Worship the Bible and worship yourself
The problem with loudly claiming the Bible as your only guide to faith and practice is that, at the same time, you may be quietly claiming your own intellect as your only guide to the Bible. If you aren’t, what other guide to the Bible do you claim? Can’t think of one? I suspected as much.
Do you think the human brain is powerful enough, or innocent enough, to understand the ways of God? The apostle Paul didn’t, and his brain was probably more powerful than yours. If you don’t want to obey the truth, don’t worry, you won’t. You won’t understand it or even appreciate it, even if you study it for years.
If the Bible was meant to be studied like a textbook, the marginal notes would be part of the inspired canon. So would the topical index. If Jesus meant the foundation of his church to be his teachings, instead of his imperishable Spirit, he would have organized and categorized them better. He would have explained all his parables. Even better, he wouldn’t have told any parables. Stories are too hard to fit into a systematic theological outline.
Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t intend to build my faith and practice on anything that contradicts the Bible. I don’t believe the Bible makes any mistakes. But I want to believe in what the Bible makes of itself, not what I want to make of it.
For centuries, the Bible’s teachings have been analyzed by historians, philosophers, archaeologists and astrophysicists. And what do I make of the Bible? That’s the wrong question entirely. In the end, the only question that matters is, what is the Bible making of me?
July 4th, 2005 at 10:34 am
Great post!
And there was me thinking your blog had vanished. :-)
July 5th, 2005 at 3:11 am
[…] 17;ll have some more thoughts on the Round Table at some point, but I just wanted to share this first. Michael McGinnis is the marvellous guy who put Marty […]
July 6th, 2005 at 8:10 am
Hmmm…this sounds like an interesting discussion between my husband and I over our next date night!
July 6th, 2005 at 3:12 pm
Well said, especially your last line. I would also say that “what we make of the Bible” should be defined not by our intellect, but by a number of things. While I agree that we should be asking “what is the Bible making of me” that somewhat begs the question. How can I let the Bible make me into something if I don’t have some basis for what it means? Finding a basis for what it means is a very important question that involves lots of things: our intellect, the Spirit, Church tradition, friends, family, pastors, research, solid exegesis, reading, praying, etc. (and not necessarily in that order).
July 7th, 2005 at 8:27 pm
Matt, it does beg that question. But I don’t think we have an answer to that question here. You included a marvelous list of ways that God illuminates the Scripture for us. But surely you aren’t saying that once we work our way through a list (okay, examined commentaries… check, consulted pastor… check), we will then know the meaning of the Bible. We will know the meaning of the Bible when God reveals it to us. Uncomfortable and dangerous, but I don’t know any alternative. Nothing else defines the meaning of the Bible except the author of the Bible.
Thanks for the encouragement, Graham. I’ll try to be more
faithful in sharing.
July 7th, 2005 at 10:20 pm
No, I would definitely not say once we checked our way through a list we will know the meaning of the entire Bible. But that doesn’t mean we can’t say that we know nothing of the Bible. I think that if we do those things on the “list” (not just checking them off, but always doing them) we will be consistently growing in our understanding of the Bible and God (because of the Holy Spirit). One (of the many) amazing things about God is that He is mysterious and we could never hope to comprehend Him in all His glory, that mysteriousness should be entered into and embraced, but that should also not prevent us from learning the deep truths to be found in His word.
July 8th, 2005 at 4:00 pm
I love it.
Jesus didn’t read the Bible. How’s that for sacrilege?
I feel at home with your post.
July 10th, 2005 at 9:54 pm
You pose interesting questions, but I don’t think you answer them clearly. First, God gives us intelligence to understand the plain language of the Bible. And our faith, which God also gives us, and grows in us, removes the biases and temptations to rationalize. And it is the Holy Spirit that opens our spiritual eyes to see beyond what the ‘natural’ man can see.
July 10th, 2005 at 10:01 pm
I should add that we will never understand the full depth of the Bible. But the basic, important things are repeated and said so many different ways in the Bible that plain thinking and simple faith suffice.
July 14th, 2005 at 6:58 am
Thanks Jim. You stated that well. But faith that “removes the biases and the temptations to rationalize” is not simple faith. It is extraordinary faith. That’s why most of us prefer to depend on our intellects instead. And instead of assuring us that plain thinking will naturally lead to the truth, Jesus warned that “’seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them” (Mark 4:12).
July 27th, 2005 at 1:29 pm
The belief in Bible inerrancy has in my opinion led many people astray. People end up limiting the
definition of God to the writings contained in an old book. When God and the Bible don’t seem to jive, these people choose the book. In the process they end up worshiping the Bible rather than God.
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:00 pm
When God and the Bible don’t seem to jive, people should fall on their knees and cry out to God for understanding. The Bible isn’t wrong, but it is no shield to defend us from having to face God.
March 21st, 2007 at 10:17 am
All the Christine’s in Church are breaker the GOD law all the city are Birmingham,Alabama all
ever where. I go to Church every sunday it is not right. in Bible Study in North Birmingham,
Alabala.