As a child I was brought up to value the Bible and long before I could read I had been taught many Bible stories. I was not encouraged to question anything; just accept it as it was written. This did not satisfy my opening mind (for after all I was named for St. Thomas), so I started to search, listening to many experienced teachers and preachers, including Dr. Billy Graham.

I was not prepared to follow their reasoning. When there was nowhere else to go, I decided to go to SCRIPTURE. This led to some facts previously unknown to me. The word Bible means "book", but I discovered the Bible is not one book but a library of sixty-six books in all; I had been taught that it was a book with sixty- six chapters.

Thirty-nine of these books are ancient Jewish scriptures. There are twenty-nine books called the New Testament; these are the Christian scriptures. Four of these are stories of Jesus' life and ministry, each called a "gospel", or in English," good news". Others tell how The Good News was brought from Jerusalem to Rome. Then there are letters from important teachers such as Paul, James, and Jude.

The last book, called Revelations, seems to be addressed to seven Churches giving visions of the conflicts and troubles the Churches will suffer until the Second Coming of Christ.

Much of Scripture I find hard to understand, notwithstanding that Paul, in writing to Timothy says of the Old Testament, "All scripture is inspired by GOD and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and in training for righteousness." (Tim 3 v16)

I was amazed to find that Archbishop Usher (1581 - 1656) studied Scripture and taught that Creation took place about noon on 23rd October 4004 BC! There were many other things in the Old Testament that I found hard to take: how did the Snake get around before it was condemned to crawl?

There were many gods for the Hebrew people. The first could not be approached by man; He dwelt on a mountaintop and only Moses could approach Him and then come down and tell the people what instructions He had given. Then there was the God that Noah knew when he was five hundred years old; this God told Noah that there was so much violence and sin in the world that He was sorry he had created it, and because Noah and his wife were good they would be spared from the catastrophe to come, and you all know the story of the Ark.

According to the eighth chapter of Genesis, when the Flood was over Noah built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and fowl and offered burnt offerings to the Lord. And the Lord smelled the sweet savour and said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground." While the Earth remains summer and winter, cold and heat, seed-time and harvest, day and night shall not cease.

Then there was Abraham who became convinced that the God he knew instructed him to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering; later this command was changed to the sacrifice of a ram. The God of the Israelites was a god of battles; one might say bloodthirsty, "take no prisoners, kill men, women and children." By the time we get to the prophet Micah from Judah, he was asking,"Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions? He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God".

Micah lived about 750 BC. Was it God that was changing? Or, as I came to believe, Man's conception of God was becoming more enlightened. In 1526 the New Testament was first translated into English by William Tyndale; nine years later the whole Bible was translated into English by Coverdale, and 76 years later the King James version was produced. What changes in 85 years! In another thirteen years George Fox was born. The England where he grew up was a very unsettled place; there were two civil wars, the king was tried as a traitor and executed, and Cromwell came to power. As well as all this, printing made it possible for everyone interested to read the Bible in their own language, and form their own ideas. So, controversies arose between Presbyterians and Episcopalians, not to mention the Ranters, the Levellers, and many others.

Fox decided to consult some professors of the State church. One told him to get married, another suggested he go and have a few pints; according to his journal, Fox did neither, but one day, while sitting in a hollow tree reading his Bible he had what he called an "opening", "there is One, even Jesus Christ, that can speak to thy condition." Fox says, "And then my heart did leap for joy". Many years later I reached the same conclusion. The Bible tries to show one how to go to Heaven, not how the Heavens go.

People who insist on a literal interpretation of Scripture are to my mind missing the point, if they insist that the world was created in seven twenty-four hour days, or that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, or the book of Isaiah had only one author, or that Jonah spent three days in the belly of a whale. An American composer, Ira Gershwin, wrote:

"It ain't necessarily so,
the things you're li'ble
to read in the Bible,
it ain't necessarily so,"

or if you prefer William Blake: "We both read the Bible day and night, But thou readest black and I read white." Some people see defence of Scripture as almost more important than Scripture itself.

Our Quaker theologian Robert Barclay wrote, "Because Scripture is only a declaration of the Fountain and not the Fountain itself, therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal ground of all Truth and Knowledge. They are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their excellence and certainty; the Spirit is the first and principal leader."

Some time ago I read in a Quaker book: "Where the scriptural text appears to conflict with the Spirit...if in doubt always stick with the Spirit".

A degree of faith is needed as indicated by Paul (Heb 11 v6) "For without faith it is impossible to please Him. He that cometh to God must first believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him".

Our Lord's brother the apostle James, writing to all the saints abroad says, "Even so faith, if it is without works, is dead." "God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth." (John 4 v2) I believe God has given us brains and intelligence and expects us to use these gifts.

"Holy hearsay is not evidence
Tell me the Good News in the present tense
What happened two thousand years ago
May not have happened. How am I to know?
So put away your Holy Books and show me how
The Jesus that you speak about Is living NOW."

Many things are true and therefore they are found in the Bible. It would be wrong to conclude that they are in the Bible, therefore they are true.