want…it’s GOOD but a little confusing šŸ™‚ If you want to…1,2, and 3rd John are really good

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