On a recent plane journey from Los Angeles to Tokyo, I was seated next to an American gentleman who introduced himself to me as Don, a retired physician (or Doctor in plain English). He was an intelligent likeable person, and I was enjoying our light-hearted conversation, which was peppered with laughs and smiles.

Before long however, as is often the way with fervent religious believers, he felt compelled to ask his $64’000 question. Do you read the Bible, he asked me. Are you a believer? I have remarked in the past that these questions are often accompanied by an air of superiority, as from someone who considers themselves already “saved”. Poor me, condemned to burn in hell forever because I have not been “saved”, and of course it is the unspoken mission of most bible-followers to “save” the “unsaved”.

In an attempt to answer his question, I explained to him that I do believe in God, and that I also believe that we each have a spark of the divine within us, and in fact that we are all already part of, and an extension to, “God”. The Bible teaches that we are separate from God, whereas I believe that we are not, never have been, and never can be separate from the Divine, and therefore the notion of being “saved” has no meaning. How can you save one part of God from another part of God?

Don listened patiently, and then replied that this was not what the Bible teaches and therefore it cannot be true. He had made his choice. He had chosen to follow the Bible word for word. The truth was in the Bible, and all else was untruth.

All of my arguments and reasoning, in fact whatever I said, met with the same response. With a smile Don would say “that’s not what it says in the Bible, therefore I don’t believe it. I believe that the Bible is the word of God”. An educated, erudite man, Don was unwilling to use any rational reasoning or discernment whatsoever when it came to his faith. He could see no further than the printed word on the pages of the Bible resting in his hands.

And he was genuinely concerned for me. He was concerned that unless I accepted Jesus as my saviour and surrendered to Him, then my fate was to burn in hell for eternity. His Bible was the only way.

Excuse me for interposing some reasoning here, but I cannot accept that inherently good persons such as Mahatma Gandhi or the Dalai Llama are condemned forever to burn in hell, simply because they have chosen a path to God other than that prescribed in the Bible. I put this to Don, and I was astonished by his reply which was “Yes, I wish it was otherwise but according to the Bible, even Gandhi is now burning in hell for eternity”.

How can any thinking person, who considers this with an open heart and mind possibly conclude that the only way for anyone to live their life is to follow word for word a book which was written over 2’000 years ago? And worse, once decided, once the choice is made, there is absolutely no room for discussion. Even if Jesus himself were to reappear his words would be refuted unless there is a mention of such a coming in the Bible. Likewise, any other spiritual leaders and their words, past, present and future are consistently and vehemently ignored. How sad.

How sad, that all subsequent books, and there have been many, whose words have been divinely inspired just like the Bible, are completely ignored and have no relevance at all. I mentioned to Don the “Conversations with God” series of books authored by Neale Donald Walsch. I defy anyone who reads these books with an open mind not to be touched by the words which carry such an energy, such simplicity and power. For me, these are undoubtedly divine words.

Or then again, take Eckhardt Tolle and his “Power of Now” books, which even achieved mainstream acceptance after being showcased by Oprah Winfrey. Nope, completely irrelevant as well.

The thing is, there have been advancements in all forms of human endeavour in the last 2’000 years – including in human consciousness. We are now ready to accept a more complete version of “the truth” and we are also able, if we open our minds, to handle new concepts of what God and Divinity really mean. We needed religions and Gods’ intermediaries 2’000 years ago. We don’t need them any more. It is time to awaken to who we really are. And there are many, many “new” books containing the divinely inspired words to help us do this.

Again sadly, neither Don nor any of my other would-be saviours over the years, were even prepared to read any of the books which I have proposed as also containing the word of God. To their mind, every divinely inspired book that has been written in the last 2’000 years can be piled up and set fire to; an enormous bonfire – the bonfire of the Bible followers. Nothing new of any value in 2’000 years? How very sad.

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