Hidden Agenda?

At a business meeting at church recently, the agenda for the meeting was distributed, together with other papers and documents. I put mine out of sight under a table, and quipped “Now it’s a hidden agenda”.

OK, so it wasn’t funny. But a commenter on the _awakening blog, where my post about fundamentalism being fundamentally unbiblical is being discussed, asked what the agenda is behind pointing out the Bible’s errancy. Here’s what I left as a comment in answer to that question:

I’ll chime in with what my agenda is. I want Christians to accept the Bible for what it is, not impose on it claims about the Bible that are inaccurate.

This is important for multiple reasons:

First, when people are told “Either the Bible is the inerrant Word of God or a bunch of garbage that you can simply throw out”, and then discover the difficulties and discrepancies in the Bible, guess what they do? It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, you might say. Fundamentalism’s false claims about the Bible have driven many people away from faith altogether, because it not only lies about what the Bible is, but also lies about there being only one other option.

Second, it is important because, if we ask why people believe the Bible is inerrant, in most cases it is because they don’t know any better. They have never studied the Bible in sufficient depth or detail to know better. And so what ends up happening is that they believe what a particular preacher or author says that the Bible says (and says inerrantly). That puts too much power into those preachers’ hands.

Third, attributing inerrancy to the Bible is idolatry. It takes an attribute of God and attributes it to something that is clearly part of the created order.

Fourth, and most basic, is honesty. Unless one thinks it is appropriate to lie, cheat, steal and deceive in order to win people to Christianity, then being honest about what the Bible is is nothing more than living according to the commandment not to bear false witness.

I’d also like to thank Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed for posting a link and sending some readers this way!