Things Christians Say – The Bible Is God’s Word

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I used to be a Bible scholar. I took great pride in being familiar enough with the Bible that I could debate the accurateness and efficacy of this ancient book. The many different sects and divisions of Christianity all give varying degrees of emphasis to this collection of literature.

Everything changed for me when I began to study it honestly. When I studied it without preconceived ideas, I began to see it for what it was. It is a book written by man about God and not a book written by God about man.

Teenagers in high school recognize this without provocation, but then we try to shame that out of them and convince them that we need to idolize this book written by 40 different authors. If I could summarize, I would agree with Paul that it is “useful” and nothing else.

It contains the words of Jesus who was considered by one of his students (John) to be the Word of God. It also contains some of the history of a people trying to understand God. Most of it wasn’t written down as it happened, but much later. It took 400 years to be organized into a book and called Holy. By the way, this was influenced by a Roman emperor (Constantine). Until the Christians united with the Roman empire, they existed well without a canonized document.

Here are some of my conclusions that you don’t have to agree with. They’re just my observations as a former Bible scholar and pastor for 20 years.

The Bible doesn’t say it is the Word of God

The New Testament was written decades after Jesus walked the earth, only after the disciples repeated stories and eventually wrote them down. In these newer writings, that weren’t compiled for centuries, they only make reference to what some thought God was saying.

Jesus often corrected what the other authors said and left out parts that He didn’t agree with. His teaching directly contradicted many of the Hebrew scripture that were included in the Bible. From the record of the Bible, it appears that Jesus teaching is contrary to what God told the Israelites to do (kill their enemies), even though it also says he was with God in the beginning.

The easiest way to see this is to look up the “fire from heaven” passages and see the direct contradiction, along with the “you have heard, but I say” teaching in Matthew.

The Bible is Indeed Fallible

As I said before, a reasonable high school student can see obvious inconsistencies and the fallibility of what we call The Bible. I’m not at all interested in trading Bible verses to prove that the Bible is infallible, because we wouldn’t do that with any other piece of literature. We wouldn’t say “this book is reliable because this book says it is.” We can’t just say “this book is more important because it says so.” And, by the way, it doesn’t really say that anyway.

Where we start is where we end up

The trouble with a book this size, is that if you assume it has great importance, then you can literally make it say anything you wanted it to say. Murder can be wrong and might be acceptable depending on which verses you quote and the assumption you start with.

I know about context and figures of speech and original language and setting, etc. I can apply all of that systematic theology to my study, but in the end, the conclusion that I draw will be based on the assumptions I started with.

We are informed by history

Just like the writers of the scripture were influenced by their culture and their history, we are also shaped by the other literature that appeared along the way and other voices that spoke to our understanding. An example of this would be Dante’s influence on our views of hell and philosophers of the first century’s influence on the New Testament writers.

Approach it Honestly

Everything shifted for me, after defending the Bible for decades, when I honestly looked at it with fresh eyes and tried to remove all the assumptions I had originally made. When I did this I found some of it to be very useful, but many of my previously help assumptions faded away.

The parts of the Bible that were violent and didn’t mesh with what Jesus taught became clear and I was able to understand them as someone’s mistaken understanding thousands of years ago. With this new understanding, it was easier to accept some of the teaching of Jesus and some writings of the New Testament without having to lump it all into some infallible, perfect word from God.

When I was able to see it for what it really is, it became much more of a help for my daily life and much less of an idol that I worshiped.

My hope is that Christians will come to a more authentic relationship with the writings of its history. To live in a contradiction for a short time is understandable, but to stay there is foolish.

As I said, I’m not really interested in arguing about verses. I have done that for decades, and I can predict which ones people will quote before they quote them, and I know the exegesis by heart. To move forward, I need fresh and honest dialogue, not a rehashing of the arguments of the past.

Be where you are, be who you are

Karl Forehand