We Christians love our Bibles. We collect them, highlight them, and write in their margins during Sunday sermons. Some of us even read them, study them, and do devotions from their pages throughout the rest of the week. We are very good at listening to what our religious leaders have to say about the Word and taking them at their word.
It is my observation that a great deal of our western, Christian culture has elevated the Bible to a place it doesn’t belong – as a fourth member of the Godhead. Some even have elevated the Scripture above listening to the Holy Spirit himself, which is odd to me since Jesus didn’t say that he was going to leave us a book, he said he would leave his Spirit with us. Seriously I am very confused when I read denominational statements about the supreme authority of the Bible and that the Scripture is the number one way to hear from God. This saddens me. It is akin to valuing a love letter over a lover, a written code over the compassion and guidance of a counselor, and a textbook over the tutelage of a master teacher. Relationship always will trump study – so why is it most of our discipleship programs focus on believing the right things and following the accepted behaviors? Behaviors should be (you can look this up in your Bible) a result (or a fruit) of the growth that is going on in the inside.
I so often hear the phrase, “How does this line up with scripture?” when I think the more reasonable and honest question should be, “Does my interpretation of this scripture line up with the Spirit?”
I love Bible study, and I have bookshelves, certificates, and a degree to show that I’ve done my due diligence. Yet even after inductively charting through the whole Bible one of my professors suggested I had merely created a skeleton on which I would be hanging the muscles and flesh on during a lifetime of Bible study. In other words, after all of that work, I hadn’t arrived but had only just begun.
Here are a few other core principles that my Bible professors taught me:
- Begin in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten the Scripture.
- Good Bible study is hard work and will take time, energy, passion and resources.
- To understand a verse, a passage, a chapter or a book you MUST study the Bible in context to understand what was being said by the original author to the original readers.
All meaning is context dependent! To get to the place of sound interpretation that leads to solid application takes asking tons of questions of the texts. To simply say, “The Bible says it and that settles it for me” is a cop out. Our English translations often fall short of proper word and phrase meanings. Sometimes we don’t have a word that directly corresponds with a Greek or Hebrew word so the interpreters are forced to choose one – and this can be misleading.
Unfortunately we create so much theology – what we believe about God – based on passages that are lifted out of context. We do so at our own (and others’) religious peril so it behooves us (did I just use the word behooves?) to be better students of the Word!
Rant over…
So I just finished the book, Confessions of a Bible Thumper by Michael Camp. In it he highlights some of the more problematic passages of Scripture that didn’t line up for him. He doesn’t base his beliefs on feelings, but on some old fashioned hard work of inductive Bible Study and historical research.
Michael may have a similar background to many of you or your parents – he was drawn into the Jesus Movement in the ‘70s in his teens, joined church movements, became a pro-life activist, and moved to Africa as a missionary to serve the poor. But through his years of conservatism he found that he was carrying a lot of religion that wasn’t truly building his faith.
“My faith was full of religious baggage – the stuff of religion. Items the evangelical church told me I had to carry. Practices and beliefs I hadn’t bargained for. Heavy luggage, like those old-fashioned bags you have to lift because there are no wheels or extendable handles. They were packed with myths, half-truths, and a dogmatic approach to life – stuff having to do with worshipping the Bible, idolizing church, canonizing doctrine, controlling behavior, and other paraphernalia, such as imposed religious disciples, spiritual manipulation, resisting reason, and judging outsiders.
Gradually, my inquisitive mind caused me to unpack this baggage. That’s when I uncovered a variety of startling revelations that turned my conservative Christian theology on its head. And when I eventually concluded we evangelicals – although correct about many things, like the importance of Divine connection, the wisdom of Christ, and charitable service and giving – are largely wrong on a host of other issues. You will learn what these are in nine of my confessions.”
If you are conservative you will probably be shocked at some of his research.
If you are a learner then this book will make you want to study more yourself.
If you are easily offended this book will piss you off.
If you have never questioned your pastor’s interpretation of scripture from the pulpit after reading this book you might find yourself doing so.
If you are tired of moral dogmatism that doesn’t appear to be anything like Jesus, you will find this a refreshing read.
If you have found no value in the Bible because of the way it has been presented to you, this book may give you another reason to pick it up and study it yourself.
If you wonder how or why someone would buy into conservative evangelicalism, this story will give you a good understanding.
If you are concerned about why some Christians have left evangelicalism this book will help you understand some of their issues and thinking.
If you have left evangelicalism and feel alone, this book (and more important the author) may just become a new friend.
If you like reading controversial books, you will order this one at the end of this article.
If you fear asking questions don’t read this book. (p.s. God isn’t afraid of your questions.)
Michael presents his material via a conversation between friends in a local brewery/restaurant. He reflects back on his own spiritual journey, making the book semi-autobiographical, while at the same time presenting his confessions to his friends at the bar and at their booth. The conversational tone allows Michael to present the material along with his friends’ questions and concerns. The book is very easy to follow and his storytelling convention works well.
Will you agree with all of Michael’s conclusions? Maybe not, (not all his friends do) but that really isn’t the point. The question is ‘Are you willing to challenge your own presuppositions if truth leads in a different direction than you once thought?’
Does that sound scary? It is, a little bit, but it shouldn’t be enough to cause fear. However, I might suggest that if you do experience fear when your beliefs are being challenged then they may not be a solid as you would like to imagine.
I hope you will read this book and then come back and confess to me something that you learned. You can post it here on the blog or invite me out for a beer together. That’s what I did with Michael and we are meeting up at the Wild Goose Festival over Labor Day Weekend. Maybe you can join us.
