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I don't stick to the "That was then, this is now" application to the bible. If that was the case then I'm sure God would have commanded a new bible be written every so often. I mean let's face it, some authors re-write their book every year or every 5 years just to pocket the money.
First of all, the religion section of any bookstore - including (especially) the most doctrinaire bookstores - are chock full of people pocketing the money by repeating various formulaic praises of God; so the difference in publishing dollars is probably in favor of orthodoxy. It is the single best-selling book in history; it is, therefore, the least likely book to be ecclipsed by sales of sequels.
Secondly: since you don't stick to the "That was then, this is now" application, do you keep kosher? Trim your beard? Suffer witches to live? Kill homosexuals? Take disobedient children to the city gates and stone them?
You are correct that one must read the bible in its context. But reading it in its context consists of "That was then [i.e., those circumstances]; this is now."
So with that in mind, we have to realize that God has given us a step by step guide on how to live for Him. And truly that's what we should be wanting to do, assuming you have accepted ************ as Lord and Saviour.
Bad assumption
First, the Old Testament
Your parochialism is noted. The value-neutral term is Hebrew bible. The traditional term among the people who produced these works is Tanakh.
was for the times before ************ and while we can still apply God's principles from that period to today's living, the laws were made void when ************ died on the cross.
"That was then, this is now."
As for the verse in 1 Corinthians, I did the service a year ago on Father's Day and I quoted this verse, not as a means to say that "Men are better than women" but instead that Men need to have an understanding of the bible and God's word so that when the moment arises, they should definitely have Godly answers and be able to apply Godly principles to life situations.
Once again, your heart is in the right place, as your conclusion indicates; but the fact is, you could not live with yourself if you lived the way the recipients of these books lived. By that I mean either at the outset of the religion Jesus practiced, or at the outset of the religion that celebrates Jesus. Hell, not more than a couple of decades went by before Christians found themselves unable to even eat the same diet Jesus ate, or to practice circumcision.
Second, we have to be careful of two things. One is that we are reading a translated copy of the bible and sometimes the translations are not accurate. Two is taking bible verses out of context without having an understanding of audience of the intended author.
Errors and willful perversions of translation are indeed an interesting subject, and #2 is indeed one of the many pitfalls one can fall into when reading the bible. It is also necessary to take into account the preexistent texts copied into biblical stories in the case of the Hebrew bible, and to take into account the interests of various factions in the case of both the Hebrew and Greek bibles. It is also instructive in studying any ancient texts, to understand that word choice, style, and rhetoric amount to something like a fingerprint, and to understand that just because somebody told you two joined passages were written by the same person does not mean it is so.
Finally, it takes blind faith to know that God is infallable...I've learned that many people today can blindly trust their coach or favorite team but lack even 1/10 of this trust in God.
God can be infallible, indeed, in most formulations must be infallible. The men who record the bible are not necessarily so -- although the orthodox among Christians and Jews will always insist (as is in their interest) to the contrary.
The Kabalists and of course the Reform, among Jews, and many modern Christians, will admit as much.
PFnV