The Skeptics Annotated Bible (974 page)

(13.9)
“Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines.”
Avoid “strange doctrines.” Those who do so will avoid nearly everything that the Bible teaches.

10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.

12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

18 Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

19 But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.

20 Now
the God of peace
, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

(13.20) “The God of peace”
99 Is God warlike or peaceful?

21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

22 And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words.

23 Know ye that
our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you
.

(13.23) “Our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.” The author of Hebrews never claims to be (and wasn’t) Paul, but he wanted people to think that he was. And it worked. That’s why Hebrews is in the Bible.

24 Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you.

25 Grace be with you all. Amen.

The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
—
James 5.8

James is one of my favorite books in the Bible. I don’t know, maybe it’s just the ex-Catholic in me, but James doesn’t contain much that is objectionable, and has some really good stuff. Evangelical Protestants, of course, don’t much like the book of James, though few will admit it as openly as did their hero, Martin Luther. He despised it, calling it an “epistle of straw” since it so clearly contradicted his perverted belief that salvation comes from faith alone, independent of one’s actions.

Verses seldom quoted by born-again Christians or Teabagging Republicans:

• “Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”
  1.19
  
• “Pure religion … is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
  1.27
  
• The rich should not be treated better than the poor.
  2.2-4
  
• “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”
  2.14
  
• Help others that are in need; don’t just wish them well.
  2.15-16
  
• “Faith without works is dead.”
  2.17
  ,
  20
  ,
  26
  
• “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.”
  2.19
  
• “By works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”
  2.24
  
• “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”
  3.18
  
• “Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (All we are is dust in the wind.)
  4.14
  
• “Ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.”
  5.1
  

Of course, James also has some silly stuff. For example:

• If you are merciless to others, God will be merciless to you. (Two wrongs make a right.)
  2.13
  
• James says that, even in his day, all beasts, birds, serpents, and sea creatures had been tamed by humans.
  3.7
  
• If your prayers are not answered, it’s your own damned fault.
  4.3
  
• Whoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.
  4.4
  
• “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
  5.8
  
• If you are sick, rely on the power of prayer. It works every time.
  5.14-15
  

1
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

5
If any of you lack wisdom
, let him
ask of God
, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not;
and it shall be given him
.

(1.5)
“If any of you lack wisdom … ask of God … and it shall be given him.”
This is the verse that set the 14-year-old Joseph Smith off to found the Mormon Church. That is just an example of the type of wisdom God can give you.
293 Is wisdom a good thing?

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for
God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man
:

(1.13) “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.”
103 Can God be tempted?
65 Has God ever tempted anyone?