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Eight Common Biblical Misconceptions  Here are eight widely held misconceptions about biblical teachings. Hey, we're dealing with the Holy Bible here, so it would have been really neat if I had stopped at seven - and I originally did - but I just couldn't resist adding an eighth one.

1) We are supposed to be our brother's keepers. Many of my fellow Christians feel that the Bible teaches that we are indeed our brother's keepers. However, you will not find that anywhere in the Holy Scriptures. When confronted by God about the whereabouts of his brother Abel, whom he had just murdered, Cain asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" So God replied, "Yes, Cain, you are", correct? Well, no! Actually, God never answered that question.

2) Gambling is forbidden by the Bible. While you might honestly believe gambling is wrong, you won't be able to prove it with Holy Scripture. There's not one word in the Bible that says gambling is an undesirable activity. In fact, many of the major positive figures of the Bible are depicted as casting lots, a form of gambling, and God never condemns it. Now, I have to give some people credit for effort - they'll use all kind of verbal gymnastics to try to prove that the Bible does indeed condemn gambling. They will point to the fact that those who crucified Jesus cast lots to divide up his clothing among themselves. However, the biblical writers remained neutral regarding the specific method of the distribution of Jesus' clothing. In other words, would the Gospel writers have considered these men's actions any less wrong if they had sold Jesus' clothing to highest bidder? I think not.
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3) Adam and Eve committed the first sin by eating an apple. Nope, it was an undisclosed type of fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The word 'apple' isn't even mentioned in the book of Genesis.

4) Money is the root of all evil. This belief is the result of a misquoting (often intentional, I would suspect) of a passage of scripture. In 1 Timothy 6:10, the apostle Paul says, "For the love of money is the root of all evil ..." So, what the Bible actually teaches on this subject is that money is just fine, as long as you don't love it too much.

5) The Bible says God helps those who help themselves. Wrong answer! While God might indeed help those who help themselves, the Bible doesn't even come close to saying any such thing. This saying has become so popular and has been repeated so often that many people actually believe it's in the Bible. However, it's just not so.

6) Lying is forbidden by the Ten Commandments. However, like they say in that old song, "It ain't necessarily so." That Commandment says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor." Therefore, the Ten Commandments only forbid a specific type of lying, i.e., telling lies and making up stuff about other people, inside or outside of a court of law. Now, don't get me wrong, there are many passages in the Bible (more than I could possibly recount here) that condemn liars and anyone who makes habitual lying a way of life. However, you might be surprised to learn that the Bible does leave the door open for some types of lying. Jacob lied to his blind father Issac and told him he was his brother Esau, and God never condemned him for it. Rahab, the harlot, was even praised and regarded as a heroine for lying to her own people about the whereabouts of the Hebrew spies. In fact, there is at least one instance in the Bible in which God even advises someone not to tell the whole truth. The prophet Samuel was preparing to go out to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint David as the next king of Israel, but was fearful that King Saul would kill him for it if he found out. When he told God about his concerns, God told Samuel to take a heifer with him and say he was going out there to make a sacrifice.

7) The human soul is immortal. The Bible does not say this. In fact, nowhere in the Bible will you even find the words soul and immortal in the same sentence. Actually, there are verses that fly in the face of this belief. For example, twice in the 18th chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet says, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." How could the soul be immortal of it can die? In another example, Jesus says (in Matthew 10:28), "And fear not them which can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in ####." If the soul could be destroyed, as Jesus clearly says it could, how could it be immortal? If the human soul were truly immortal, not even God Himself would be able to destroy it. The Bible clearly does not teach this.

8) The Bible says teaches that nothing ever happens by chance. If so, then apparently no one ever told Jesus about this teaching. In His telling of the parable about the Good Samaritan, he stated the following in Luke 10:31, "And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side." Please note that Jesus never mentioned anything about the priest being in that area due to God's will or some kind of divine providence or intervention. He was just there by chance and Jesus acknowledged this simple fact as He was telling the story. Unfortunately, many Christians are too pious and sanctimonious to do the same.

Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, blogger, and amateur political analyst from Hopewell, VA. Check out his blog at http://commenterry.blogs.com.

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