The Bible and Scripting (page 2)

purplesofa

Thanks for all your great comments........I will respond after dinner........need to get some brain food..

You got me thinking.

purps

purplesofa

The Bible is a very interesting example as it is made of many strata of writing, each writer struggling with earlier texts, reading them in a new perspective and modifying them into his own text. When we see it from this perspective it loses its aspect of a self-contained script calling for a slavish play-out (either as a good or bad character): we are not (only) playing out, we are writing it further and writing ourselves into it (even here on an internet db); thereby changing it.

I think what I am thinking is how the bible prophecy must be played out......It seems like mankind is destined to play this all out, no matter how many people are trying to buy out of the script, and live script free so to speak.

Do you think there is anything to keep The things still said to happen in the future that is in the bible................anything to keep these things from happening?

Narkissos

Hey purps, that was quite a dinner!

Bible "prophecies" are a good example indeed: most of them are really new readings of old texts in a new context. Take the first pages of Matthew for example: what is presented as a prophecy about Jesus would not even appear as a futuristic prophecy in its original setting. It's only out-of-context reinterpretation.

Moreover, many apparent "prophecies" are actually post eventu ("after the fact") history disguised as "prophecy". For instance, Jesus' "prophecies" on the fall of Jerusalem (Matthew 24 and parallels) were actually written after Jerusalem fell in 70 AD. However the writers did engage in some prophecy, foretelling that the Son of Man would come on the clouds of heaven in the immediate aftermath of Jerusalem's fall. This of course did not happen, and the non-fulfilled part is the reason why later generations of believers feel the need of re-interpreting the whole text to their own time.

At a certain stage it is a personal decision for readers to walk out of the "prophetic setting," for instance by realising that history is never a script written anywhere before the event. But this also is a reinterpretation -- another text that we have to read and/or write for ourselves.

purplesofa

At a certain stage it is a personal decision for readers to walk out of the "prophetic setting," for instance by realising that history is never a script written anywhere before the event. But this also is a reinterpretation -- another text that we have to read and/or write for ourselves.

Ok this makes sense.........so I guess I don't have to be worried about Armegeddon?

Markfromcali

If you want to see through your conditioned thinking patterns, you have to be willing to not know.

For whatever reason people have this idea that just because they have accumulated a lot of information in their minds that means they know something. I mean sure you know all the information you've got in there, but how do you know what's really true? And I don't even mean where someone is full of themselves or anything, it could be very innocent because that's all they know - like that's what you were taught and so forth, whether it's the JW thing or something else.

The content, what you think you know isn't really important in this case - it's the behavior of thinking you know. Actually, all delusions are dependent upon this mental movement aren't they? It's not a matter of buying out of the script, it's just a matter of not buying into it. If you're out then it isn't about someone wanting to be free from it, it's just a matter of distinguishing between your views and what is actually happening. Because if you don't like the script you just have another behavior that is dictated by it, it's avoiding the script.

Ultimately, if we are interested in truth and some sense of objectivity, we would not even be motivated by wanting to be free from it, the motivation is simply seeing what is true. But of course it is when you have some perspective on things that you can truly be free from it, because you are not just reacting, rather you see the proverbial "big picture", which can be very simple - things just as they are. Notice that this capacity to see all that is reactive including yourself and others is unmoved by any script, yet it is obviously a part of you too. Take some time and explore that, otherwise this message will just become more accumulated "knowledge" amidst a sea of other ideas.

purplesofa

It's not a matter of buying out of the script, it's just a matter of not buying into it. If you're out then it isn't about someone wanting to be free from it, it's just a matter of distinguishing between your views and what is actually happening. Because if you don't like the script you just have another behavior that is dictated by it, it's avoiding the script.

I agree, I guess what I was getting hung up on is the BIBLE and living out what the bible says must happen to mankind. The future things that it says will happen. Do they happen because they are written, like mankind unconsciously has to play it out.

If the majority are buying into it, then we are all effected.

Markfromcali

Yes we are effected, but it doesn't have to be anywhere near what it means to someone who identifies with the content. Sure we can talk about the Bible and how people take it, but it doesn't really matter because if that's where you are then you can base it on anything - it is just unconscious behavior. Look at it from the other perspective: If you don't identify with a particular story, then you will have that kind of influence on someone who does. So it can work both ways, although ultimately you find it just doesn't really touch you even if everyone around you is caught up in it.

And it can start very small, but that is not to say it is insignificant. A great example of this came from a woman I know who was relating an experience in watching a kid's movie with her daughter, and it was the line "What's inside you is stronger than any spell." Needless to say she found that to be a profound statement. We just need to get in touch with it.

Narkissos

The future things that it says will happen. Do they happen because they are written, like mankind unconsciously has to play it out.

Not to turn this thread into politics, but I can't help thinking of modern Israel. How, regardless of their original meanings, "restoration prophecies" contributed to history through Zionist Jewish and Fundamentalistic Christian lobbies. How the fictional "conquest of Canaan" and "Great Israel" are still nurturing the Israeli far right.

A great example of this came from a woman I know who was relating an experience in watching a kid's movie with her daughter, and it was the line "What's inside you is stronger than any spell."

A line. In a text. The poison is the cure. The door locked on you is also the way of exit -- provided you find the key.

The Bible and Scripting

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