The Bible

As seen from the documentary "God in America" watched in class, the Bible has been a significant idea in Christianity as fundamentalists believed and still believe that every word of it is God's word and therefore should be taken literally. I've gone to church for 10 years, every day, learning about the Bible, memorizing the Bible, worshiping the Bible, and would like to dedicate this blog to describe some of the most memorable stories that I believe are metaphors and cannot be proven by science, but what fundamentalists believe are miracles.

Even though Jesus is probably the most significant out of all the stories, I don't want to talk about him because the topic of Jesus if more controversial and being a Christian, I'm still unsure of my belief of Jesus's miracles.

(These are not in order and some are shorter than others)

Source: Bible

If you are interested in any of the stories but don't want to read the Bible because it may be too long or hard to comprehend, here is a link to a pdf graphic novel of the Bible:   https://goodandevilbook.com/english//Good-and-Evil-English-Full.pdf

The Story of Lot's wife:
Mentioned in the book of Genesis, two male angels arrive in the city of Sodom, examining the city before God would burn it down (God wants to burn it down because the city is full of sinning men). All of the men living in the city immediately became attracted to the beautiful angels. Disgusted, the angels made all of those men blind. Unlike the others, upon the sight of the angels, Lot immediately kindly invites them over offering his daughters. (In the Bible and Christianity in general, offering up something very important to oneself means submitting oneself to God) The angels notice his genuine kindness and decide to save Lot and his family before burning the city down. As Lot and his family escape, the angels demand that everyone musn't look back at the city (because looking back means longing for the city of sin and refusal to move on). Lot and his daughters obey, however, Lot's wife turns around in temptation and curiosity- she immediately turns to a pillar of salt blowing away with the wind.

The Story of Abraham:

Also in the book of Genesis is the story of Abraham. Located in a city full of sinners who worship statues and gold, Abraham is the only faithful man who still worships God. Although God favors Abraham, Abraham has one main problem: his wife Sarah cannot bear children (They are already 70-80 years old). After many prayers, God answers Abraham claiming that he would allow Sarah to bear so many children that she wouldn't even be able to count them. A few months pass and Sarah grows weary and unbelieving of God's promises to Abraham. She sends a concubine to Abraham. Forgetting all of God's promises, Abraham agrees to obtain his child from this concubine. When the child is born, God punishes Sarah and Abraham by making the child's fate bound to violence. After begging for forgiveness, God agrees to continue his initial promise to Abraham. Sarah does bear a child (at the age of 90) and both are ecstatic. Upon seeing Abraham's undying love to his son, God believes that Abraham has forgotten about him for he has stopped praying, etc. God tests Abraham's faith by demanding that Abraham must sacrifice his son. After much thought and many questions to God, Abraham reluctantly agrees. He tricks his son into thinking that they are going up the mountain to sacrifice a lamb, however, upon arrival, Abraham pushes his son onto the hay. Abraham raises his dagger, but right before he brings it down, God demands him to stop. He has passed the test, and God sends a lamb to sacrifice in the son's place.

The Story of Samson:
Before Samson is born, an angel visits his mother (a woman faithful to God) and relates God's message to her: when Samson is born, for his whole life, he isn't allowed to cut his hair. When Samson is born, it turns out that his uncut hair is related to his supernatural strength. Samson uses his strength to bring good to the world, however, he falls in love with a woman named Delilah. After gaining his trust, Delilah deceives Samson into telling her where his strength originates from. Samson comes clean, telling her that if his hair is cut, his strength will be taken away. While Samson is an Israelite, Delilah is a Philistine; Philistines are enemies of Israelites. Therefore, in the night, Delilah cuts off Samson's hair and Samson loses his strength. It is the punishment of not listening to God's initial command. The Philistines turn Samson into a slave, however not a very useful slave because he is weak. Samson is tortured and blinded. God allows Samson to take his revenge by giving Samson back his power to take down the temple of the Philistines. Samson takes down both the temple and himself. He is seen as a heroic figure because the last action he took was God's command.

The Story of Moses:

Chronologically, the story of Moses takes place directly after Abraham. The Israelites start to outnumber the Egyptians who are the tyrannical rules at the time. To control the Israelite population, the Egyptians throw all newborn babies into the river to feed to the alligators. Before baby Moses is thrown into the river, both his mother and his sister put him in a basket, pray, and let the basket carrying baby Moses float away, hoping for the best. Later, the Pharaoh's daughter comes out to the river to bathe spotting the basket. Admiring the baby, the Pharoah's daughter decides to adopt Moses. Moses grows older and he decides that he has to examine the society he is going to rule soon. He sees the Egyptians cruelly beating an Israelite. Although Moses has grown up in an Egyptian family (and the most powerful one), he still knows what heritage he is. Angered, Moses kills the Egyptian, but when he is spotted and identified, he flees into the wilderness. Out in the wild, he finds a new family and lives a humble life herding sheep. However, one day Moses spots a bush on fire, and though the bush is on fire, it doesn't whither away or burn to ashes. He decides to go closer and examine when he hears God's voice coming from the bush. God commands Moses to save the Israelites from the Egyptians because the Egyptians are beginning to kill all of the Israelites. Unconfident, Moses declines, but God tells him to put his staff on the ground. When the staff hits the ground, it becomes a snake; God is trying to reveal to Moses that as long as he has faith in God, anything is possible.

Moses decides to return to Egypt and he heads directly to the Egyptian officials requesting to let his people (the Israelites) go. He tells them that this is God's command, but the Egyptians don't believe him. These are the most significant ways that Moses tries to convince the Egyptians that God is on his side. He lays down his staff once again and it turns into a serpent. Believing that it was just a mere illusion, the Egyptians bring out their own serpents. Moses's serpent/staff eats all of the rest of the serpents. The Egyptians don't believe that this is enough to convince them, so Moses continues. Moses turns the river into blood so that the Egyptians cannot bathe nor hydrate. The Egyptians don't believe Moses and have their own magicians prove that anyone can do it (unlike Moses, they merely put red dye in water). Moses continues and has the river produce millions of frogs. This becomes an inconvenience to the Egyptians, but still, the Egyptians refuse to believe. Moses continues to turn all of the dust in Egypt into lice, making the Egyptians even angrier but still refusing to believe. There are a few more such as turning the rain into fire, bringing millions of flies into every Egyptian home, and bringing Locusts to destroy all of the Egyptians crops and homes. The final, most significant act that Moses does to prove that God commands the freeing of the Israelites is that he tells all of the Israelites (believers) to paint a mark on their doors with the blood of a lamb. This is to prove that they believe what Moses is saying. In the night, all of the firstborn sons of the households with unpainted doors die, including the Pharoah's first born. Because of this tremendous loss, the Pharoah lets Moses escape with the Israelites. However a few hours later, he grows angry at his loss and regrets his decision. He sends his soldiers to bring back or kill the Israelite slaves. Upon seeing the Egyptian soldiers, Moses begs God for help. God allows Moses to part the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass through, but when the Egyptian soldiers try to pass through, they are washed away and drown with the closing waters. Hence, through God's help, Moses successfully help the Israelites escape Egypt. (There's more but I have said the most significant parts and it's already pretty long)

The Story of Joseph:
Faithful to God, Joseph is favorable under God's eyes through this whole story. He is the youngest of 10 older brothers and is his father's favorite child. Jealous of the love and attention Joseph is receiving from the father, the 10 older brothers conspire against Joseph selling him to slave traders. The slave traders sell him to Potiphar, one of the Pharoah's officials. Joseph serves under Potiphar faithfully, however, Potiphar's wife tries to seduce Joseph. When Joseph refuses her, she tells Potiphar lies about Joseph that end him up imprisoned. When imprisoned God gives Joseph the gift to interpret dreams. The prison guard learns about Joseph's talent and Joseph earns a good reputation off of it. Shortly after, the Pharoah has dreams that none of his wise consults could interpret. Hearing of Joseph's talent, the Pharoah calls him in. Joseph accurately interprets the Pharoah's dreams earning the Pharoah's favor, power, wealth, and land. Meanwhile, Joseph's family struggles through a famine and end up going to the city in which Joseph lives to get help. Joseph immediately recognizes his older brothers and approaches them. Believing that he is no more than a rich, powerful Egyptian, his brothers bow in respect and talk kindly. Finding this humorous (because of what they have done to him before), Joseph reveals his identity. (Heroes in the Bible are known to forgive) The brothers suffer great remorse and there is a joyful reunion between Joseph and his father.