{"id":634,"date":"2016-05-17T22:22:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T02:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitychannelseries\/?p=634"},"modified":"2016-05-18T11:19:53","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T15:19:53","slug":"is-the-bible-the-final-word-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pitstopforthespirituallybamboozled\/2016\/05\/is-the-bible-the-final-word-of-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Is The Bible the Final Word of God?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"book-863418_640\"<\/p>\n

Two summers ago, while driving home from Pennsylvania, and just as I entered \u2018Bible Belt U.S.A.\u2019 (somewhere in West Virginia), I was greeted by a billboard bearing an image of a leather-bound Bible with the caption: HOLY BIBLE: Inspired. \u00a0Absolute. Final<\/i>.<\/strong> Now grant it, I knew I had entered the land of evangelical\u00a0Protestantism; but I wasn\u2019t prepared for this abrupt in-your-face religious message.<\/p>\n

That said I initially admired the advertisement: its slick, punctuated crispness impressed me. The succinct, pithy, unequivocal message made its point with singular effectiveness \u2013 great advertising!<\/p>\n

Now the rub for me, as I pondered a little deeper, could be summed up in another pithy phrase dispensed by one of my Scripture professors many moons ago when he admonished his eager students to never forget the \u201ceschatological proviso\u201d at our disposal, when faced with a literalist and fundamentalist interpretation of Sacred Scripture. In other words: when every diverse and elite exegete has had his\/her say on Scriptural text, they cannot \u2013 and can never have \u2013 the final word!<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s try this: a brief speel by yours truly on each of the billboard\u2019s Biblical adjectives; then I\u2019ll wrap up and let you guys go it alone \u2013 fair?<\/p>\n

Inspired? <\/b><\/p>\n

Was the Bible \u2013 in whole or in part \u2013 written by \u201cdivinely inspired\u201d authors? And the corollary question: Is the Bible \u2013 in whole or in part \u2013 a\u00a0trustworthy document of\u00a0Divine Revelation<\/i>?\u00a0<\/i>I would like you to pause here (perhaps walk away from your iPad or PC) and let these two questions rest on your consciousness \u2013 not intellectually; just gently and reflectively, and allow your \u201ctruth\u201d answer to emerge\u2026<\/p>\n

\"hand-453220_640\"<\/a>The Bible, indisputably, is an impressive collection \u2013 Biblio \u2013<\/i>\u00a0of literary genres: history, proverb, poetry, allegory, narrative, prophetic, archetypal, apocalyptic, parabolic, symbolic, and eschatological.\u00a0 It\u2019s also a comprehensive mix of indiscriminate violence, slavery, patriarchy, and homophobia, on the one hand; and divine love poetry, timeless wisdom, mystical depth, and integrated healing accounts, on the other.\u00a0 So which is divinely inspired and which is not?\u00a0 The conundrum\u2026<\/p>\n

Marcus J. Borg \u2013 one of the most respected Christian commentators and scholars of our\u00a0day\u00a0\u2013 in his memoir How I learned What Matters Most, <\/i>states:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bible is our foundational document but it is not the inerrant and infallible \u2018revelation of God.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further, Borg argues that the Bible can be true without being literally true; for example, he views the Creation Stories as parables \u2013 as I do \u2013 drenched in rich religious meaning . . So the Bible as a divinely inspired and revealed text (as a whole) doesn\u2019t cut it for me \u2013 as I hold onto that \u201ceschatological proviso\u201d in my back pocket!<\/p>\n

Absolute?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Nah!\u00a0 The American Oxford Dictionary\u2019s<\/i> pithy definition of the word \u201cabsolute\u201d is: \u201cnot qualified or diminished; total.\u201d Practically every section, subsection, and phrase in the Bible \u2013 to varying degrees \u2013 requires some midrash or hermeneutical qualification \u2013 not to mention the many historical and cultural nuances at play. And as for the word \u201ctotal\u201d, Jesus himself \u2013 it is recorded \u2013 once put it to his disciples, \u201cI have much more<\/span><\/em> to say to you, <\/span>more<\/span> than you can now bear\u201d (Jn 16:12).\u00a0So in a word, scratch that one!<\/span><\/p>\n

Final?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I think I\u2019ve already addressed this one in my \u201ceschatological proviso\u201d speel above but need to add: I believe\u00a0that every major world religion (and its corresponding sacred texts), along with every cultural and human experience\/expression of the divine \u2013 be it in the form of ritual, sacrament, text or\u00a0mystical\/transpersonal experience (dream, out-of-body or otherwise), is implicitly, actually, or potentially a Revelation of the Divine <\/i>whether as a result of \u201capparent inspiration\u201d or not. With that, my erudite friends, I\u2019m out of here!<\/span><\/p>\n

Until our next yarn: watch those billboards as you putter along \u2013 sometimes they really wake you up!<\/span><\/p>\n

Cover Photo: Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n

Image Insert: Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evaluating the Core Authenticity of the World’s most famous Book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2586,"featured_media":635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,45,103,46],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bible","tag-christianity","tag-divine-revelation","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nIs The Bible the Final Word of God?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Evaluating the Core Authenticity of the World's most famous Book.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pitstopforthespirituallybamboozled\/2016\/05\/is-the-bible-the-final-word-of-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is The Bible the Final Word of God?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Evaluating the Core Authenticity of the World's most famous Book.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pitstopforthespirituallybamboozled\/2016\/05\/is-the-bible-the-final-word-of-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pit Stop for the Spiritually Bamboozled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-18T02:22:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-18T15:19:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gerard A. 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