Hi friends!
A few days ago, my Facebook news feed presented me with a link to an article on Relevant Magazine’s website entitled “5 Things I Wish Christians Would Admit” and I thought it was a most interesting article, so I shared it. Last night, one of my friends commented on my post with a link to another article that she found, this one a direct counter to the original, and she asked me for my opinion of it. I took a look at it, and now I’m sitting here writing this blog post. Needless to say, this is gonna be a long one, so gird up your loins and hold on tight.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not a Bible scholar or theologian. I’ve not had years of seminary to prepare me for this post. I certainly do not suppose that I know it all. These facts do not disqualify me from this conversation, though, and I have managed to learn a thing or two in my 20 years on this earth. Also, I suggest reading both articles before continuing.
Half of the reason why I don’t like Dean’s counter-argument is because I don’t like the tone he adopts. Though, from skimming the rest of his blog, it would appear that it is simply his style of argument. It isn’t super effective, but whatever cooks your chicken, I guess. Secondly, much of his argument is spent criticizing Mr. Pavlovitz’s word choice. This is a reasonable approach because, indeed, the way you say something is just as important as what you say. But at the end of the day, it only left me with a long list of ‘problems’ and not very many solutions. I really could go on and on, but that isn’t my point in writing this piece. I am in search of truth, and I believe both articles offer insight into the truth. [I also think Mr. Dean should see a doctor, because it is apparent that his panties are very tightly bunched, and he may need some help taking care of that.]
1. The Bible Isn’t a Magic Book
As Mr. Dean fairly pointed out, this is a bit of a misleading title for the claims made within the paragraph. That doesn’t discredit the validity of the claims. It is important that we approach the Bible and its contents with contextual appropriateness in order understand most fully what we are reading. In the same way that I have found myself in many a hilarious (and awkward) situation by overhearing a fragment of a conversation and completely misunderstanding it due to my lack of contextual information, we can misunderstand the Bible if we don’t know what’s going on in any particular passage. The Bible, made interesting (I’m using this word very loosely here, and you will understand what I mean by it in the rest of the sentence) by the various writing styles and genres it encompasses, tells the beautiful overarching story of God’s love for us, and this is ultimately the most important thing about it.
2. The Bible Isn’t as Clear as We’d Like It To Be
Again, as Mr. Dean got a bit nit-picky about, this title has some underlying nuances which could ruffle some people’s feathers (and it has). But again, the statement itself is true: the Bible isn’t always perfectly clear. This is, as Dean pointed out, at least partially due to the fact that we as fallen creatures aren’t always successful in interpreting it correctly, which brings us back to the idea of context (please note: I’m not saying that by perfectly understanding the context of a passage that we will always perfectly understand it. Sometimes we just straight-up don’t get it). On the other hand, as Mr. Pavlovitz notes, the Bible can sometimes seem unclear because of apparent contradictions contained within. His illustration of Old Testament commandments contradicting (in and of themselves) Jesus’ New Testament commands is a good example of this. But like Pavlovitz says and explains, it doesn’t diminish the Scriptures. The good news is that God didn’t simply drop the Bible from the sky and say “Okay guys here ya go, read this. You’re not allowed to ask me any questions about it if you don’t understand something. I’m gonna go take a nap now.” We have the freedom to approach Him with our doubts and concerns about it, and in doing so we have received real clarification.
3. The Bible Was Inspired By God, Not Dictated By God.
I don’t really want to address Mr. Dean’s issue with this section, largely because his greatest issue appears to be with the notion of ‘free will’. I could sit here all day proving the existence of free will and combating Dean’s arguments regarding it, but because I hope to be able to take a nap this afternoon, I’m not even going to touch the topic.
However, it is important to mention that Dean is right in believing that we need to be careful of how we understand the phrase ‘inspired by God’ and, may I suggest also, the phrase ‘dictated by God’. There is no denying that the biblical authors were divinely inspired. The consistency of the Bible’s overarching important message would dissolve if this were not the case. And Pavlovitz is right in saying that the authors didn’t become mindless zombies transcribing word-for-word what God stood in front of them and said. We should not take this to mean that the Bible doesn’t include any words that proceeded from the mouth of The Lord, because, as anyone who has read the Bible will tell you, this just isn’t true. I really could say a lot more regarding this, but because I have the attention span of a six-year-old hyped up on Pixie Stiks and Mountain Dew, I’ll lose my train of thought and start to ramble, so I think I’ll leave it at that.
4. We All Pick And Choose The Bible We Believe, Preach and Defend.
C’mon guys, let’s be honest, this is so true. We’re all guilty of ‘cherry-picking’ the Bible. What exactly we choose to uphold varies based on our own individual experiences, our cultures, our friends etc. Perhaps the reason we do this is because we’re uncomfortable with what certain passages say on the surface. I know that there are certain passages that I’m uncomfortable with. Maybe we don’t understand what the passage is really getting at, and if we did our problems with it wouldn’t exist. I dunno. It’s a hard pill to swallow. At least for me it is. I’ve met people like Mr. Dean who will say “suck it up, princess, that’s just how it is.” Maybe we’re all missing something. We wouldn’t be so neck-deep in arguments back and forth if we weren’t. I’ll be the first one to admit that I suspect there’s ultimately more to the story, a big picture that God is trying to get us to see. My mom would say that the ‘big picture’ is grace, and I don’t doubt that at all (my understanding of grace is incomplete, and I’m in the process of wrapping my head around it. But that is another story for [maybe] another day).
5. God Is Bigger Than The Bible.
I think this is something that we all need to remember. Pavlovitz’s description of how the Bible points to God is accurate, and I’m not going to nit-pick and “read between the lines” like Mr. Dean does to uncover all the “gaps” in it. But the point of it all is that God is super great and super big. We as humans have tried using all the ways we know how to describe how incredible God is, but the fact of the matter is that we will never truly be able to capture it all. Our human methods are inadequate. Yet because it’s all we’ve got, we make do and use them to glorify Him. I wouldn’t think that God expects us to do any differently.
I suck at conclusions, guys, so please bear with me.
We Christians suck at a lot of things too, huh? Especially regarding Scripture. Hermeneutics will forever be an issue, and arguments are bound to ensue. But we’re all after the same thing: correct understanding of The Bible and how we ought to apply its teachings. And hey, we haven’t failed miserably at it! I’m really thankful that God didn’t leave us to fend for ourselves in this regard. He gave us intellect which we should use, and He gave us Jesus to bridge the gap that sin made between us and Him. The best we can do, I suppose, is take our doubts and concerns about the Bible to Him.
honeyandthebrie 