The Bible Makes Its Way. [i]
Allan C. Groen.
Spring, 2022.
“She (Mary) will bear a son, and
you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:21.
“The beginning of the good
news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark 1:1.
“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not
be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the
people…” Luke 2:10.
Purpose: to show that how we believe we are supposed
to read and understand the Bible, and how this actually works, are often at
odds with each other.
The Importance of the Bible to Christianity. In all
Christian churches as well as in many homes, Christian or not, we find Bibles.
Any service of worship must include scripture readings. If they do not, there's
something amiss. The Bible is at once a major unifying force in all churches,
but it is also a force that divides because of the multiplicity of
interpretations and even diverse views on how we must deal with it. What kind
of book is the Bible?
Why do people bother with the Bible at all? Why do we find
Bibles in home, church, and schools? The answer is that the Bible is in the
first place the book of good news. The texts above states this clearly, and
many others could be added. We begin to understand the Bible when we value it
for the good, unequalled news it brings. There are many quests for God;
however, the Bible’s message is God’s quest for us. God enters in a covenant
relationship with his people, a relationship of love and renewal. The Bible tells
us, above anything else, of the pearl of great value. When our hearts rejoice
to receive this message, we have taken one step, the key step, towards
understand the Bible. Why else would we buy a Bible and read it faithfully,
unless that we are looking for the good news! All Christians, I trust, are
agreed that this is what our faith is about: rejoicing that there is good news
from God. But from there it becomes more problematic.
Unfortunately, there is a wide variety of interpretations,
with divisions and even hostility between individuals and churches. Because
there are so many denominations, (thousands), we can see how much the Bible can
be a divisive force. Jesus may have been concerned about that because he
experienced disagreement and rejection, rejection that led to his being
crucified. No wonder that John's gospel had Jesus pray for the unity of the
church.
Disagreements can revolve around the correct interpretation
of texts as well as different understandings concerning how to understand what
kind of book the Bible is. My purpose here is to record how I see issues around
the Bible and how they have developed over the years. This is my story of how I
came to see these issues as more complex than it seemed to me in the past. My
concern here is not about the individual texts in this main, but with dealing
with the Bible as a whole. Is the Bible the inspired, inerrant, infallible word
of God? Or do we need to take a more flexible, liberal approach? Most of us do
take at least a bit of freedom in our approach to the text, and thus to the
scripture.
Issues where we assumed a different view of reading: There
are a number of ways in which the congregation and denomination to which I
belong use the Bible in diverse ways. Obviously, there were limitations imposed
by those texts that we felt we could not live with, so we ended up doing some
acrobatics, you might say, or cherry picking so that in this way texts would
yield our preferred results. Are these preferred results always better, or
invariably worse?
Here are examples I have in mind:
We took the verbal, literal meaning of Genesis creation stories
literally, and became trapped in a debate with several sciences, as well as
with one another in our churches. Is Scripture telling us that the world Is of
relatively recent age, maybe a few millennia, or is it very old as science
tells us? As Christians, do we have permission to consider evolutionary theories
seriously or are we from the get-go forbidden to consider them at all? Does
investigating of the text in its setting in the ancient world itself suggests
the possibility of another intention of that text? Here is one area where we
are still divided.
Another area of differences of opinion revolved around
marriage and divorce. If a marriage ends because of the unfaithfulness of one
person, may that unfaithful person ever get married again? This would impose a
harsh and heavy burden, graceless response. This did not seem right to many
pastors who did begin to officiate at the remarriage of the person who had been
unfaithful. For many this still seems wrong, contradicting Scripture.
Then there is the issue of the ordination of women to
ecclesiastical office. There are texts in the Bible that prohibit the equal
partnership of men and women in the office of the church, and many still refuse
to go along with this, while others knowing full well what the Bible says,
believed that the prohibition is wrong. This became an enormously controversial
issue. Many congregations were divided over the issue and entire congregations
left the Christian Reformed Church. This issue and others have divided other
denominations as well.
At present the Christian Reformed Church (and many others) face
of the quandary of the place of nonbinary people in church communities. We
agree that celibate nonbinary persons may be members in full, but what will our
response be to those who live in committed relationships? At present, nonbinary
people may participate only as long as they remain celibate. But what to make
of those for whom celibacy is not an option? Can they also have a place in the
Christian communities?
In Colossians 3:14 women are told to be subject to their
husbands. It is worth exploring whether or not this was helpful advice in the Roman
empire, but most women and men in our Western world consider this advice something
to ignore or reject. For us, partnership in marriage is of the essence.
For me, the issue of understanding Scripture, what is true
and what is questionable, became very clear to me when in one year, our family
lost both a brother and my father. Often, I was told that in some way these
horrible events were somehow the will of God and that we should accept them as
such. God makes no mistakes, their time was up, God had assigned a number of
days to them, and now this was their last day. This raised serious questions
about God for me, especially about the providence of God. I wrestled with these
very seriously with that for years. Could these good, faithful people be so
mistaken about God? For me, this view of God’s providence had serious
consequences. I became angry, because how can you have an honest conversation
with God when you are told that God is in control of events and always has only
good in mind? Eventually I began to think that this way of considering God’s
involvement in life is wrong. I had need to have a better understanding of God,
as well as a more wholesome way of dealing with Scripture and thus also a way
of fine-tuning theology.
Clearly, we have different ways in respond dealing with.
Scripture. And yet, as a community, the Bible is deemed to be the word of God.
There is no easy way forward, but as brothers and sisters in Christ, we should
stay together and do our best to have godly conversations guided by the Holy
Spirit as we see, seek our way forward with humility and a teachable spirit. It
does not do to simply label our position by attaching the name of Christ, God
with us and label everyone else as wrong. The Bible and history tell us how
dangerous that can be.
So, there are a variety of ways we come across in how
Christians, brothers and sisters in the Lord, deal with Scripture. One way is
to hold to the belief that it teaches a doctrine and ethics in a way that have
us to take all its commands straight from 2000 years ago into the present age.
Here there is no regard as to what was said in the cultural setting in one age
and how one may transfer it as a whole to the present situation. Nor does it
consider how God’s grace toward us may have great relevance for issues of today.
The law would appear to have priority over grace.
What the Bible is not. When we buy a piece of
furniture at IKEA, it comes in a flat pack with an instruction sheet to help
the buyer to assemble the furniture. Many find that this is easier said than
done because we have to do it exactly right. One screw in the wrong, place and
the furniture will not assemble properly. There is no room for error. The Bible
is often treated that way, but I believe that the Bible is not an instruction
manual like that although it certainly and clearly does contain all manner of
instructions, but those are not at the center. Quite often the advice is not
unique to Scripture.
The Bible could be something like a cookbook. When we cook
one of the recipes, we followe the directions, but we find that things will
often turn out fine even if we don't follow the recipe directions exactly. A
recipe may call for two cups of regular flour, but often the result will be
just fine if we just use one cup of regular flour and one of whole wheat. It
may call for a teaspoon of salt, but if you put in a little less than that, the
recipe will be fine. I do that quite often, in fact. But do not forget to add
at least some salt in the recipe for your bread, because the dough needs it for
its structure and flavor. It may also be the case that you have to adjust the
dough according to our situation. You likely will have to add water, a
tablespoon or so because of our dry climate here in Alberta. We have to get the
feel for what works and does not work.
The Bible is a little bit, I think, like that recipe book.
All the basic issues are there. Some are negotiable. Others not, such as we find
in the creeds of the church, especially in the Apostles Creed.
However, the Bible also contains instructions that we cannot
fit simply into our time. There are ethical issues that are not negotiable such
as thou shalt not steal. (But what about the person who steals a loaf of bread
to feed their hungry children?) There are also instructions that are more of a
cultural or social nature. What do we do with them? Should women always wear a
head covering in church? Most women don’t. Interpretations always have a degree
of subjectivity which reveal our personal preferences. We are far from
perfectly wise.
The Bible is not a textbook. Textbooks are edited to be as
free as possible from any error. But is the Bible like that free from any error?
So how do we proceed? A good way to proceed, it seems to me,
is to understand that the Bible is the biography of God as understood by the
writers and readers of that time. The story begins with God, but also ends with
the feeling that God will continue his story when Jesus returns. This biography
was written by many authors and editors, most of them unknown. As a biography,
it speaks of who God is, what God does, and what God wants us to do. It
describes God as creator, sustainer, and redeemer of the universe. The Bible is
the story of a lover who never gives up on the beloved, even when that beloved
strays horribly.
As a biography of God, it cannot be complete. God is too
complex and our understanding too limited. If we cannot write a complete
biography of people like an Einstein or Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln, we
cannot write a complete biography of God, as is obvious when we study the
Bible. It is not even internally consistent. There is a development and there
are also corrections within Scripture itself. But the writers hear from God and
how they interpret what they hear has always an element of subjectivity in it,
and it also always reflects the historical, religious, and cultural backgrounds
which we may not always understand. The Bible reflects its sitting and also
finds faults, which is seeks to correct. There are many new starts in God’s
involvement in the redemption of his people, one of the great ones we find in
the book of Jeremiah, 31:31ff.
Places where the Bible corrects itself. In the
prophet Jeremiah, we read that there has to be a new covenant, because the old covenant
was too law centred. The people then, as now, find keeping the laws perfectly
is impossible. This way of understanding God and his law is inadequate. The law
was unable to change the heart. The law written down needs in addition, God’s
Holy Spirit to write them on the heart. From the movement of an old covenant to
a new one seems to me enormously important. Another example, In the Old
Testament, keeping the Sabbath holy, was one of the most important ways to show
obedience to God. However, in the New Testament, without any explanation,
Christians started to meet on the first day of the week instead of on the seventh.
I take that to be a major, daring transition. We know that they likely did this
because the first day of the week is the day of Christ resurrection. But the
scripture does not explain that to us. We need both testaments, but the new
brings much that is indeed new.
And look what the believers in the New Testament did. Without
an explanation, the church did not keep the Old Testament feasts any longer.
They did not require circumcision: instead, it celebrated the work of Christ
with baptism and the Eucharist. There is also a tremendous shift in what right
worship is deemed to be, so there are quite a few feasts that are mentioned in
the first Testament that Christians do not observe anymore.
Another way of considering scripture is that is useful to
many people in our time is called the Wesleyan quadrilateral. This expression
is based on how John Wesley did theology, but this is really not a very
accurate expression. The quadrilateral says that for a full human understanding
of life and all it means, we need to consider four sources of insight or truth.
These four sources are: study of scripture, tradition our own experience, and
reason. Now, as Reformed Christians, we tend to say. We live by Scripture
alone. But in fact, it really does not quite function that way. What we have
experienced as tradition will certainly influence how we understand the
scriptures. We have impoverished ourselves when we neglect the lengthy,
fruitful tradition of the church. Our experiences also colour the way we read
the scripture. New experiences will make us open to seeing new things in the
scripture that we did not notice before. Therefore, our experiences themselves
can help our interpretation of scripture and enrich that interpretation.
In the various forms for ordination for ministers,
missionaries, elders, and deacons, we are asked to affirm that we consent to
the authority of Scripture, “the only infallible rule of faith and life.” This
phrase does not occur in the forms that are in the 1934 Psalter Hymnal. The
intent of this phrase is not clear to me. Does it mean that we are not
committed to believe some of the historical problems we find in the Bible? Or
does it mean to bind us to the accepted interpretations even more strictly than
in the past? Or does it mean to say that we may not use any source for
understanding and life on an equal footing with Scripture?
Where do we go from here? Does anything of value remain? What
we have done with Scripture in our time, and what happened already in the
Scripture itself, gives us permission, so it seems to me, to consider how we
make decisions about the meaning of Scripture in our time. We must never
trivialize the Scripture. We should be careful not to make something out of the
Bible that we wish it were like and accept it as it is. We need to do that
prayerfully, with the Spirit given to us as guidance.
Isaiah 43:19 “I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you
not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.”
While
so far I have been focusing on the problems that we have sometimes to deal with
in understanding scripture, the reason for continuing to value the Bible and
its message is that a glorious message of good news holds the book together
like a chain of gold. It is a Spirit-driven miracle that the message continues
to make its way, even in an age that has become deeply secular, at least in our
First World situation. Consider that the newest parts of the Bible come to us
from two millennia, and the oldest parts from more than three! Not only is the
Bible an old book, it is also from a culture that is very different from our
own. We find it difficult to understand this culture from long ago and far
away. Nevertheless, the message of the saving love of God coming through God’s
Son, our Lord, endures and appeals.
The
Bible and its message make their way, even though it is ridiculed as well as
loved. In the wilderness and wastelands, it is bearing fruit to this day, and
it will do so until Jesus returns.
What
explains this phenomenon?
For
many, the Bible answers to some of life’s most difficult questions. “Who am I?”
“How did we get here?” “Where did I come from?” “Why is there an abundance of
life on this planet?” “What does human life mean?” “Why is there so much
suffering and tragedy?” “Why can people be generously altruistic?” Science
gives good answers to many of our questions, but by its very nature it can not
give answers to other kinds of questions, but the answers the Bible gives are,
for many, the most satisfying answers we have.
Observations:
1. If
the Bible contained accounts of historical events without any errors, where
everything fits like a glove, it might be a book of interest to historians, but
for many it would have no inherent interest for most people.
2. If the Bible contained accounts of creation and events in
nature that would agree with modern science, we might express amazement, we
might say that it is due to divine intervention, but would that give the Bible
the authority which it now has for our faith and life?
3. If the Bible were chiefly a book to teach us ethics and
morality, that would not give it special standing, because there are books from
of old that teach such ideas as well, and many people sense intuitively that
some behaviours are wrong, so this, too does not give us sufficient reason for
the authority of Scripture.
These items, and others, often get us wrapped up in harmful
arguments which alienate us from each other, with unwinnable debates, and they
become obstacles to viable, encouraging communities. The strength of the Bible
and of Christianity is elsewhere, in the quest for transcendence. We could say
that if there is something that transcends, then what does transcend receives
an answer in Scripture, and particularly in Jesus, an answer that satisfies
many a hungry heart.
There are major themes in Scripture that are essential to its
message, themes that are unique and full of good news.
1.
The Bible speaks constantly about sin, darkness, despair, malevolence,
and suffering. What is unique about this is that there is no explanation for
it. Why did Adam and Eve take part of the forbidden fruit? Why did they see the
forbidden as attractive? Ultimately there is a mystery to it which we don’t
understand, can’t explain. Explanations such a fate or karma leave us puzzled.
We do not accept this misery without protest, and we cannot resign ourselves to
it. Why do these things happen? Why this accident, this disease, or this baby
with these anomalies? We are face with great unknowns.
2.
The Bible constantly speaks of God’s intervention. Sometimes
we read of the anger or sadness of God, but in the final analysis it speaks of
God’s gracious, redeeming intervention which turns out to be a welcoming family
and kingdom for all who turn in repentance and faith to the good news.
3.
By the mysterious, combined work of Scripture and the Holy
Spirit working, who knows how, multitudes have received the regeneration and
liberty of the children of God.
Here is a list that summarizes a number of dimension of the
good news that the Bible gives us. When we read the Bible, we do well not to
let ourselves get hung up or distracted by texts that are possibly a problem to
us today. (Does it matter whether or not rabbits chew the cud? Leviticus 11:6.)
·
We meet a personal God, creator, sustainer, provider, and
redeemer.
·
We are invited to learn to trust the Lord Jesus Christ, the
good shepherd.
·
Because of the crucifixion, we receive forgiveness of sins.
·
We are adopted into God’s family, as signed and sealed in
baptism.
·
God is establishing a new kingdom, a new heaven and a new earth.
·
We live with resurrection hope.
·
We are encouraged to work with God to make this world full of
righteousness and compassion.
·
We may count on the Holy Spirit to lead us into God’s truth.
·
The Holy Spirit helps us to bring forth the fruits of the
Spirit to bring healing to our families, our friendships, our communities and
our world.
·
We may turn to the God of all comfort in times of affliction
and grief.
·
When we walk with the Lord, our lives achieve meaning and purpose.
·
We become God’s friends.
·
Christ offers us freedom from sin, the enslaving forces of
the world and the spiritual powers.
·
We have, in the Bible, a comprehensive and robust view of
this world.
[i] In
addition to the Bible most protestant believers are familiar with, there are
also a number of denominations that have additional books, called the
“Apocrypha.”
