A Final Note On The Bible (for a while)

I do not believe that everyone who claims the Bible is inerrant is wrong-headed about the Bible. But the far majority of people—no matter what theological disposition—fail to read the Bible for what it says.

Some claim that the Bible cannot be read objectively, because of the cultural context in which we live. The Bible is not just a book, a text, nor even simply communication from God. It is the cultural center for so many people, that everyone is going to insist that it states THEIR truth. Because, from our self-centered perspective, All Truth is Our Truth, the “facts” and biases that we already accept. Thus, if the Bible is true, then we do not need to agree with it, but it needs to agree with us. For this reason, no one can read the Bible for what it says, nor can one communicate what it clearly says without being rejected by the mass of people. Because they see the Bible as their book, not God’s.

What Michael Card said is right: If God truly came in flesh, then those talking to him would be of the opinion that he was insane. And if the Bible is truly God’s communication, then the mass of humanity must reject its message.

But there are a variety of ways of rejecting. You could say, “That’s just wrong”, but when a bunch of people will reject you when you reject God, you’ve got to be more nuanced. So you say, “It doesn’t mean that.” You say, “Let me explain what God says.” And pretty soon, when you have enough people looking at God’s word, and they are all seeing that it says that which it does not say. And so they can be led into lies, further and further away from God. It is hilarious that when agnostics and atheists argue against God, they are arguing against the false perception of God and a false perception of righteousness that have been given to the masses by religion rather than what any holy book actually says.

This is why I think that every person who believes that the Bible is communication from God must be obsessively careful to only speak of what the Bible actually says and not to use theological language, or to add their own idea of “wisdom” to it. I know it’s popular to do that, but it drives the truth of God further into recession. We must have God’s pure word, the pure communication without adding to it. We must insist that God has given us enough communication through His Son and not reject Jesus by insisting upon theological layers that Jesus didn’t proclaim. We must insist upon objectivity, not orthodoxy. Only then can we truly proclaim the “insane” message God has given to us.