More Than Words

I received a question from a reader on the post Your Church is Not Biblical: “how do you follow the Christian faith when you are so critical of the Bible?”

First, I’m not (that) critical of the Bible, at least not in the way I think this question intends. Anyone who is serious about Christianity should take up at least a little bit of Biblical criticism from time to time. It’s important to understand your scriptures as deeply as you can and historical and literary analysis and comparison helps. But I think the question really wasn’t about Biblical criticism as much as it is about my stances against Biblical inerrancy, univocality and dogmatic interpretations.

I’m all about keeping the faith and the reason I spend so much time writing about why you need to have a mature faith beyond Biblical inerrancy is because I truly believe that adhering to inerrancy can only lead to a loss of faith. If you base your faith on an inerrant view of the Bible and then learn that the Bible is full of contradictions and errors, you will lose your faith. If you keep your faith centered on Christ, you can navigate all kinds of changes in life and culture because Jesus is eternal.

So how does one follow the Christian faith if you think the Bible is less than infallible?

Focusing on Christ

I start my faith journey with a belief in Jesus Christ. I don’t think that should be controversial to any Christian. I know a lot of evangelicals who became Christians because of a particular reading of the Bible. Maybe a particular interpretation of scripture won them over. Maybe it was an idea about fulfilled prophecies or a particular salvation narrative. They think the Bible must be the word of God since these prophecies were fulfilled. Unfortunately for me, and I think eventually for anyone who takes the Bible seriously, you start to see that those prophecies weren’t really intended to be read in that way by the original authors. Instead believers in the early church experienced something completely life-changing in the resurrection and began combing through scripture for answers. It was then they saw familiar themes that seemed to point to Jesus as prophecy or otherwise or just part of the endless and wonderful mystery of our inheritance. That shouldn’t shake your faith if you center your faith in Jesus. But if you based your faith on a specific reading of the Bible and learn later that reading is wrong, your faith might be shattered. It’s no wonder inerrantists spend so much time defending indefensible readings of scripture.

My understanding is that a lot of new evangelicals are convinced that the only way to get into heaven is to make certain faith statements. Some of those faith statements involve the inerrancy of scripture and what has come to be known as a “literal,” interpretation of the Bible. I put the word, “literal,” in quotations because while we all take most of the words in the Bible literally—how else could words make sense?—the common use of that word also means certain people think that everything in the Bible happened as an historical fact. They may even believe in Christianity based on a very specific reading of the Bible that emphasizes fulfilled prophecy. If that is where they are locating their faith, I can understand how confusing it must be to see a Christian like me who doesn’t think the Bible is inerrant or even demonstrates much fulfilled prophecy. Why would I even choose Christianity if those aren’t real prophecies or the Bible isn’t God’s word?

It’s because I’m a Jesus freak.

I center my faith on Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God. The Bible is a beautiful testament to Jesus containing myth, poetry and theologized history. Like the earliest Christians, I hold to the resurrection of Jesus and the real presence of Christ in my life and from that position, I look backward into the Bible to better understand the experience. Some people call that a Christocentric lens and if you use that phrase in Bible study you’ll sound really smart. Luther said the Bible was the manger that holds Jesus. I don’t worship the manager or hold it to be perfect like I would hold the baby inside.

There are parts of scripture that I don’t think fit the core teachings of Jesus. I know this because Jesus Himself corrected scripture:

Matthew 5:38-41

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

You may think that Jesus gets to correct scripture—and conventional wisdom—because He is God. Maybe that is the principle at work here, that the Bible is correct until it isn’t anymore because God corrected it. But wait, if the Bible is the word of God and God is eternal and infallible, then why is Jesus correcting it at all? I think the principle at work here is that scripture is not infallible but Jesus’ core teachings of love and forgiveness take priority. So, you can and should reinterpret scripture and all of society around you based on these core teachings. As Lenny Kravitz sang, “you’ve got to let love rule.”

But how do you know that your reading of the Bible is truly Christocentric? You don’t, but that’s true for the inerrantists as well. If reading the Bible and making up your mind about it were easy, we’d all still be Catholic. There is an overarching direction of the Bible that points to Christ, union with God, love, forgiveness, social justice and compassion. The core commands of Jesus are to love God and neighbor and everything else can fall away. That is why I have no issue dismissing Bible passages that support war, genocide, misogyny, slavery, and more. I worship Jesus, not the Bible.

Spiritual Practices and Community

Because I start with Christ and not the Bible, spiritual practices are important to me. I believe that Christ’s salvation is more about recognizing God’s eternal love for us and seeking to unite with God. Sin is separation, salvation is reunion. I pray a lot because Jesus prayed a lot. I believe Jesus was a contemplative mystic so I want to emulate that. Our 3,000-year tradition has a lot of spiritual practices that are 100% Grade-A Christian even though they are extra-Biblical. From contemplative prayer to prayer beads to Lectio Divina to liturgical dance and far beyond, practicing Christianity is just that – a practice.

Christianity is a path to God that billions of people have followed. Sacraments and means of grace work on you, they tune your guitar string. I really think that Jesus is completely unconcerned with what you believe and ultimately concerned with what you do. In that way, helping the disadvantaged is a faith practice. Do you want to meet God? Jesus says that as you have done to the least you have done to Him, so there’s your chance to meet Jesus face-to-face.

There is a real strength to practicing Christianity in a body of loving believers. That body includes all the people in your church, but also the community of saints across 3,000+ years. There is so much to learn in Christianity that is outside the Bible. The community of faith helps you with difficult life issues and interpretations and encourages you in hard times. The Bible is important in the community of Christians but we get to interpret it together in faith. A lot has happened in 2,000 years since the resurrection and despite what you might have heard, God didn’t close the book.

I’m not bothered by putting my own experience first in figuring out my Christian path. The main reason is, we all do it anyway. You may think you’re putting the Bible first, but who’s interpretation are you putting first? Ultimately, you serve your own opinion about everything. My main goal as a Christian is to align my will with that of God, live up to the Christ inside me as best I can. If I can change my character and purpose toward God in any small way, that is a life well-lived.

Openness to All of God’s Gifts

I do believe that God speaks to us in the Bible. Now, the authors were limited by their own knowledge and culture when they were trying to get that inspiration down into words. They didn’t know much about science, so the Bible should not be used to argue against evolution, vaccines, the geologic record, psychology, blood transfusions, sexual preference, heliocentrism, diet or any other area where modern ideas have been borne out. But God’s voice is still in there, just painted in a palette we may no longer appreciate. For example, YHWH is presented as a war-mongering God. From God’s revelation in Jesus, I know this is not true. Places where the Bible portrays God as commanding genocide are wrong. That is simply not the God revealed in my living Lord. I don’t have to struggle with trying to justify why the OT God seems to be so different from a loving father of all. I just think the writers of those sections of the OT saw the world through warfare and used some tropes that fail today. “You have heard that it was said… But I say to you…”

God does speak through the Bible. I can’t tell you how many times I talk to a fellow congregant who says the pastor’s sermon seemed written for them on that day. And yet, we all heard something different. It’s a legit miracle every single week if you just pay attention to it. The whole purpose of a sermon is to expound upon a lectionary text. That becomes God’s inspiration through the Bible at work in your life and all you must do is show up on Sunday morning. You didn’t even have to open your own Bible and read, just show up on Sunday. But if you do read on your own, you may be shocked to hear God’s voice speaking to you. Sometimes my own critical study of the Bible can get in the way of God’s voice, so I understand that critical study is not for everyone. You do you. Knowing too much about the why and how of a particular passage prevents me from hearing something new God wants to say because I get lost in thoughts about how or why something was written centuries ago instead of listening to God right now.

I believe God speaks all over the place, not just in the Bible. God speaks through other religions and wisdom traditions. God speaks through reason and logic and philosophy. God speaks through music, poetry and art. I’ve heard God’s voice in pop-rock albums. I’ve seen God’s voice on T-shirts. And I’ve never met a Christian Coloradan who didn’t believe God was speaking to them throughout all of creation.