Some responsible for addressing the alarming crime in Barbados are calling for the Church to do more. However, it is possible that this may cause more harm than good. Why? Because Jesus said that we should first remove the beam out of our eye so that we can see clearly to carefully (not carelessly or recklessly) remove the speck out of someone else’s sensitive eye.

We normally believe those who teach us first and may go to our graves believing this information to be true. If our beliefs are to affect others, then we should test those beliefs by exposing them to rigorous scrutiny. Truth should be able to withstand such scrutiny. Delaying this scrutiny risks harming others if we act on sincerely held false beliefs. This most difficult of conversations aims to prevent such harm.

QUESTIONS AND NON-ANSWERS.

There are many Christian denominations in Barbados that claim to follow Jesus’ teachings. All of them assure their followers that their teachings, which conflict with the teachings of other denominations, are true. Clearly, they cannot all be true. The logical options for each conflicting teaching are: (i) only one of them is true or (ii) none of them are true.

Many Barbadians who regularly attended Church in their youth chose a different path as adults. A common reason is that as they gained more knowledge, their questions about what they were told to believe were not satisfactorily answered.

Such questioning persons tended to choose one of the following options: (i) suppress their desire to question in order to remain part of the community, (ii) question and risk being accused of promoting division, and (iii) rejecting parts of the Bible as false and seeking a community of like-minded persons. Those who chose one of those options, or who are considering doing so, deserve to know how we got here.

HOUSE-RULES.

There are rules in our house. While our son was an infant and would crawl on the floor, visitors to our house had to remove their shoes at the door’s mat – for the sake of our son’s health. Any who thought that rule intolerable need not visit.

God explained how we should behave if we want to belong in His house. As those who first received this information moved into different cultural environments, they risked developing and/or adopting traditions that strayed from God’s house-rules. To address that risk, everyone who wanted to be part of God’s house had to had to correct (or reset) their traditions to align with God’s rules every seven years.

This 7-year correction happened for about one generation after the rules were given to Moses, then it stopped for approximately 800 years until Josiah’s reset. Then it stopped for approximately 180 years until Nehemiah’s reset. Then it stopped for approximately 470 years until Jesus’ reset. Whenever this 7-year reset was delayed, the traditions strayed widely and many people were unnecessarily oppressed.

ANGRY JESUS.

Jesus was most angry at religious leaders who oppressed people by teaching their traditions that conflicted with God’s rules. A sample of Jesus’ words follow.

“All too well you reject the commandment [rules] of God, that you may keep your tradition.” (Mark 7:9)

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees [religious leaders], hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte [convert], and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:13-15)

Jesus was also angry with lawyers who supported oppressive systems. Hear Jesus again.

And He [Jesus] said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.” (Luke 11:46-47, 52)

HELL-BENT LEADERS.

Resetting straying traditions every seven years should be a painless exercise that carries no shame or consequences. But there has been no reset for the past 2,000 years and the consequences in the historical record have been horrific. Some communities justified war, slavery and genocide as converts acted on their straying traditions and were supported by lawyers – who justified their oppression.

Today, our traditions have strayed so far from what Jesus taught that a reset will not be painless. We have traditions that were allowed to develop into doctrines that are now entrenched to the point of being considered infallible. Resetting such doctrines will likely be traumatic for religious leaders – which explains the unreasonable delay. Simply suggesting such a reset may attract accusations of heresy from their devoted converts. Hear angry Jesus again.

“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

“For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.” He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.” (Mark 7:6-9)

“Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:32-33)

RESETTING TRADITIONS.

I sympathize with the current crop of religious leaders who assumed that permanent resets were done by their spiritual fathers in their seminaries – thereby negating the need for the prescribed 7-year reset. The conflicting teachings of each denomination suggests that many converts are being misled – as Jesus had warned. If this generation of religious leaders does not reset their traditions to avoid misleading new converts, then all converts will continue to be misled until relief comes from a more responsible generation.

I believe there is sufficient credible evidence to conclude that the Bible is a historically accurate document that contains words of God that were reliably recorded by: His prophets, Jesus’ followers and others. A common-sense read of the Bible shows how we may: (i) be reconciled to our Creator, the only God, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God and Messiah of all people, and (ii) develop into responsible persons who can manage communities on this planet.

I have many beliefs that have been influenced by the traditions of several denominations, but I try to reset them as often as I can because I do not want to be found on the wrong side of Jesus – who will judge us all at the end of the age. I wrote a book titled ‘Colliding With Truth’ to assist those who want to reset entrenched doctrines that may have diverged far from what Jesus taught.