"The Bible Alone" they cried
This was the message of the Reformers as they fled Catholic confortmity;
as they sought a shield against the cudgel of traditional worship
and compliance to the false doctrines of religion.
As they cast out what the Bible did not affirm.

Sadly they did not appreciate that the writings are children of their time,
crafted by those who lived in a very different environment
and often adjusted by those with a specific agenda.
Growth of knowledge has exposed such failings
where The Bible does not align with reality.

For some the Bible remains the arbiter of their faith.
They replace the reality of God with the stories of divinity;
replace the challenges of reality with fantasy;
with the fables of history, myths of time.

They then see the written word as inviolate and eternal,
producing a frozen faith that glorifies ancient dogma;
the ideas and man-made myths, of a different time;
ideas crafted to address the needs of times past;
ideas we often no longer understand,
or have found to be untrue.

Some misuse the Bible to their own advantage
producing a twisted doctrine of their devising,
designed to dominate and control their flock
rather than to serve or free them.

The Bible is the basis of the Christian message,
but is not inerrant for it can be contradictory.
It is not history nor myth, but a merge of the two;
Yet it is still a valuable vehicle that God uses
to communicate with deafened man.

We need to read the Bible with opened eyes;
be freed by modern scholarship from superstition,
the ideas of ignorant hermits and power-hungry priests;
to separate what is truth from what is false
and to ponder upon the dubious.

We need to melt the frozen word of God
and hear God's message for today,
proclaimed by recent prophets,
written anew in the blood
of modern martyrs.