Curses Should Be Eliminated from the Bible

The Israeli-Palestinian problem is not just another typical regional conflict; it is a major global conflict! In fact, the entire Middle East problem is the world's "Gordian knot". If humanity manages to solve it, then we can hope that present civilization may survive. If not, then apocalyptic tragedies await the world. Therefore, it is in everybody's interests to contribute peacefully towards the solution of this long and fierce conflict. This article is my own humble contribution to this end. It is an axiom that words, especially when they are fortified with strong emotion, are powerful "tools", both for blessing and for cursing. People have known this instinctively and experientially since languages were formed, and they have used their tongue as a weapon to bring good and, unfortunately more often, evil on fellow human beings. Some people's words are inherently more powerful than those of others, and the most effective ones are those of prophets, especially when they are pronounced in the name of God, even without His approval. In the Old Testament we find many accounts of the fulfilment of catastrophic prophecies pronounced against Israel by its prophets, whenever the "chosen people" failed to obey God's - the prophets' - commandments. In the knowledge of the above, the critical question to which all believers are called to answer is this: How is Israel affected today by the curses of its Old Testament prophets, taking into account that millions of Bible believers consider them as God inspired? To what degree is Israel still "bound" by them? Difficult questions, indeed, which take a true mystic to answer for sure. (By the way, I do not claim to be one...) If the answer to these questions is "YES", then the next question must be: how could Israel be loosed from the curses the Jewish prophets have bound around its neck, thousands of years ago? Let us remember that Jesus said, "Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven". Could Christians, or any other compassionate believers, intercede on behalf of Israel, although they know that the loosening from those curses was invariably tied with specific conditions that still have not been met by Israel? Furthermore, wouldn't it help if all these curses that are written in the Bible were eliminated and the relevant chapters deleted? In my opinion, these curses receive spiritual energy by those who believe them as God inspired, and so they appear to remain forever effective. Personally, I would have never bothered wondering about curses pronounced over a people some thousands years ago, nor would I ever suspect that they would, in any way, be still effective, if there hadn't been such a continuous bloody conflict in the "Holy Land", and if, of course, the Jews had not suffered so much by the "gentiles" over the centuries. Of course I am aware of the realistic problems of land-sharing between Israelis and Palestinians and that the solution to those requires understanding and a realistic approach by both parties. However, it has been in my heart for a long time to highlight the possible negative effect of those curses and what could the world do about them. Bearing in mind that the Bible, however holy and inspired in certain parts, is a book written by fallible human beings with limited understanding of God's Ultimate Truth, contemporary enlightened spiritual leaders should not hesitate to suggest elimination of every curse from the Bible. Humanity urgently needs another model of God, if the world is to find some peace. Isn't it strange that I feel inhibited and embarrassed even to quote here what is written in a Book considered being the "infallible and "inerrant" Word of God? I am sure, you, the unbiased reader, will have difficulty even reading those curses. I really feel to apologize in advance, but please remember, I did not write the Bible! And I am only doing this out of compassion for a people carrying a heavy yoke given by its prophets, in their zeal to make them a holy nation. But individuals have been granted the freedom to decide how they want to conduct their own lives and nobody can force them to be saints against their will, pronouncing curses upon them! This practice, apart from being unholy, it just doesn't work! In any case, although with great hesitancy, I must quote here a few of those heavy curses, and let those who are spiritually aware seek enlightenment, discernment and revelation on how to free Israel from them. Deut. 27:1 - Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, "Keep the whole commandment that I command you today." (...) (...) Deut. 28:15 - "But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you." (...) (...) Deut. 28:25 - "The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth." (...) (...) Deut. 28:45 - "All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you." As you can see, I have omitted all the specific curses between the above verses, for they are utterly repulsive and sickening. Christian leaders of all denominations should seriously consider eliminating these and all other curses from a Book they consider to be the "Word of God"! After all, Christ said, "Bless and not curse"! What excuses do they have for keeping any curses in the Bible? And what excuses do Christians have for believing that these curses are really God inspired? Isn't this a blasphemy against the Creator, "Who makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust"? The time has come for Christians to open their spiritual eyes and stop idolizing a Book with curses!