'CORRECTING A CORRUPTED BIBLE' - A sermon by Carlton D. Pearson

[Music] summertime [Music] fish are jumpin and the cotton [Music] punch little baby don't cry [Music] one of you [Music] got a rise up singing you'll spread your wings they to the sky daddy and mommy's standing by with your mommy and your daddy [Music] with Danny mommy [Music] [Applause] you know I always tell you that music comes from the word muse which means to think and it's called the science of the musings I was having a conversation just yesterday with with a Stevie Wonder whom I've known all my life professionally you know as a musician but we were talking he's he's performing in Las Vegas and there's three more shows no we're talking about sound the different sounds that he makes and we were talking about the integration of sounds how music is integrating even dance is integrating cultures in ways that nothing else does and it's a more intensified cultural integration today than then probably when we were kids and I said dude you realize you you just told me you're gonna perform you've been performing in Las Vegas I said I know you had done that before but he was a little Pentecostal kid like me living in Detroit and going to the little storefront churches and my denomination he's a member of the Church of God in Christ the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in LA and he said I say my he listened to all Arzu some music he's told me this several times and he he he learned those songs as a little kid going into these storefront churches and they would pray for him as a blind boy he said once they they would his mother would take him and his grandmother would take him and they would go into these churches and put their fingers on his eyes and press as hard as they could who's pretty painful for him but he stood there and endured it and they were trying to get him healed and then they said now open your eyes son can you see and he could see always just she like shadows nothing with any distinction so just to get him to stop he wouldn't he would not his head in the air ever start shouting and running and he'd walk out of there just as blind as he was when he came in but he says it was never flowers are never supposed to see cuz I hear differently because I see he said I haven't missed seeing I don't know what it means when he sits and plays the keyboard and you've seen him do that he also plays this harmonica he plays several instruments that we don't he that he never does publicly and I thought about our faith and he said we're from the same back we'll believe a lot of the same things but we have a more practical approach to our esoteric transcendent realities how can you be spiritual and still be scientific or spiritual and be sensible or religious and be spiritual how can you combine all the ingredients of faith if you have faith or use faith how can all these ingredients make sense what are you searching about Martin was talking about certainty we were discussing a little bit in the office before coming out here and I asked him because the first time I visited a Unitarian Church the pastor said and I'm gonna be speaking there a few weeks the pastor said I said so what do you believe here he said well we take pride in being a Creed 'less denomination I said Critias mean you don't believe anything he said well we believe that what we what we don't believe we believe in what we don't believe and we believe a lot but we take pride in not being confined to or defined by any particular Creed that made a lot of sense to me I was a little bit suspicious but it started me thinking this is way back in the 90s before I had come into inclusion and expanded consciousness and I'm thinking what do I believe why do I believe it I say that almost every time and and how do those beliefs add to or subtract from the quality of my life I'm a Bible student I majored in biblical literature English Bible and I'm gonna talk about correcting a corrupted Bible for me to even say that is almost sacrilegious based on my background in his background is the Bible corrupted doesn't mean it doesn't mean it's unclean or it's dirty or it's unhealthy it means that it's it's it's it's unreliable or it has errors that make you question it and you won't know that unless you do more than read it anybody who tells you that the Bible is is is infallible and inerrant hasn't really read it all the way through that you don't have to go to seminary to realize that it's not infallible and it's not inerrant and it may not be the only authoritative but when you do a Word of God then we call it the Word of God the scripture says in John now I'll quote one of the scriptures in it in beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the word became flesh and we beheld his glory the Council of Nicaea which was instigated by Constantine who made a deathbed conversion when he was about 57 years old we died I think 52 years old something like that he ordered that Nicene council and ultimately the Nicene Creed to be organized by a pious you say via sent about a hundred about 1,800 bishops were invited about 300 actually came to the council in 325 this is 300 years after Christ and they came up with a Canon a Bible and a Creed a belief system that was sort of consolidate the various expressions of Christianity within the Roman Empire the East and West were colliding the East more were involved in Christology and the West more in other gods other visions and versions of gods from Zeus to Jesus from Greek mythology to Roman religion the Romans worshipped Sun gods and so they worship on Sunday when the first Christians worship on Sabbath Saturday but on Sunday and then moon day is is the next day that's tomorrow that's when everybody experiences the nightlight supposedly the moon is the nightlight there were a lot of questions and he said well this is gonna split the key today at such violet riot in Rome until he said we got to get this thing coordinated so he basically created Christianity incorporated and they came up with something that was agreeable to at least 300 of the bishops if you were not agreeable to it UBS communicated the religion that we call Christianity was started around an argument as to whether or not Christ was divine the divinity of Christ or Jesus and of course the only actual written verification that we have that Jesus the traditional Jesus ever really lived are the scriptures and there's not a lot in the scriptures about him none of the Old Testament not only a little bit in the new but yet we have bought into all of this all these years without question and I thought I was saying tomorrow this morning I was very certain for the first 50 years of my life about what my mom and them taught me and their mom and am taught them and a millennium tower there and after about the second mama name they couldn't read my mother could read but hers couldn't read very well and hurt the other one couldn't read at all and the generations past that we were illiterate in fact when the Bible was was a mass produced in the 14th century 80% of the world's population was illiterate anyway so reading the Scriptures and the the the Catholic Church was not allowed to read the scriptures at one time they brought all any books and things that really embrace full history so we don't really know the clear exact or precise history of a lot about our religions or about our gods or about our belief systems they burn it up and they prevent they they prevent anybody from ever reading some of the things that might be a little bit more accurate we don't even have any of the original copies of the Bible all we have are copies of copies of copies we don't know where the original handwritten or manuscripts are as far as we know they don't exist if they were written on papers they buy now after thousands of years have deteriorated back into some kind of dust so we're believing stuff we don't know and I'm not saying that's bad we most most of us know what we believe but we don't really believe what we know what did I just say we know what we believe because we were taught and told that we know what we believe but we don't really know that what we believe is knowable we just heard it and so these things have been passed down now when you do the research you realize that what we call our sacred writ it's not that reliable only in that we don't know its original forms and we haven't learned how its formatted and when we do find formulate when we find that out we have a lot of questions to correct something is to make it free from error I don't even know that that's possible to make something absolutely free from error or in accordance with fact or truth that it's absolutely factual absolutely true and I'm not sure we even care a lot except this particular book particularly the King James Version 16th century Kings English has influenced the Western world more than any other single book in human history and so we should study it a little bit more carefully and always during election time it's the politics and policies and police or polity or politeness of our culture has to do with the Bible in America now even though we don't consider ourselves a Christian country many do of course it says In God We Trust that's our motto though I think it's really more these days in guns we trust or both of them because we rely on both we ask God they make the bullet hit its target we swear on the Bible when we're in court we often use Bibles in marriage the Supreme Court it's written in god we trust' itched into the walls and so it we are a very religious country and yet the average person can't even tell you what the word Bible means now I have been certain that it's the absolute Word of God or at least I preach with certainty I believe in Jesus not because I'm afraid of going to hell I believe in Jesus because I like what they taught me about him but I can't prove he ever really existed but I also believe in Martin Luther King III I met him once or saw him once but I believe in Mahatma Gandhi and I believe that maybe somebody like a Buddha which means enlightenment lived I believe that George Washington Carver and George Washington lived in Abraham I believe that because you all taught me that I don't question it I'd like to study about it so how much do you believe that you don't know and what do you consider yourself to know like you know you're okay but you don't believe it what what is that what I say again certificate someone said I know I'm all right say I got this it say I'm rich I'm blessed I'm debt free but I don't believe all that deep down in your soul you know you're okay and if anything suggests otherwise you freak out you get angry you know you're handsome or gorgeous or amazing and fantastic and if anybody suggests otherwise your nostrils flare who you're talking about but if anybody tells you how wonderful you are you say well you don't really know me so we wrestle back and forth all these thought processes and what are they based on now when you come from our background it's solidly based on the written scriptures in the beginning was the word it's the Greek word logos it references an utterance or a conversation where do we get the word logic from that and the word logistics the logical converse in beginning was the conversation and the conversation was with God and the conversation the logos the logic the Russian are the reasoning and the logistics was divine is there a such thing as divine logistics if it is we might call it science science makes sense they supposedly prove things through science science has to do with experience and experimentation if it hasn't been experienced the scientists or experimented the scientist does not believe it any hypothesis any projected Theory unless it is proven by experience now would ask you this what have you actually experienced in your god relationship or in your spirituality if I've never been high and I've never been high I think I've been a little queasy somebody gave me a beverage the other night and and I don't know what it was but the room started spinning I didn't ask what it was especially after room started spinning I didn't care what it was but I the first time I really got queasy as I tell you we were down at the Trinity Episcopal Church and I had to do services with that wonderful fellowship from like 9 o'clock in the morning all the way up to when we did ours at one o'clock in the afternoon and many times the father McCue asked me to participate in all the services and they always have in one solid hour a wonderful energy core everything's in there and communion always a cup and it's it's why would it kick I mean it's strong wine and the Bible clearly says Jesus had rinky all of it and we did where you'll find with Episcopalians where will you find a three or four guy that you'll always find a fifth so and I remember how how queasy I was standing up there trying to do Jesus and stuff and I enjoyed that one time I was I got a little queasy and I I thought I was speaking in tongues and I was cursing so [Laughter] what are these transcended experiences now when you've experienced all this really the rigors of religion and we always believed when I was about 13 years old I remember having a dream of trying to find out where God came from and in the dream I was leaping up and down on a tall tall tall brick wall probably three times of twice in my height and that was jumping up trying to get to the top so I could see over the wall and I kept falling down and scratching my hands and bumping my head and scratching my knee and and it the whole dream I slept and let and kept trying to see on the other side am I woke up with the conclusion that I will never know who God is and that was discouraging to me except I remembered that I don't know air but I breathe it I've never had a conversation with light but I've enjoyed it you can experience air without knowing air can I experience what some people call God some ultimate reality some some transcendent rhythmic regional reach of consciousness that's beyond my full grasp and experience that or express that as my own divinity I think the closest to God any of us may ever get is our own self-realization when you really get to know who you are in your amazing complex scientific biological physiological psychological essence when you really get to know who you are that maybe it's close to what you may consider God you'll ever become because you are amazing turn this on and say you are amazing oh my god even atheist like to say oh my god you believe it Oh God where do you get your believe in God well this it's a colloquialism so the Scriptures as they argued about it for many many years in order read a very amazing I heard a lecture actually this recently from a systematic theologian in the evangelical world that that basically said the Bible that we hold in our hand is not necessarily the inspired Word of God but and I've said many times he very cooperated what I've said for years I don't believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God but it's the inspired Word of man about God or humans about God and how could we really grasp as finite beings what in finite reality is infinitum eenz without finish in our physical finishable existence i was at the bedside in the hospice of a young man who was a youth minister at the at under bishop garry mcintosh and if they grew up all at higher d his name as mike hill and he was at my house three months ago having pancakes with his wife and when i saw him earlier this week he did not look like the same person he had been diagnosed with the fourth stage pancreatic cancer just less than a year ago and when he called me instantly i was offended that that that that were that he was saying that he might say that and absolutely not no sir we we're not going there but you know I know you I know you too well you're man of faith I'm a man of faith let's believe God that you'll be okay and I say that to all sick people better when he when he said that to me I just didn't have a witness in my soul that we would lose him and we did he died three thirty two to us what is today Sunday Friday Friday afternoon but I said wait he called a week ago Saturday now I was talking him on the phone and I knew he was going I could tell he was in hospice so I said I'll be there in a couple of days I'm in Atlanta now wait for him will you wait for me son he said yes I'll wait Esther and I went there I got in from Atlanta on Monday and flew out the next morning at six o'clock to be with him he he didn't even want me to see him because of the way he looked that disease that so ravaged his body and it's always hard on us a man of faith and power who trusts God and believe God for so many things that have had what I would consider miracles mom and dad had to believe in miracles or what we would call interventions of God because with her on edge especially their parents they had to trust God for healing they couldn't they didn't have money that have insurance back in the country where my mother was born in actually in their log cabin in East Texas and her mother was born in that same log cabin and they'd been out in the woods and my grandfather Papa we called him was half white his his father was white his his mother was was black and they lived they on the property that they that the Evans owned and his mother was repeatedly raped and eventually she got pregnant he was the only quarter in court mulatto are born but he took his dad's name but they never had money when I went to his funeral they didn't have running water the man of faith power scriptures but they didn't have running water or electricity in their home I was shocked when I went into Texas in the late sixties to my great grandfather's funeral but he was a man of Prayer he believed they told me how he would lay hands on cows and they give milk longer chickens and the eggs would keep rolling you know a sick donkey or whatever they had to trust God for sickness in their body fat my mother to this day won't use an aspirin she doesn't believe in it she she believes that that's a that's a an act of doubt rather than an act of faith and sometimes the hair her head will ache a little longer than mine would have because I probably oh I mean I hayashi I'll take a day I'll take a Tylenol Jesus name and I did that and I took me the same faith my my head its fat because she was still trusted I went on but I remember time many times my mother laid hands on me and I was instantly healed she never would get upset about anybody being sick she just trusted God so we grew up around that pills and Gospels and God spells we were in under under a spell we were enchanted with our faith but everything was built around the Word of God now is there a word of god there's written words of men or women about God and end though those the judeo-christian Bible no women wrote in there no women were allowed to sit at the table and discuss what would be included in there there very few mention of anybody's daughters in there Esther is a book and and you hear about Naomi and you hear so about some of the women including the Virgin America but you don't have any women in authority in that book that's not the way it originally was but as the as Christianity move west from the east they begin to diminish the role of the feminine deity or essence in Greek mythology Gail was the primary goddess and a lot of and Venus in Roman in Roman religion Venus is where we get the word venereal or Venerable you could say the venerable bishop or the venereal bishop in both up will be references of Honor because Venus was a goddess of sexual intimacy in romanticism and cared and and so they worshiped her and the Jews and Christianity is the Jewish religion struggled with Venus and struggled with sensuality because Genesis and genitals were were different in the Jewish concept genetics so when you go to Europe you see the the statues of physical bodies because they worship the bodies the human physiology and biology because that's the way they that's where they thought was the origin of life and it is physically the origin of life so Paul writes in Romans 1 they worship creation over create or they do free to eat it and said you guff you must wash it the worship the God of Genesis the book of Genesis who had under that God had an do if you ever read it he said he don't like you he likes me but he said he regretted that he made all y'all but you see I came out difference isn't it see they they say that the whole human race originated in Africa all of us originated on the continent of Africa the oldest skeletal remain of a human being if they find is a is a a woman called Eve she's thousands and thousands of years old so one time we were all black until Kane Sydney turned some of them white but up until then there see most people look for the truth in the Bible I look for the truth about it now how do we get it and how have I used it and you know you can use the scripture to do anything you want to support anything I lost a special last night on the Ku Klux Klan and and how they lift across the said we don't burn the cross we light the cross and they say light in Jesus light in G you have to be to believe in Jesus to be a Christian to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan they don't allow a Unitarian in there that's why we here today [Applause] so what is this truth we're looking for it interesting and I have I have a beautiful this Voltaire says this and I hate the use of French enlightenment writer historian philosopher a famous for his wit his attacks on Christianity as a whole especially the established Catholic Church and his advocacy for freedom of religion and freedom of speech a separation of church and state but he said those who can make you believe absurdities they make you commit atrocities how often in how many absurdities have we believed and have other religions around the world believe that make them free feel free to commit atrocities snatching children from their parents and because the law legalism Paul said roads that were redeemed from the curse or accusation of the law judge a man by his questions rather than his answers Voltaire said judge a person more by their questions than their answers it is difficulty system to free fools from the chains they revere the bible is a sacred cow for so many of us including me i know it i love it i teach it i have lived it and now i question it only because i'm interested in it and how it has affected or perhaps in some ways infected the culture and defected it not itself but our various interpretations or interpolations of it how we make commentary on the scripture and use it as pastor were up around the corner from where we pastored and almost finished the other day and there's there's four churches on one side of the block christian churches all Bible believing Second Coming Jesus blood crawls resurrected virgin birth all believe the same thing be to it right off of 91st and Memorial and their beautiful churches attractive each one of them are used we should hold our youth meeting once I would have room over there on Memorial and I know all of them believe the same thing but they they can't sit together in one room and worship regularly because they'll have different interpretations primary of the Bob they all believe in the Bible leaving the Bible the Bible say this and the Bible is right and yeah that ain't in the word and the Word of God you got to me we need the word and I understand all that I was so I'm so accustomed to that but most of the folks that hear it they only hear the same thing about it each week a variation of it and it's okay I'm not denouncing it but if we use it as a weapon and we use it as a rule or we use it as a way or justification of committing crimes against humanity the way religions have that we need to question why we make it so valuable in our midst and use it as not only a tool but a weapon to hurt of a human being attorney General Sessions actually read scripture the other day to justify separating children from their parents he read it and I understood them in telling there was a day when I would have said we'll go for it buddy stand for the word of God that's good let's keep these people in place because they're preserving our country from all these outsiders who's an outsider everybody basically is most of us feel like we're an insider but what are you an insider with with whom who you hanging out with how do you use the Bible what does it mean to you what what um he says doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is absurd doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty what Carleton Pearson's going through is a bit of a mourning right now because I've made this major shift I still love the things I've loved I love people I love God whatever God is and however God manifests itself in the universe and they mean in my consciousness but I love I love the world I love everybody I don't judge as much as I used to and I have studied the scripture do you know that the by the King James Version has had a hundred thousand changes since it was since it was translated in 1611 to 1779 that there are forty thousand different versions of the Bible and thousands more of interpretations of it all by men scholars linguists archaeologists historians who argued viciously over it and changed it every time they they argued about it and we call it the infallible inerrant Word of God and it's the interpretations and the evaluations of a lot of people from various cultures and ideologies and belief systems and Christianity is greatly influenced by Roman religion heavily influenced by Greek mythology heavily influenced all the way to Horus who was the Sun God as well where we get the word our in Egypt the Egyptian mythology Horus our or Horrors I horizon I should say all these collected words and ideologies have come together and Constantine creative religion that he thought worked for everybody and that Holy Roman Empire is still in place Washington DC London England and the Vatican of the only three cities in the world that are not owned by their countries the District of Columbia is its own separate entity so is London England and so is wrong so as you rethink what you believe in why you believe it be more critical in your thinking and ask yourself the difference between what you know or think you know and what you believe or say you believe fold your arms like this for just a bit that's a little bit of a defense position president used the quite a lot but just so foot you what are you what are you defending a why what do you believe in why do you believe it do you like or love yourself and I can tell you that I have gone from self-loathing to self loving only in the last fifteen years I didn't know I was so distrustful of me I was so afraid I defend God or fading people I didn't trust me I wasn't free to say what I thought and I condemn myself for thinking some of the things I wanted to say you ever been there now take those same arms and just release yourself to stretch really good I said Stevie have you ever doubted did you ever feel like you were a sinner because you were born blind or that you have not been able to see he said I've never had an issue with it not all my life and he said I understood those who cared about me and those who prayed for me I knew what my mother was thinking he said but I see with eyes that don't work the way yours do I said you go you sing with a mouth that doesn't work the way mine does and you here and play with fingers that you know very gifted and is not a totally unapologetic he said it's all spirit it's all essence you are spirit you have a mind you have a body but you are spirit you are a human being having a spiritual encounter and a spirit having a human encounter and you sort through all of that your human allottee your personhood your nationality your ethnicity your sexuality your mental orientations your physiological being how tall how short how thin how fluffy that's a good word argue all of them work together now shake your hands just like that is shift that energy around turn to the person's and say you're okay and so am I say I'm sound fantastic I'm getting better at it all the time so I love me some me and I love me some you [Music] and my love of you is beyond belief if you love the unbelief that means you love beyond what you believe that or anybody else believes and you love based on what you know when your soul and knowing your spirit I know and your consciousness I love you too god bless you and God be you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] nothing's impossible I have found for when my chin is on the ground I picked myself up dust myself off start all over those your confidence if you slip be grateful for a pleasant trip then pick yourself up dust yourself off start all over again work like a soul you may be sick and tired but you'll be a man my son remember the famous man who had to fall to rise again they picked themselves up the stem cells are start all over again [Music] [Music] work like a soul inspire till the maybe sick and tired but he'll be a man though you remember the famous man before - rises again they pick themselves out take a deep breath dust themselves up start all over again hey we're so happy you're visiting with us online today we love connecting with people all across the country and around the world sharing our powerful message of love beyond belief there's something new happening here you can now join all souls as a virtual member our virtual membership is designed for friends who live outside of Tulsa Oklahoma and who want to engage with all souls in a meaningful way you can be part of an expanding family a global family really wherever you are if you live in Oklahoma Ohio or Orange County California Canada or Cameroon by becoming a virtual member you'll be able to deepen your connections with members and friends here in Tulsa and with members wherever you are each week you'll receive special all souls content tailored for you our virtual members virtual members have access to pastoral care to personal prayers and also receive invitations that exclusive web events you can learn more and if you're ready you can become a virtual member today by visiting All Souls Church org forward slash virtual membership we're grateful our ministries are having a positive impact on your life and we want to share the good news of love beyond belief with more and more people so no matter what we need your support to keep this ministry growing and thriving so please consider making a gift today you can do so by texting love be be for loved beyond belief two seven three two five six or simply visit our websites you are a blessing in our lives may you be blessed and be a blessing [Music]

Channel: All Souls Unitarian

Views: 36,715

Rating: 4.203414 out of 5

Keywords: All Souls, Unitarian, Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Universalists, Universalism, Sunday, service, sermon, minister, Life Beyond…, Bible, religion, faith, beliefs, error, questions, fact, truth, science, experience, reason, interpretation, love, spirit, Carlton D. Pearson

Id: Cux7vSR_3Mc

Length: 37min 43sec (2263 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 12 2018