The Bible isn’t what you want it to be — and that’s OK

“I just don’t know how to apply this to my life.”

That exclamation came from a young woman in my church during our weekly Bible study. We were reading Exodus 18, which details how Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt after the final plague: the death of the firstborn.

Let me first say that it’s fair to feel this way when the Bible perplexes us.

I was raised in a fairly conventional and conservative Christian setting. By that, I mean that I was to view the Bible as the inspired word of God. As the word of an all-powerful omnipotent God, it is a perfect revelation to a mere mortal like myself.

Whether it’s studying for math tests, taking out the trash, meeting my curfew, or dating — I was raised to believe that the Bible has a relevant nugget of wisdom for every scenario life throws at me.

Given the title of the post, it’s obvious that my thinking has changed somewhat. I still believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, but with an asterisk as to how we should read it in the 21st Century.

I should note: I’m not a Biblical scholar or priest.

I am just someone who reads the Bible somewhat regularly, listens to many podcasts well above my head, and wants to know the truth about my faith.

What the Bible is not

The word “Bible” has entered the lexicon for everything from BBQ cookbooks...

To the punchline of jokes...

As a Christian, I was raised to view the Bible as:

• The “rule book” for life
• The arbiter of right and wrong
• The ultimate source of wisdom
• A way that God talks to us
• A history book
• A talisman that I bring everywhere with me for protection (I used to bring it on every flight, and would even thumb through it during rough patches of turbulence, which I imagine other passengers found extremely comforting and not worrisome in the slightest).

I've also seen the Bible be used as:

• A weapon to wield against those you disagree with
• Justification for your beliefs or position on some topic

This led to out-of-context scripture references for my present-day challenges, rote scripture memorization, or having a Bible verse appended to my social media profiles.

There’s a distinct problem with this worldview: I am at the center of it. It forces the Bible into a 21st-century worldview — and one that is of a very different context at that.

Let’s review the facts.

There are 66 books in the Bible written by various authors spanning thousands of years. Within these books it’s highly likely that passages were added in later and stitched in. Different denominations hold certain books to be inspired scripture while others exclude them from the canon. Not to mention dozens of books written between the Old and New Testaments that did not make the cut (but oddly enough shape our theology much more than we credit them, a topic for another post).

The Bible is far more complex than our modern understanding gives it credit for. Moreover, it’s impossible to expect that the Bible can give you specific guidance for every situation at every moment because it was not written to do that.

The Bible is not a rule book or book of wisdom for every situation. You will not find a verse that says it’s wrong to cheat on a test. You will not find verses expounding on the dangers of heroin. You will not find a scientific record of how the world was made.

You can read your modern context into the Bible all you want, but it’s important to understand that we bring a lens to a text that would not recognize us (and we would not be able to read if not for translators).

What the Bible is

Again, I am no Biblical scholar. So feel free to take the following with a hefty grain of salt.

I’ve found the following two adaptations to my thinking helpful in how I view scripture:

• It is about US, not YOU
• It can and should be debated

The Bible is about US, not YOU

I find the problem with my original vantage point for the Bible is that it puts me at the center of it.

The modern Christian faith journey leads us in that direction:

• My sin
• My spiritual gifts
• My relationship with Jesus
• What God tells me
• What the Bible tells me

And so on.

The Christian aisle of any bookstore is packed with self-help books all promising impressive benefits to those who read them. As a result, it’s natural that we would slot the Bible into our individual worldviews because that’s all we’ve ever known!

But the Bible is not a self-help book. And it’s not written to one person in particular. It was written to a community. A community that struggled to found a nation, defend itself, and wrestle through the conundrum of being God's chosen people while repeatedly forced into exile.

The sins of one affect the whole, and the saving of one can affect the community as well. The prophets did not write to one person in Israel but all of Israel. Paul did not write to one member of the church but to the entire community.

I’ve come to see the Bible as a foundation for a community rather than the foundation for my own individual life.

But there’s one other lens that is helpful — and it would make my traditionalist thinkers deeply uncomfortable: the Bible can and should be debated.

The Bible can and should be debated

When I say that the Bible is the inspired word of God, what does that exactly mean?

Does it mean that God spoke directly to the authors and had it dictated that exact way?

Does it mean that parts of the Bible are directly dictated and parts aren’t

There’s a gut reaction of fear when you bring this question up.

A fairly common approach is to say that if the Bible is the inspired word of God then it must be true/accurate/correct/whatever adjective suits your persuasion. If one part of the Bible is not “true/accurate,” then the entire thing needs to be thrown out.

Therefore, ALL parts of the Bible are true. And we must hold rigidly to that fact otherwise, all is for naught.

If you examine the Bible closely, though, there are all sorts of confusion, contradictions, inconsistencies, and retellings of the same story. There are gross exaggerations (any involving numbers, whether it’s the number of people saved, fed, or converted) and some stories that directly contradict historical data.

So what gives? Is the Bible accurate or not?

That’s the wrong question.

"Truth" is a relative term.

In our modern worldview, truth usually means “what happened.” But through a different lens (one that is communal) truth very well be what we need to hear right now.

“Did God make the world in 7 days?” is a much less interesting question than:

• Why did God make the world?
• Why do we say that the world is good when others say it is bad?
• How does it change our view if God made mankind in His image?
• How are we to live knowing we naturally bend toward disobeying God?

We traditionalist Christians seem to obsess over the "facts" of the Bible so much that we miss its meaning, and it is in the meaning that a far richer truth emerges.

My wife is Jewish. I mention this because the Jewish community thrives on questioning and debating.

Whether it’s the translation of a specific word, the meaning of a law, or the big questions about how the world works, there is a lot we Christians could stand to learn from our Jewish friends. Rather than seek truth at face value, we can uncover truth by scratching a bit below the surface and debating among friends.

So what’s the point?

As I grow older, I realize that counting on the Bible to be literally 100% accurate and authoritative in every aspect of my life puts it and my faith in a precarious and brittle position.

But that's the great thing about faith: faith can evolve and strengthen over time as your worldview changes.

I have no authority to tell you exactly what the Bible is and isn't. But I do have lived experience that tells me that a literal and shallow interpretation does it and ourselves a serious disservice.

I still read the Bible somewhat regularly on my own. But I find that deeper meaning is found through discussion and debate with friends. The Bible says more when we turn over verses like stones and ask difficult questions about what it reveals to us about God, our community, and ourselves. And that's a much bigger worldview than what it tells me in one very particular moment!