Yes That's the Book for Me

I have a complex relationship with the Bible. As a child I sang, “Jesus loves me this I know”. And how did I know? “For the Bible tells me so.” 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is inspired by God (literally God-breathed). I took this to mean that God is the source of the Bible’s contents. Since God cannot lie and cannot be wrong, the Bible must therefore be without error in all that it teaches. This belief is known as the doctrine of inerrancy. There is more to it than just that, but I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds here. For a more detailed definition of inerrancy, I suggest reading the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy. Suffice to say, this belief was a cornerstone of my faith.

For me, the Bible was the final authority for faith and practice. More than that, I interpreted it literally whenever possible and believed what I read in its pages. If it said that a particular person was at a particular place at a particular time, that was the truth. It was God’s Word. It wasn’t a science text, but if a scientist tried to serve up something that didn’t square with what the Bible said, then I would politely say, “No thank you”. It wasn’t primarily a history book, but if a historian questioned the veracity of The Walls of Jericho I would just smile and say, “I don’t think so”.

           

In Bible college, I was taught to use the historical-grammatical method of biblical interpretation. This meant that close attention should be paid to both the specific words that were chosen and also to the context in which they were used. But, even among those of us who approached the Bible in this serious and well-meaning way, there have always been disagreements about what the Bible is actually teaching. Most of these differences were minor and resulted only in friendly debate. Some, though created controversies that resulted in serious fractures.

 

Here is an example. Among Evangelicals you have two schools of thought when it comes to the role of women in the church. Complementarians teach that leadership, teaching, and preaching in the church are reserved for men. Egalitarians teach that leadership, teaching and preaching roles are for both men and women. Both of these groups believe that the Bible supports their position, but often, one side (particularly the complementarians) will say that the other is guilty of ignoring the authority of Scripture.

 

Here is an example of this from my own life. I had recently started as the pastor of a small church in a rural community. I received an invitation to join a local minister’s group. They met every once in a while for lunch, to talk, pray together, and encourage each other. I declined because one of the pastors in that group was a woman. This was a bridge I could not cross.

 

As I ponder these things now, I wonder if I may have required more from the Bible than it requires of itself. The Bible was written 2,000 to 5,000 years ago. Its original audiences lived in a vastly different world and used literary forms that are unfamiliar to us today. As much as I paid lip service to cultural context in my reading and teaching of the Bible, I have to admit that I viewed it through a modern lens. I was guilty of forcing my modern presuppositions onto the text. When it comes to some of these issues that seemed so critical at the time,
I wonder if I and others like me, were not so much committed to the authority of Scripture, but to the authority of our own interpretation. (I wish I could take credit for that last thought but I can’t. I heard somebody else say it but I can’t remember who.)

 

I think that this approach to the Bible may have robbed me from experiencing all that it has to offer. Is it possible that in parsing its sentences and looking for practical applications that I missed seeing God Himself in the pages? In seeking to find an explanation for any possible contradiction or inaccuracy, did I fail to hear God's voice speaking through it? In my search for doctrine and instruction, did I lose wonder? 

 

I’ll be honest. For the last few years I haven’t spent much time reading the Bible at all. I have recently started to dip my toes back into the water. My intent is not so much to try to figure out what it is telling me to do, but rather I am hoping I will be able to encounter the One I always claimed was its author. If that happens I am pretty sure I will be surprised by who I discover God to be.