The Bible Tells Me So...

Have begun reading a fantastic book.  Peter Enns' The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable To Read It.  Someday perhaps in the not too distant future I will be starting a book group to discuss these ideas.  Here's some quotes and thoughts on the first chapter.

Many Christians have been taught that the Bible is truth downloaded from heaven, God's rulebook, a heavenly instruction manual--follow the directions and out pops a true believer; deviate from the script and God will come crashing down on you with full force.

If anyone challenges this view, the faithful are taught to "defend the Bible" against these anti-God attacks.  Problem solved.

That is, until you actually read the Bible....When you read the Bible on its own terms, you discover that it doesn't behave itself like a holy rulebook should. (p. 3-4)

Deep within me is a longing to figure out what to DO with the Bible.  I've been a pastor for over 20 years.  A Christian for over 35.  And the problems I have with the Bible seem to be growing rather than going away.  It has become harder and harder to just ignore the places where the Bible contradicts itself, presents God as an angry tirant, or is just plain unbelievable.  The "rulebook" or "instruction manual" view of the Bible is so dominant that even though I have been to a Bible college and seminary, and know better, that view and all that goes with it dies a difficult death.

Part of the problem is the "what then" question.  If we get honest about the difficulties in the Bible, do we just end up discarding it as irrelevant to our lives (to my life, to my children's lives)?  Enns describes 3 options.  Door number one is "The Bible is without error."  Door number two is "The Bible is irrelevant."  He proposes door number three: "Let's face what we see in the Bible, accept the challenge, and start thinking differently about it." (19)  This means asking ancient questions of the Bible rather than modern or post-modern ones.  It means trusting that God has something to teach us through THIS Bible, the one we actually have, with all the stuff we don't know what to do with.

The Bible we have, Enns argues, doesn't work very well as a how-to manual or answer book.  But it does work well as a model for our own spiritual journey.  An inspired  model, in fact. (24)