Have you noticed that Christians as a whole are some of the most misinformed individuals when it comes to their own religion? Here is a short list of some major misunderstandings that are held as biblical truths by many Christians.

5: Sunday is the Sabbath. Sorry to inform you that if you are attending church on Sunday you are not keeping the Sabbath. The Sabbath is Saturday, just ask your Jewish friends who follow the teachings found in the First Testament of your Holy Bible.

4: Mary was a Virgin. According to the biblical texts Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. For any church to assume that she remained a married woman as well as a virgin after she gave birth to Jesus is pretty ridiculous. There are enough references in ancient text to the brother of Jesus that this is a pretty silly little idea.

3: The Bible as we know it was divinely inspired. Sorry to burst your bubble if you are not aware of the history surrounding how the Bible has come into its current form. First, the gospels were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The best scholarly dates on these texts suggests that they would have been written by someone who heard the story from grandpa Matthew or great uncle Mark, but credited their original source in the title of the text. Secondly, the books included in the bible were decided by committee with several versions of the life and times of Jesus not making the cut because they were not seen to be as believable. Finally, much of the bible started as an oral tradition that only came into a written form many years after the events had transpired. It is not like reading the newspaper where events are recorded within a few days or weeks of their occurrence. This calls into question the credibility and accuracy of much of the text due to lag time and the tendency of human memory to embellish the truth.

2: You cannot serve both God and Money. It seems funny that in the First Testament of the Holy Bible that riches are seen as a manifestation of someone who is favored by God, and by the Second Testament money is the corrupting influence of all society. Abraham was not chastised for being wealthy and neither should anyone else. Perhaps it is placing the seeking of wealth above the worship of God that is truly the problem with money, but not the possession of material wealth itself.

1: The Blessed Trinity. I challenge anyone to find biblical basis for this theological theory outside of church tradition and doctrine. It has no basis in the bible and no basis in Christian tradition if we consult experts on the Jewish religion that was the parent of the Christian religion. It was made up long after the time of Jesus so that some multi-god worshipping pagans would have an easier time accepting the Christian faith.

I know a lot of Christians out there will not like this little article, but this is a reflection of some personal study as well as some theological studies at a Jesuit institution of higher learning.