The Wrong Mountain

An Unconventional Bible Study for an Unconventional People

De: Joe McLaughlin, Zarqnon The Embarrassed

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

In ancient thought, the mountain represented many things: it could represent a kingdom, a religious system, or nation. They were a protector of a people. They were seats of power. They were sacred sites where earth touched the heavens. Specific deities reigned over specific mountains.

They were also the natural division between specific groups of people.

Then there was Jesus. He came from a very specific group – the Jews, The Chosen People of God. But he reached out to dominions that were not his place to interfere. It was as though he didn’t acknowledge the boundaries. At points, he came across as they were his dominion as well.

Almost 4 decades ago, I understood that this Jesus person was interested in a living relationship with me. I was in high school, and I was coming from a rationalist/mystic point of view where I synthesized my views based on whatever appeared logical at the moment. But when I found myself in a growing relationship with Jesus, I realized things were changing in me. The main problem I had was that I was getting all my knowledge of the Scriptures from everyone else. And I went to multiple churches, reading all kinds of books, and joining diverse religious college groups, synthesizing my views on all the various input. But I never took the time to read the Bible. I had read several other religious texts, but I just thought I could assimilate my knowledge and figure Jesus out.

But I had a friend tell me that she didn’t want to hear of my religious views until I actually read the Scriptures and learned to come to my own conclusions. And so, I began a habit of reading Scriptures on a regular basis. I did so using various versions and translation, and different denominations. I went to Bible College and learned the ancient cultures (Greek, Hebrew, Canaanite and other Mesopotamian peoples). I studied different doctrines and other ancient cultures.
On top of this, I am autistic, and one of my traits is that when I obsess over something, I find everything I can, things that are way out of the scope of “normal”.

And, now, I am into writing my thoughts. But I organize things how they fit in my head. I am not simply doing a textual or expository study where I sit there and exegete and hermeneutic a specific text. I am using my synthesizing nature to paint pictures of concepts and themes my autistic eye sees woven through the Scriptures.

This will likely be different than what you are used to. But I am sharing how I see the Scriptures and hope it will encourage and build up your walk, wherever you are on your spiritual journey,