The Gospel of John

The religious order I'm affiliated with, the Universal Life Church Monastery, wrote a piece in their newsletter on an article from The Huffington Post's Political & Religious Controversy segment.  They titled it, "The Shocking "Truth" About the Gospel of John."  

The article centered around a book by John Shelby Spong, a retired bishop of the Anglican Church in America, "The Fourth Gospel:  Tales of a Jewish Mystic."  He states in the book, "Not one of the signs (miracles) recorded in this book was, in all probability, something that actually happened, this means that Jesus never changed water into wine, fed a multitude with five loaves and two fish or raised Lazarus from the dead."

Basically he feels the Fourth Gospel was not written by John, but by at least three others over a period of 30 years.  The Universal Life Church poses the obvious question that is critical to this issue.  If John Zebadee did not write the Gospel of John, who did?  Who put the words into Jesus mouth?

This is yet another example of my issues with the Bible.  This does not detract from the purpose of the message, but it does detract from the credibility of the story.  We must understand that the Bible is a book of lessons based, in large part, on allegory. An allegory is a literary device in which characters or events represent or symbolize ideas and concepts.  The characters or events are not necessarily real.  They are intended to drive home a message.  Religiously speaking, a very important message.

Lies?  In our Bible?  Yet, we still do this in modern times.  Consider the fable, the bed time story, the fairy tale, the Internet (you certainly cannot believe everything you read on it).  Little of it is based on fact, however, the lessons to be learned are none the less valid.  Not understanding this concept of allegory would certainly effect our belief system.  We need to look past the "fairy tale" and latch onto the message.  The core message is the basis of most of our religions.

As the ULC noted in their newsletter:

"However, Spong argues, his findings do not render Christian theology obsolete by invalidating the doctrines of grace and atonement through the death and resurrection of an avatar.  Christianity's purpose, he says, is about humans becoming divine through  mystical oneness with God, not divine becoming human to be worshiped as a blood sacrifice for human sin."

Well said.