Disclaimer: When The Sum of the Matter began, we were in the process of deconstructing our Christian faith and exploring the ancient text of the Hebrew bible to consider whether or not the words found therein are true. As you will see from our earlier content, we tried and the insight we gained was that if you look to the Hebrew roots, the story is quite a bit different than what you may have been told and if we don't have the originals, how can we be certain that everything isn't just man made with a human purpose and intention behind it?
We desired to continue that pursuit but the frustration level was high, very high! We finally are willing to admit that everything is subjective, everything is situational and that maybe the only real objective moral truth goes something along the lines of “don't do to others that which you don't want done to you”.. emphasis on the DON’T. We humbly admit that we can’t know all things AND will continue to question everything. It’s an interesting place to find ones self…. If the here and now is all there really is and we have the freedom to decide how we live it, then what do we really want to do with our one wild and precious life? We certainly don’t want to be controlled and manipulated anymore. We don't want to escape this life, in hopes that the next will be better, we want to focus more on the joys of today.
Our journey aims to keep things plain and simple. We are not scholars and don't claim to be, in fact we are only high school educated and self-taught thinkers and studiers. We are also not necessarily "authors" either. We are trying the best we can to express our thoughts and opinions but find it is not always easy to put them into words. We have come to the current conclusion that the more you think you know, the more you realize that you don't know anything at all. We never thought we would find ourselves here, questioning our worldview and deconstructing everything we thought we knew. The thoughts we share are not written in stone and our understanding may change at any time. We can't guarantee where this journey will take us but if you find yourself there too, we hope you will join us as we seek to be balanced, present and magical!
Gettin’ Grounded
Simple, practical insight for being balanced, starting from the ground up!
You can conquer sin
Does God tell Cain in Genesis 4, that if he improves he will be forgiven and that he can rule over or conquer sin? If that is true then you also can conquer sin!
Man’s consequences for disobedience
Did you know, in Genesis 3 only the serpent and the ground were cursed? Man was not. And what is the meaning of cursed anyway? Let’s consider the consequences that were given by God and focus only on what the text of the Hebrew Bible actually says. Might that change our perception of the story?
God’s commandment in the garden
Could it be that the knowledge of evil or unbalance and dysfunction would be too much for man? That if they ate of it, they would possess the possibility of becoming unbalanced and dysfunctional. That would be contrary to how God created them. And if man becomes unbalanced and dysfunctional, does that mean that man’s influence could have the same unbalanced and dysfunctional effects on the whole earth?
God creates man
Is it possible that the first man was originally both male and female in one? "Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky and over the animal, the whole earth and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So, God created Man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Gensis 1:27
In the beginning
According to the Hebrew Bible, God created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is within them and He said it was good. But what does good or the Hebrew word Tov really mean?
What is truth?
Since the beginning of time, mankind has tried to make sense of the world through their search for truth. Does the Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, hold the answers we’ve been looking for?