Culture

Atheist fabricates Bible verse about women, paints it on his truck, and then claims it’s Christians who make stuff up

Atheists have a bone to pick with God. Sometimes, they just can’t resist taking shortcuts to get their point across, much to their detriment. Just like this guy driving around in Virginia…

Atheists claim they don’t believe in God. The Bible says they do, and if the Bible is true (which all Christians ought to believe), then they are lying to themselves and to the world about it. The Bible calls this suppressing the truth.

SUPPRESSING THE TRUTH

Paul wrote in Romans that everybody knows God because he has revealed himself to them. He has made himself “plain” to them. Evidence of his existence is everwhere. There’s no place unbelievers can turn without seeing evidence, clear as day, of his existence.

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Rom 1:20). God created the universe and everything in it. He has established the standards of what’s right and wrong.

On the other hand, if there is no God, then there is no universal set of moral standards. I can create a standard. You can create a standard. Your coworker can create a standard. But they are all arbitrary. They hold no weight in the context of a reasonable argument because they are simply opinions about what you “think,” or I “think,”or your coworker “thinks” ought to be right or wrong, loving or hateful.

Maybe that’s why some atheists don’t mind violating the ethics of sound argumentation. They don’t have to play fair because there’s no universal God judging them (they think). They don’t have to present their rival’s argument in the correct context. In this case, their chief rival is God, and his arguments are documented in the Bible. And, like a 3-minute interview of a Conservative on a liberal news program, they can do a hatchet job to his actual words and splice them together to say whatever they want to make him look bad.

Or, just “paraphrase” it entirely.

ASSESSING MOTIVE

That’s what this atheist in Virginia has done. He painted a “Bible verse” on the back of his black truck. He wants to show people how vile the Bible is. He wants Christians to read his tailgate, become appalled, and ask themselves “Wow, does the Bible really say that?”

A Christian who is familiar with his Bible would answer this way: “No.” In the short interview clip, the Virginia man who painted the message on the truck says this:

“The reason I put this particular message on is I want people to read the Bible. I want them to see this message and say ‘Is that true?’ …It’s a hateful, hateful piece of work which Christians try to turn around and they talk about love…Hopefully people will read it, and learn for themselves, these preachers and priests and ministers, they’re making stuff up.”

MYTH VS REALITY

Who’s person making stuff up?

Next to “1 Cor. 14:34,” he wrote this: “Women shall be silent and submissive”. He also has a bumper sticker next to the message which says “God Said it. Believe it.”

But what does the Bible actually say? If we turn to 1 Corinthians 14:34, then we read this: “the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.”

The actual verse reveals that Paul is speaking about order within churches specifically. He isn’t talking about women’s behavior in general. The actual issue is much more complex than a homemade bumper sticker can convey. So, to drive his message home, the verse is “paraphrased” to mislead the biblically uninformed about what the Bible actually teaches about women.

One pastor saw through this:

“As you look at that [verse], you can definitely see it is completely taken out of context. Especially when you think about what the Bible says,” said Pastor Joey Anthony, with Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. “Jesus really did raise women to a level – where as in that culture they were seen as second-class citizens – but Jesus loves all people and he raised women up to a different level, really.”

It’s not just taken out of context. It’s not even a true paraphrase.

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