If the bible if infallible, why do christians pick and choose what they want to follow?

Answer 1

the bible is very much a product of its times, those times being grossly unenlightened and undeveloped. the bible was also written by people who had been historically abused, enslaved and mistreated.

Notions of equality and justice during those times are distant and unrecognizable distortions of the systems we have in place today, for instance, the book of leviticus instructs us to burn unchaste brides at the stake, and to stone disobedient children to death. such a justice system in todays times would be abhorrent, so much so that it is difficult to imagine such things ever being done.

It for this reason that christians pick and choose from the bible. Most of the passages, stories and instructions contained wihtin it are completely irrelevant to our modern and advanced society, and quite frankly our level of modernity and sense of societal justice make following the bible exactly almost impossible anyway. That is laregle because the bible is an outdated book that reflects the the harsh times and ignorant beliefs the people who wrote it.

christians will attempt to justify their cherry picking by saying that the coming jesus in the new testament did away with the need for the laws laid out by god in the older books. However jesus himself says several times that his coming did not change any of those laws, and in fact that they still had to be carried out to the letter. I have bever gotten a decent resolution to this problem from a christian.

To answer your question in short, christians cherry pick from the bible because they have to. It is all they can to to attach some kind of relevance and significance to a book that is more than two thousand years old and was written by people that lacked even the most basic understanding of how the world worked.

Answer 2

I don't follow the logic of your question.


If and when that happens, that is the fault of the Christians treating the Bible that way - it is logically faulty reasoning to conclude from that that something must be wrong with the Bible itself.

Many Christians hold that faith in Jesus alone gets one to heaven, and they claim that the Bible says that - however, if you read the Bible, that's not what the Bible says - "faith without works is dead" - it says in the Epistle of James - and "one is nothing without love" says St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 - St. John says in his first epistle that one who claims to love God but hates his brother is a murderer, and eternal life abides in no murderer's heart (1 John 3:15).

Such people interpret the Bible in such an erroneous way because they take 2 or three passages out of the Bible - usually on faith being required for salvation - and then treat that as if nothing else exists in the Bible.

For the Bible to be interpreted correctly, a given passage must be read in light of the whole Bible, so that those other passages constitute a correction that is needed to prevent the erroneous interpretation of a given passage that may occur if that passage were read in isolation.



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Answer 3

Christians are human, and humans make choices. Good ones rarely make the headlines.

Some of us carry a Bible that is not "loose leaf" all the pages are important and everything is relevant.

Following the hard parts is often a challenge, doing it in a loving way is often daunting, avoiding them doesn't make them go away, it lessons us and models that sad truth that you have observed.

I find it curious that when Christians struggle and make mistakes or do not behave in a way that the world thinks we should it's "Those Christians...." and we are all dismissed with a broad brush that obscures the day to day hard working constant loving faithful many who are making the hard choices and following it all.

Answer 4

Number one, I really don't understand why people who are not Christians are so concerned about what Christians do or don't do? It boggles the mind.

Number two, I don't know what you mean by "pick and choose" parts of the Bible? We are in a state of Grace because Jesus died for our sins. No, we cannot just do whatever we want to do, Christians are sinners like anyone else, they are just saved sinners. God deals with all sinners, but God's payday is not always on Friday like we think it should be.

Answer 5

Christians aren't perfect either. The difference between a Christian and a non-believer is a relationship with Christ.


By the way, that's the only thing that can lead a person to Heaven.

Answer 6

Because it only makes sense. If they didn't pick and choose what to follow, they'd have to follow contradicting texts. How could one actually do that?

Besides, every Christian knows you're allowed to do whatever you want as long as you ask for forgiveness.

Answer 7

Infallible? It contradicts itself on page one.

Answer 8

The Christians I know use the whole thing. They just have read enough of it to know that there are parts of it intended for one moment or situation and parts of it intended for other moments and situation. And are hopefully smart enough to be applying the right parts at the right time.

Answer 9

Good question!

Alas, it is one I do not want to answer, because I really wish this was not so true!

Sorry....no new pearls of wisdom, lol, I'm sure anything I may say will already be things you and everyone else have already thought of....but bottom line? For many, it's a CONTROL ISSUE.....

Peace be with you :)

Answer 10

People search the scriptures to find the truth. Truth to one is not truth to another. Like Atheists have differing sets of morals.