Biblical Canonicalism

            From about October 2016 to April 2017, I held a set of beliefs that I would call Biblical Canonicalism.  I took the teachings of the Bible at face value without looking to any religious tradition to interpret them for me.  The text says what it says, and it doesn’t care that different churches twist it in different ways to say whatever they want.  Taking the Biblical text at face value led to a number of interesting conclusions.  I learned that the god of the Bible is one being and one person, and that his name is Jehovah.  I also learned that Jesus Christ is not literally God, although he was sent to Earth to perfectly represent him.  I learned that the dead are unconscious, but God will reward those who faithfully obey his commandments by resurrecting them and allowing them to live on the paradisiacal earth forever.  At one point, I also came to the conclusion that Heavenly Father still expects us to keep the commandments in the Old Testament.  After all, he commanded them and never revoked them.  Faithful saints in the New Testament strove to keep these commandments, both before and after the Atonement was complete.  I even started peeling the pepperoni and bacon off of my pizza and scheduling work-related appointments around the Biblical Sabbath, which is Friday sundown to Saturday sundown.  I had always been taught that since Christ had fulfilled the law, we don’t have to keep it anymore.  However, that’s the exact opposite of what Christ said (Matthew 5:17).  He fulfilled it because he added a few missing elements, such as compassion and the spirit of the law.  He did not do away with the rest of it.

            However, as I studied the Bible, I couldn’t help but notice that I was judging it by different standards than other books, such as the Book of Mormon or the Quran.  If I were to be honest with myself, I would have to judge all religious texts by the same standards.  As I continued to study, I discovered and came to terms with two major problems in the Bible and Christianity as a whole: God's character and Jesus' prophecies.