Book You Could Have Written: And the Search for Reality

© Copyright 2013 Essdale Wilson.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-8551-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-8550-6 (e)

Trafford rev. 03/18/2013

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CONTENTS

II

III

IV

V

GIVE GOD A BREAK

BOOK OF PROVERBS

MY BIBLICAL OMNIBUS

GATHERING THE GRAPES AND GRAIN

OTHER BOOKS BY

ESSDALE WILSON

READING THE BIBLE VS. SWALLOW AND FOLLOW

And the search for reality

Biblical god asks for so little:                Roman 6: 23

- Peace on earth                           - The wages of sin are death

- Good will toward men              - The wages of virtue are death

- His money back from

Bible scribers                            - Always read the fine print

Dear Reader,

Let me see. How can I introduce this book? My initial intention was to warn you that this book is original, produced by a person that decided to put thought into reading the Bible rather than treat it like an instruction sheet for assembling a child’s tricycle. If the Bible is going to be the steering mechanism of my life I should at least take a cursory glimpse at the text rather than go through life bumping into trees. All of the books that I read concerning the Bible started out with the amazing, unknown fact—that only everyone knows—the Bible is the world’s most published book. I know; so what?

I don’t want to fall into the numbers fallacy. If the most published was in anyway significant the most produced car would be the best. Timex watches might be the best. My barber’s haircuts would be the best (they aren’t and so no pictures of me here).

But what is critical in publishing books is the expertise, the qualifications, the social image, the reputation, the thickness of the bifocals. Let me lay out my qualifications as soon as I can clump three tables together to spread them out. I am a retired teacher so I have done enough reading and good stuff to qualify. The Bible is there to read and that is what this book is all about so let’s move on.

My first impulse was to plagiarize that significant, most published fact but when I mentioned it to my paperboy not only was he aware of the fact but he rendered me speechless with more facts. Did you know that of the top ten most published books the Bible collected more dust then the other nine put together? Did you realize that many family Bibles pass through generations with so much care that there are only three fingerprints on them and all in the first ten pages? After I spaked unto him I also found that many King James versions only had a single set of finger prints on them and none after page one.

Many that have Bibles, and some semblance of righteousness, come to the conclusion that their Bible will never be used, primarily because what information serves them has already been gotten from other sources. I am amazed at the number of people that fall into that category, including my family and me.

Then I discovered that brand new fifty year old Bibles can be gotten quite easily. I would strongly recommend that you have pencil, paper and a Bible available because the statements presented here are supported chapter and verse and I will demand verification if you find it in your heart to declare me insane.

If you are one of the six and three quarter percent that does not possess a pristine Bible you can readily obtain one without mortgaging your home. What you need is wrapping paper, a $75 price tag and a razor blade. Go to the Salvation Army store. They feel strongly that Bibles should not be sold like cat food because of their spiritual significance and benefits so they will gladly give you a Good Book free that some one moving out of town donated to them.

When you get home, take your $75 sticker, lick it and press it onto the inside of the front cover. Then with your razor blade neatly remove the dedication page that the Elks Club, Union Hall or other such spiritually indoctrinated organization presented to the original owner at retirement, wedding… Wrap the book and put it away for an occasion that calls for a spiritual response. You now own a prepared gift for someone that is celebrating an accomplishment that calls for a spiritual fuzzy. Or, forget the wrapping paper and place the Bible on your coffee table, where it is safe from browsers, as a statement of your spirituality.

Take just a moment to think about how often the Bible is referred to directly or indirectly in our everyday life. If you sneeze, someone not in line with the discharge will blurt out bless you. Show off your new born and the old hanger-oners will, God love her/him/ it. God speed! Would Jesus behave the way you are behaving? Do you swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you, God? (I never got complete knowledge concerning the so help you, God part but then I guess that I could get through the vow without help if I had to.) God will get you for that! God bless America, One nation under God. As God is my witness…

Take a five minute warm up then let’s spend a little quality time in an introductory exercise to familiarize you with the Good Book and how valuable spiritual knowledge really is. Spirituality without knowledge usually fails when we need it most. With knowledge you can determine if I and my confused ilk are agents of Satan or lost souls in need of gluteus punts. This exercise will be an invaluable asset for you in determining if this book belongs atop a velvet pillow on your mantle or bracing up a window in the summertime. If you are looking for the same old claims of mythology or unsubstantiated contortions or pure speculation or improvement you won’t get it here… unless essential.

I will attempt to draw information, interpret it and put back everything chapter and verse the way it was after I have finished using it to back up conclusions. I’m just a guy on the street wanting to become familiar with the Good book without dictatorial, force fed, retreaded, ready to swallow rote.

I was uninformed; realized that I had been going along without any strong spiritual feelings. Nothing was simple, cut and dried, absolute, complete, unquestionable and impressively meaningful. When I did become curious concerning the Bible contents I had no idea what direction that it would lead me. I soon discovered that I was just one of the people. With out investigating I felt confident that I knew what would be in the Bible; or at least should from my meager exposure and what I thought was right-wrong, good-bad, true-false. I was shocked to discover that many, many others are the same way.

I am not about to sell you a sugared up redundant version of the Good Book complete with voices from a fiery bush, walk on water, talking serpent, a dry valley across the Red Sea or removal of evil, screaming spirits… I won’t sell you much of what is in the Old Testament because I won’t buy it myself. To reject, without reading is as foolish as to accept without analyzing.

On the other side, I will illustrate how and why I have come to adopt the New Testament. And I did so without the syrup thick, sacred, obsequious, obnoxious, heaped on pious, phony attitude. What I did was sift through all of the chaff in an attempt to put together a value structure, philosophy and life guidelines that were meaningful and I could actually benefit from rather than go through life caressing a book that is outdated, contradictory, unrealistic and unbelievable.

Yes, I could remain ignorant. I could demean and reject the Bible. I could label it nonsense and stumble through life without structure but I didn’t want to. Actually, I couldn’t. I believe that most of us have some innate feelings of right and wrong and I believe that they profoundly define our self-concept if we mature. I am a people person. I like people, I enjoy being around them. I am my happiest when I am around happy people.

I hope that you are one of them. I would like you to enjoy this book. I may not be in harmony with your thoughts and beliefs but I don’t want to turn this into an idiot joke book. I will attempt to be honest, sincere, present open conclusions supported chapter and verse. I try to emphasize truth, accuracy, completeness rather than put out a commercial shocking text in an attempt to be sensational. But I will tell you that the Bible is not very similar to what I expected. Nor are the Bible experts nearly as experted as I believed.

I was one of the vast majority (similar to you?) and resisted any effort to study the Bible. And I would have put, at most, ten minutes into exploration and walked away except nothing at all happened. I had no opinions. I had no boost in faith. I had no strong feelings. I had no curiosity; no desire to gain knowledge. But one thing happened that I would say was divinely directed except in caring for your well being I won’t say. I don’t want you to crack any ribs while laughing at the stupidity of the thought.

Let’s get started on our journey and the best place to start is at the beginning. The Bibles that I have read and the programs that I have been exposed to do that so why be any different? Why? Because it didn’t work for me up until now and I am not fired up by repeating the strategy. My Good Book begins with In the beginning…

This time I’ll try starting before the start and maybe it will set me on a different track. God is the starter so let’s start before that by defining the starter. No; we can’t do that because we have no information to work with. All that we have is information abstracted from the Bible directly or placed in a peripheral separate section to answer questions, clear up murky passages or enhance the word to add credibility.

I suppose that we could define what we think and would like a god to be: all knowing, all caring, all capable, all everything wonderful. Actually we don’t have any supporting proof so lets speculate then move on to His production.

What is the Bible? Simple enough. The Bible is the History of the creation. The Creator rounded up some local scribes and hired them to record His dictation (The Bible) and they recorded His words as he laid out the history of creation of man and the universe.

Now we have scribers recording God’s word so with the inscription we have God defining himself. But that comes later so let’s back up to page one.

Briefly, Biblical god created Adam from the soil (the first of many dirtbags) and forbid him from eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Then god created Eve. The snake entices Eve to eat forbidden fruit. She did and then so did Adam. You have all of that already.

Now skip way ahead to 1Tim 2:8-15.Tim puts second class women in their place right quick like. Timmy insists that Adam was not deceived but Eve was and she transgressed. What appears to be a little shady at first crumbles completely with just a tad of thought.

Eve was deceived by the Most cunning of all animals (Gen3:1). Adam, who had been instructed by god before Eve was created, was not deceived (1Tim; 14).

How can Eve, who was deceived, possibly bear the brunt of guilt when Adam, who was not deceived knowingly, also ate the forbidden fruit?

Why is that nonsense there in a sacred book? Read 1Tim 8-15 and no matter how you bend it, reshuffle it, white out parts of it, soften it, so what? it, ignore intent, super soap it; it doesn’t wash. Eve is inferior to Adam? It becomes evident that the Bible was written by men, for men; about men and their male favoritism. It shows in biased sexual beliefs, slavery treatment, study and spiritual activity, capturing in war… Can you see why I am into studying the Bible even though I am nothing uncommon; just a generic man on the street?

Put on your most pious expression. Put your hands together. Genuflect if you care to. Then, let us devote a little sacred moment, or maybe 34 of them, conversing about the Bible. I will say serious, profound things concerning the book that has been assembled to control all of our thoughts, actions and future. Because I am only a layman attempting to make some sense out of the collection of pretzels, threats, dire predictions some attempts at comedy may sneak into the non-humorous topic. Your job is to keep me on the straight and narrow path, correct me when I am wrong and slap me up along side of the head if and when I get obnoxio-(ouch).

Do not worry about righteousness of that botch slapping. You must know enough about the Bible to realize that I will turn the other cheek. Besides, knowing you, you definitely could use the practice.

You probably have been exposed to the United States Constitution. If not, it is readily available for your inspection, analysis, criticism and suggestions for improvement. It is concise, no nonsense, open to all challenges without employing fear of eternal damnation or promoting swallow and follow dictation. Any questions, confusion, comments or reasonable suggestions are considered by dealing with the open text. The United States Constitution is as naked as a new hatched robin.

The Holy Bible is exactly like the Constitution… only different. It is clothed in perfect messages, passages, confusion, and possibly coauthored; dictated by a social Supreme Being. To challenge the Holy Bible is to invite severe punishment and/or eternal damnation so the general mode here is to soft shoe around issues while attempting to get a grip on the Good Book and its messages.

The Holy Bible is far superior to the U.S. Constitution in that it was not created by fallible humans but by zombatic scribers who were only putting God’s words in print. At least that is the word from the pulpit.

Why God didn’t just snap his fingers rather than deal with a bunch of uninformed scribblers is beyond my comprehension. Sir, you just put your thumb against a finger then push it up fast and the finger makes the snapping sound. I realize how exhausting it must have been to create everything in just seven days but just a little more effort put into the word could probably have prevented much grief in the lives of your creation.

The Constitution is a living, dynamic document constantly under the scope of analysis and open to alternation whereby it is up to date and reflects the current attitude of those who are guided by it. Let’s hear it for Obamacare!

The Holy Bible is supposed to be static. Any and all opposition and questioning are silenced and smothered with sacred unchallengeable strategy by blaming scribers who were limited in knowledge, and products of the social mores and culture of the times.

It is a convincing explanation for glaring contradictions, confusion, questionable text… It is difficult to swallow that reasoning if you believe that Biblical god ( the one that is molded and written by the scribers rather than God the dictator) is all knowing, perfect, but not aware of the social changes that develop with time and knowledge.

Although the Bible is static the nuances and interpretation undergo alteration through arrogance by those better informed, more intelligent and able to override God’s static text with the arrogance of the expression: I know what the Bible says but here is what it actually means. You can readily see why Biblical god hates arrogance. Yes, he absolutely does; Biblical god, that is. If in doubt, support with passage or reject with support. That’s the way it works when gaining knowledge.

There is also the unwritten portion of the Bible. This actually is the dynamic version. It comes into play whenever a difficult or challenging situation arises and extends beyond the basic text and deals with the challenge. For instance, when people are puzzled when accounting god’s killing and some feel that the killing is not God like; no problem. God does not kill; He removes then on to the next issue. It is a little difficult to white out god’s enormous kill demands and fill in the spaces with remove so just ignore the text from then on.

I do not buy the gentle version and improvement of the Bible although I understand why you softies would substitute remove for kill. Biblical god spoke to that confusion in a song composed for Moses to warble to his People (Deut 32:39). The tune is in B flat minor and ¾ time. Now, all together: "I kill and I give life. I wound and I heal."

"You sopranos on the left: God did not strike anyone here deaf like he does those that actually have a hearing problem (Gen 4:14) so stop screeching.

And, Sir, you do not kill! You remove. Now, please get with the program. ??? That doesn’t make any sense to me what-so-ever but if it works for you softies…

If the 6000 year time factor of the earth does not make sense just insert a little more information. There are the Biblical days as defined in Genesis consisting of a period of darkness and light whereby God created the universe in a week, including a Sabbath day and there are now God Days, each lasting for eons that are verbally wedged into the peripheral Bible beyond the text to clear up the confusion. Now, with the super God Days, we can account for all of the dinosaurs that wandered around on the 6000 God years old world consisting of God Days" before the dinosaurs got the axe. Ignore the murkiness of the mathematics. It is designed to silence the nonsense dispensers rather than set the Bible straight. The earth is still 6000 years old… sort of.

Now, although I cannot buy the God Days cover-up, I believe that I can add a spot of support so that your God Days nonsense doesn’t appear so flakey. God said to Adam, You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden except fruit from the tree of knowledge. If you do you will die the same day (gen: 2:15-17).

Enter evilness and disobedience from somewhere. Adam eats the forbidden fruit and true to the word of the Bible he dies the next day… plus nine-hundred and thirty additional years (Gen 5:1-3). Could a God Year be 930 some odd years long? You God Year injectors never determined the length of a God Year so here is just the idea of one to smooth over the rough spots if someone has the gall to question your insistence that the world is still a Biblical 6000 years old creation.

I could go on for numerous God Years in an attempt to determine why Adam and Eve were to be deprived of knowledge concerning morality, ethics, doing the right thing and yet never determine why it was so imperative that Adam remain ignorant. And the insertion of a serpent to guarantee disobedience is unfathomable.

It seems as though the social definition of Creator-all powerful and perfect Biblical god—should not contain any acceptance of evil. Why has inequity always been; starting with the initial creation up until day before yesterday? Why is evil here and why so prevalent? Simple!

God made us in his