CONVERSATIONS WITH A SKEPTIC:
HOW CAN YOU RELY ON A BIBLE WHICH HAS SUCH DISTURBING PASSAGES?
Rev. Karen Pidcock-Lester
First Presbyterian Church,
Psalm 119:97-105
John 1:1-5, 14, 16-18
II Timothy 3:14-17
We come now to the fourth question in our series “Conversations with a Skeptic,” and consider the question “How can you rely on a Bible when it has such disturbing passages?”
Of course, this question leads to many other good questions, questions I have spent a month of Bible study sessions and entire retreats discussing. So what follows is merely a skeleton response. If you want meat on the bones, come to one of the Bible studies!
How can you rely on a Bible when it has such disturbing passages?
By ‘disturbing,’ our skeptic neighbors refer to several things.
They point to the inconsistencies in the Bible, discrepancies between one book and another. Like the discrepancy between the accounts of Judas’ death. Matthew tells us that Judas hanged himself, and Acts tells us that Judas ‘fell headlong and his middle burst open and his bowels fell out.”
Or they refer to the errors of the Bible, such as when New Testament writers quote Old Testament passages and get some of the quote wrong, or when there are errors in the copying of a text. That is why in study Bibles you will find footnotes with textual variants. The skeptic asks how can we rely on the authority of scripture when the Bible has mistakes in it?
Or our skeptic neighbors refer to the ‘texts of terror,’ particularly in the Old Testament, texts which seem to condone cultural practices which are abominable such as slavery, or abuse, or violence—the rape of Dinah, or the slaughter of the Amalekites, for example. They contend that such terrible texts have been used as license to do tremendous harm to others under the banner of the Bible.
And they are right. If we do not agree that there are disturbing – even dangerous -- passages in the Bible, we are not paying attention.
Those who claim the Bible is inerrant, without error, are not reading closely.
Those who claim that the Bible can and must be read literally tread on dangerous ground. If we were to read the Bible literally, we would stone rebellious sons to death, we would cut off the hand and the eye that causes us to sin.
For 1800 years, since the time of the first church theologian Origen, the church has recognized that an inerrant, literal view of scripture is not defensible.
But in no way does this mean that the Bible is without authority. In no way does this mean that the Bible is to be treated merely as ancient literature.
This book has power. It has changed lives, shaped history. It has changed and I hope it has shaped my life. People have found life in this book – people have died for this book. John Wycliff was burned at the stake because he wanted to translate this book into the language of the people, and those in power did not want the power of this book in the hands of the people. So they burned him.
This book is revolutionary. And at the same time, it is comforting.
It is full of questions, and yet it is full of answers.
It is so deep that no one can plumb its depths, yet it is simple enough for a child to enter. Gregory the Great said, “Scripture is like a river, broad and deep, shallow enough here for the lamb to go wading, but deep enough there for the elephant to swim.” “At any price, give me the book of God!” cried John Wesley, “Here is knowledge enough for me. In God’s presence I open, I read this book for this end: to find the way to heaven.”
The Bible is not merely ancient literature. It is unique. It is indispensable for our salvation. It is necessary and sufficient for the Christian life. We cannot be Christians and not rely on the Bible. Scripture is our authority.
But how can we rely on the Bible which has such disturbing passages?
There are really two questions embedded in this question: why do we rely on the Bible? and how can we rely on it, live under its authority?
First…why do we rely on the Bible when it has disturbing passages?
We rely on it because we believe it is the written word of God.
The written word of God.
What does this mean – and what does this not mean?
First, to say that the Bible is the written word of God is to say that the scriptures are inspired by God. The scriptures are “God-breathed.” The Spirit of God brought them into being, guiding and inspiring the writers to communicate God’s message of covenant faithfulness, and salvation and love.
The Bible is inspired -- but it is not dictated.
To say that the Holy Spirit inspired the writings does not mean that the writers were taking dictation from the mouth of God. They were not under some kind of spell in which God’s Spirit moved their hands and pens. God allowed the human person and personality to be part of the process of bringing the scriptures into being.
The Bible did not come fully formed from heaven. That is not how God chose to communicate with mortals. God works with people.
God acted, inter-acted with the people of God. Then God’s people told the story of the mighty acts of God. They passed the news from one generation to another. At first, they spoke the news. Then, in time, God’s Spirit moved men and women to write down what had been communicated orally. In the first verse of Luke’s gospel, the Bible talks about itself. Luke says that because others have set down accounts of things, he has “decided to write an orderly account…of the events that have been fulfilled among us.”
And in further time, God moved the people of God to collect the writings into the current Bible, like a family scrapbook, the church’s memory book, a collection of letters, writings, poems, narratives that tell about God and God’s history with God’s people. It took 2000 years for this (the Bible) collection to take this form. (and that is a whole other story.)
2000 years of human beings getting their hands and heads in the process. Human lips, human copyists (there were no typewriters or copy machines of course…), human translators, human editors…
This interference of human beings in the process need not surprise us. Of course there were errors in transmission: scribes make mistakes, looking from text to copy and back, they lose their place, their eyesight fails – eyeglasses were not invented until 1373! When God chose to put the treasure of God’s message into earthen vessels, God knew there was risk involved. God thought it was worth it, and took the chance that some things would go wrong along the way.
But the amazing thing is how much
went right! Though no original manuscript exists today,
there are thousands of fragments, some on parchment, some on papyrus which
piece together into a coherent, cogent whole.
Bruce Metzger, New Testament scholar and professor for 46 years at
Princeton Theological Seminary, marvels at the overwhelming manuscript evidence
for the New Testament, especially when compared to other writings from
antiquity – which, he adds, “scholars have absolutely no reluctance treating as
authentic.” (Strobel,
The Case for Christ, p. 61)
New Testament manuscripts exist from all corners of the
The human involvement in the
process should not surprise us, and it need not alarm us. Because the Holy Spirit was also involved in the
process, getting God’s message onto the page.
The Holy Spirit guided and protected the process, and preserved what is
essential for our salvation and the shaping of the Christian faith. As John
Calvin wrote, back in the 1500s, when skeptics pointed out discrepancies, “they
are inconsequential to our salvation.” The
discrepancies, in fact, support the
claim that the scriptures are not a hoax.
If people wanted to pull off a hoax, wouldn’t they ‘clean up the
discrepancies’ and harmonize the whole?
The church over the centuries has resisted people’s efforts – Marcion,
The scriptures are not dictations from God, but they are inspired by God.
Second, the scriptures are sacred. They are holy. This is to say that God uses the words of scripture to communicate with us. The scriptures are unlike any other writing, “a witness without parallel.” The Holy Spirit moves in the words and pages of scripture in unique ways. As Calvin said, “in the sacred scripture, God breathes something divine.”
But the Bible itself is not divine. The scriptures bear witness to God, but they are not God. They are the written word of God – but they are not the living Word, with a capital “W”. Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the Word which was with God in the beginning, the Word that became flesh. Jesus Christ is the clearest, brightest, supreme revelation of God. The Bible tells us about him. “God uses human words for his divine purposes…the scriptures are a human instrument in the hands of God.” (Leith, Basic Christian Doctrine, p. 275) We believe the Bible and its message, but we believe in Jesus Christ.
Think of the Bible as a reel-to-reel recording. Through a recording we hear the power, the beauty, the meaning of the message, but scratches and skips garble the clarity. Sometimes we need other people to help us decipher the words. (Brown, Bible Speaks to You, p. 48) We believe that there is a singer because of the recording, and we know what the singer is like, but we do not confuse the recording with the singer. In the same way, the Bible records God’s voice.
Or think of the Bible as a
window: we can see through the words of
scripture into the realm and revelation of God.
Sometimes there are smudges, cracks that obstruct our view – as in
passages that confuse or confound us – in certain parts, we might have to dig
beneath the layers of dirt to get a better view. But when we look through the scripture rather
than at it, it opens a view to
something beyond. (Brown, The Bible Speaks to You, p. 48)
As Paul says in Corinthians, “now we see in a mirror dimly…”
We do see only dimly now through a cracked, smudged window.
But without the window of the scriptures we do not see at all.
We can – we must – look to the scriptures for guidance for our faith and life. We Christians cannot pick and choose what we will hear and heed, paying attention to what conforms to our understanding of God, what we want to follow, disregarding the rest. The scriptures are given to us for a purpose: “for teaching, for reproof, corrections, for training in righteousness.” They are necessary, indispensable – and if we come to them in humility, seeking the aid of the Holy Spirit, they will not fail us as a guide for our faith and life.
How can we rely on it and give it authority for our life?
that is the second part of the question.
We may have to wrestle and dig beneath the dirt of passages to hear what God is trying to say to us. We may have to learn some Hebrew, some Greek to learn the intended meaning of a word. Some passages will be difficult to understand.
This is, after all, the Lord of the universe trying to communicate with mortals. Of course there will be confusion. Calvin pointed to the way a mother or nursemaid talks to an infant, talking baby talk, lisping…and Calvin said, “That is the way God speaks to us… God lisps.”
Infants do not understand
everything the mother says to them. But
they can grow in their understanding, if they keep listening, paying attention,
focusing on her voice.
And so can we grow in our understanding of what God is saying to us in
scripture, if we do not throw up our hands, but keep listening.
Over the centuries, Christians have wrestled with understanding and interpreting the written word of God (modern skeptics are not pointing out anything new…)
And those Christians have passed on to us wisdom about how to rely on the Bible, even with its disturbing passages . These guidelines come to us from the Declaration of Faith
1. We rely upon the Holy Spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit directed the process of getting the words on the page, so the Holy Spirit can be relied upon to bring the words off the page, opening our eyes and hearts to its meaning.
2.
We use the best available methods
to understand the scriptures in their historical and cultural settings …
For example, we read in Proverbs “spare the rod, spoil the child,” and without
studying the verse in its historical and cultural setting, some have heard
instruction to beat their children. But
if we study the verse in its setting, we will learn that the ‘rod’ refers to the
stick used by shepherds to guide their sheep to go in the desired
direction. Shepherds did not use it to
beat their sheep, but to protect them, and to gently prod and nudge them towards
safety.
3. When we encounter apparent
tensions and conflicts in what Scripture teaches us to believe and do, the
final appeal must be to the authority of Christ. This means that all of scripture is read
through the lens, the spectacles of Christ – his life, his attitudes, his
teachings, his sacrifice, his resurrection.
We ask, “What does the text on the massacre of the Amalekites look like
when we read it through the lens of Christ’s life?” Reading the disturbing texts through the
spectacles of Christ opens a window to something beyond.
4. Let Scripture interpret Scripture. The Westminster Confession instructs us, “The
infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself.” We cannot read a single text in
isolation. We must always listen to a
text as part of a whole. For example,
any text from the Old Testament that seems to warrant slavery must be held
against Paul’s text in Galatians “There is neither slave nor free.”
5.
Listen to fellow believers past
and present. We cannot interpret
scripture alone. We must listen to it as
a member of the body of Christ – and not just the parts of the body we know and
like, but also members that live near, and far, in the past, and in the present.
If we do these things, the Declaration
of Faith assures us that we can trust
the Holy Spirit to enable us to interpret faithfully Gods’ Word for our time
and place.
We can rely on the Bible, even though it has disturbing passages.
But let me also say one further thing: our goal in reading the scripture is not to remove or explain away everything that disturbs us. We must rely on the Bible because it has disturbing passages. Not the texts of terror, but passages that disturb us in a different way. Mark Twain said, “Most people are bothered by those passages of scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me most are those I do understand.”
Yes, the Bible has terrible and terrifying texts and things we cannot condone.
“But none of that is the central aim of the Bible, and we know it. Instead, scripture points us toward something more disturbing – a God who rules in majesty over creation, placing demands and expectations on us that are at odds with the values that the world chooses to live by….
“The parts of the Bible that trouble us most ought not be the ones that are beneath our values and sensibilities, but the ones that dare us to rise beyond who we are.” (Jim Rand, study leave) “Love your enemies, forgive those who hurt you, the kingdom will come like a thief in the night, sell all you have and give it to the poor, do not kill, return no one evil for evil, lay down your life for your friend…” Reading these scriptures should disturb us. God has not given us the scripture to make us comfortable, but to make us new.
Yes, we can rely on the Bible even though parts of it disturb us.
But we also must rely on the Bible so that it will disturb us, disturb us with an encounter with the spirit and word of the holy, living, loving God.
If we are never disturbed by scripture, we are not listening,
and we will never be transformed.
Amen.