Don't Outthink the Bible

It is an easy thing to try and filter the Bible.

To correct it.

To fix it.

To water it down and conform it to the cultural standards of the modern day.

To save it from itself.

I sat listening to a podcast host answer his listener’s question about how to read and interpret the Bible. The first part of his answer, specifically why he believed Christianity as opposed to some other religion or worldview, was solid and refreshing. He unashamedly acknowledged Christianity’s sole ability to explain the world around us in a coherent away, affirmed the reliability of the writers and witnesses of the gospels, and topped it off with some affirmation from his own lived experience.

But then he turned his attention to issues of interpretation and the wheels fell off the bus. The Bible, while inspired, he said, is not a perfectly reliable text. We know, for example, that some of the moral sentiments contained in the Bible are outdated and just plain wrong. We know that it was written by fallible men and that God, while intending us to have the book that we do, does not mean for us to give credence to every single thing it has to say. James and Paul, for instance, contradict one another over the nature and requirements for salvation and Paul himself, while admitting in Galatians that there are no gender distinctions in the Body of Christ, later restricts women in their roles within the churches. (Granted, the host claimed, some scholars do actually believe that some sort of “pseudo Paul,” and not the apostle himself, wrote those later restrictions. Even more reason, no doubt, to disregard it.)

On and on his answer went, propping up the authority of Christ and the reliability of the gospel accounts while simultaneously relegating the epistles to a secondary status of not much more than take-it-or-leave-it-ism when it comes to interpreting what they have to say. And what might be the reason for this kind of interpretive standard? What causes this man to reach the conclusion he does?

According to him, it’s his expertise when it comes to all things literary. You see, the host giving this answer is a professional writer and a storyteller, a man of letters (and quite a successful one, at that.) And because, (once again, according to him), of his level of expertise and understanding of different written forms and formats, he’s capable of seeing the difference in the Bible between what must be viewed as unquestionably authoritative and what’s more-or-less up for grabs.

Such thinking is rather common in the modern day, but nonetheless dangerous. And while I don’t doubt the sincerity of this man's commitment to Christ or his faith, I absolutely think that he’s wrong and that his position (and others like it) needs to be challenged. Elevating the gospels over and above the epistles and Old Testament writings because of their subject matter and style of composition seriously calls into question the authority of the entire Bible, and leaves us without any solid footing when it comes to important issues of faith and theology that the four Gospels and Acts simply do not address.

But, first and foremost, I want to address this notion of modernist elitism. The idea that we modern people are somehow more advanced in intellect or moral wisdom because we happened further on down the line of history is as ignorant as it is arrogant. And further, to feel comfortable judging the moral standards of something like the Bible because we’re 2,000 years younger ought to strike us as supremely presumptuous.

We are indeed the recipients of a long progression of scientific breakthroughs and technological progress. The majority of us, especially in the West, live with such high standards of cleanliness, comfort, security, nourishment, and education that easily more than 95% of the entire history of humanity would likely have considered us not just kings, but gods. We are blessed in ways most human beings could never have imagined. But none of this means that we are somehow better people. We are not wiser, more moral, more spiritual, or more in tune with the way God intended mankind to live simply because of the incredible bounty we have come to possess. If anything, the last 100 years or so of history should have taught us that our nigh unthinkable wealth and prosperity as a civilization has most definitely not been accompanied with attendant strides in virtue or spiritual growth. Far from it.

So to assume, as this host does, that somehow we know better with regards to issues of morality and God-honoring behavior, simply because of the time that has passed between when the Bible was written and the modern day, demonstrates both an underestimation of modern people’s propensity for selfishness and evil as well as a profound ignorance of the nature of humanity itself. Our quality of life has certainly changed. The amount of knowledge we’ve uncovered through scientific investigation and experimentation has indeed grown. But humanity remains as it always has: sinful, rebellious, broken, in need of God and bent toward its own selfish ends. The presumption that a modern sense of morality is superior to the one found in the Bible simply because it is ours is a recipe for spiritual disaster, pure and simple.

But not only is this concept of biblical interpretation undercut by a pompous overestimation of our contemporary moral sensibilities, but also through a massive inconsistency between this man’s Christian faith and the way he claims to read and understand the Word. Our host claims that he takes the Gospels at face value but not the epistles. All well and good, perhaps, until you realize that there is no notion of salvation by grace through faith in the gospel accounts, for instance*. The doctrinal heart of the Christian faith was revealed first to Paul and then to the rest of us through his writings. To denounce them as secondary and to categorize them as not quite as authoritative or important as the gospels is to risk losing the very understanding of the faith altogether. To claim to be a Christian, to claim to be saved through the propitious work of Christ on the cross, forgiven of your sins through the mechanism of His death and trust in His sacrifice, is to hold up the writings of Paul right alongside the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

And, lastly, to try to rank the books of scripture into some kind of hierarchy of reliability, authority or importance is to put oneself squarely at odds with the claims of the Word itself. (And I hope it might go without saying that arguing with the Bible simply does not seem like the kind of position a person who claims to be a Christian should want to take.) Christ Himself said that “scripture cannot be broken,” in reference to the Old Testament (John 10:35), and that His own words “will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Peter also told his readers that Paul wrote “with the wisdom God gave him,” that Paul’s writings could be “hard to understand,” and that ignorant and unstable people distorted his words “as they do the rest of the Scriptures,” clearly communicating that Paul’s writings were on par with the rest of holy writ (in II Peter 3:15-16). The wisdom literature of the Bible, namely Psalms and Proverbs, instruct us that the word of God is “flawless” (Psalm 12:6; Proverbs 30:5), “eternal” (Psalm 119:89), and “perfect” (Psalm 19:7, 18:30).

These passages represent just a few of the places within the Bible where the inspired writers indicated that Scripture was not meant to be handled by the believer with anything other than the highest reverence. We can play games of interpretation and we can filter the Bible through our lenses of modern bias. But the Bible has outlasted both critics and adherents alike from every generation that came before us and, if we are to believe Jesus Christ Himself, it will outlast us, too. If we really believe that our modern concepts of morality, our advances in standards of living, or our placement in history give to us some kind of trustworthy guide with which to judge the teachings of the Bible and then to summarily accept or reject them based on those notions, then we elevate ourselves over and above men who heard the voice of God on earth, raised people from the dead, walked on water, saw Christ transfigured into His eternal state, and then were commissioned by Him personally to take these words out into the world. I, for one, do not feel comfortable siding with myself against that high of a standard and I would strongly urge anyone reading this to reconsider their position if they do.

We can try to outthink the Bible. But the Bible is smarter than us. It lasts where we expire. It stands where we fall. It endures where we cease.

If God Almighty had wanted our opinion in regards to what He wanted to inscribe for all time into His Word, He would’ve asked. He didn’t. Hold the Word high in your esteem, my friends. You do yourself and the people around you absolutely no favors when you attempt to improve it.

~

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
– I Corinthians 1:25

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and How inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been His counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to Him
that he might be repaid?”

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.
– Romans 11:33-36

The grass withers, the flower fades,
    but the word of our God will stand forever. – Isaiah 40:8

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* (There are many other essentials for Christian life, practice, and doctrine that are spelled out through the epistles, as well, but I thought pointing out the most central might be sufficient for this particular blog post.)