The Bible, From My Perspective

Without doubts and questions, we would still be living in the ancient past. Although my study of the Bible is not yet complete, I have decided to use it as a major source of material for my blogsite. Although I have already published the Preface, I feel I must use it before continuing on to Chapter One.
The following thesis was first intended as a response to the Jehovah Witnesses who come to my door, convinced if I but listen for a few minutes to the message they bring and read the pamphlets they leave that I will, in time, become a convert to their particular faith. I will grant them this: they understand the concept of hell to have been nothing more myth and superstition, that it was never a plan conceived by an angry God to punish wayward mankind. However, I believe an average intelligent person—I like to think I fall into that category—can discover the truth without becoming a Jehovah Witness.
Fundamental Christians have no trouble believing the Bible—mainly the King James Version—to be the indisputable Word Of God and written under inspiration from God. Fundamental Christians believe, or are supposed to believe, that all religious writings, other than their own, are based on nothing more than culture, legend, myth, lore and superstition. I believe the same case can be made in reference to the Christian Bible.
I believe in order to understand the Old Testament, the reader must discard all preconceived notions and ideas taught as literal truth and read the various books as he would any other book written when myth, lore and superstition served in place of facts.
I believe in order to understand the New Testament and the character of Jesus and his mission in life, the reader must first understand the concept of the role the Promised Messiah in the lives of the Jewish people.
In response to my question I sent to a Rabbi S. concerning whether or not the Jewish Messiah was to remain unmarried and celibate in order to fulfill the requirements of the role, I received the following: Since the Moshiach—Messiah—is a human being who is claiming the Kingdom and throne of his ancestor King David and is obligated to obey the 613 commandments listed in the Torah, to be celibate would violate the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. So not only is the “Messiah” free to marry, but would have to have at least one child to satisfy the commandment.
Since I cannot divulge Rabbi “S’s” full name without his consent, I suggest the skeptic find out for him/herself as to whether or not Jesus was married during his ministry here on earth.
If what the Rabbi wrote is true, than Jesus must have been married in order for the the apostles and his followers to have, after his death, formed what was to eventually become the Christian church.
Chapter One
THE BOOK OF GENESIS
Verses 1-2-3-4-5 The story of the Creation.
11 God causes vegetation to grow.
14 God creates the sun, moon and stars
Q: How is it that vegetation could sprout and yield seeds without benefit of sunlight?
20 God creates the creatures that live in the sea and fowls that live on land.
24 God creates the creatures who live on land.
27 God creates man . . . in the image of God . . . male and female created he them.
There you have it: so simple a child can easily understand it. However, I outgrew my childhood and though I admit I was well into my late thirties before I began to develop the ability to think for myself, I have not yet ceased the process. I’ve a question concerning verse 27. If both men and women were created in the “image” of God, does not that give me reason for believing God to be as much a female God as a male? Could not that possibly explain what is a sin to so many—homosexuality: might not that verse explain occasional homosexuality in both sexes, that a person is born either heterosexual or homosexual, that he/she has no choice in the matter?
I believe I had been a member of the Mennonite church for at least nine years before I began expressing any doubt concerning anything found in the Bible. I no longer remember exactly in what order I first began to question what my Sunday School teachers was teaching us, but Genesis, chapter I, verse 27 was a likely beginning. I know there came a certain time which I will go into later on when I realized I had not been taught much of anything worthwhile as far as the Bible was concerned, that I’d have to find my own way through it.
J.I. Rodale, in his Synonym Finder, does not liken in any way the word ’spirit’ to the word, image’. The problem with what I had been been absorbing? If God is a spirit: an all wise, all knowing, all powerful spirit, and we are created in his image, that does not explain the evil that men do. Of course, my Sunday School teacher had a ready answer for that. The fallen angel Satan, recreated by the early Christian fathers into the Christian devil some four thousand years after Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden, was supposed to have stopped all doubting on my part. After all, Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Prince of Darkness, whatever a believer chooses to call him, has been reigning over an imaginary hell for some two thousand years. Seems easy enough to understand, and, I understood. That is, I understood until I began think, to cogitate, and to ask more questions. I asked him to explain Isaiah Chapter 45, verse 7. I doubt he even knew the verse existed. I’ll bring that verse up at a later time.