Last week as I prepared a message for our Sunday night young adults group, “Consume,” a funny thing happened. As I was finishing up my notes and reviewing them, I noticed something that took me by surprise. It occurred to me that, in this particular message, I had not used or otherwise incorporated a single verse from the Bible. This was a first for me.
I love the Bible. I know that as a Christian and a minister that I am supposed to say that but I seriously do. Why does this collection of letters, and poems, and laws, and songs, and proverbs and histories, and prophecies affect me so much? Why does this group of writings, that is thousands of years old, continue to challenge me and speak to me on a level that transcends the mere transfer of data? I love how pastor and author Rob Bell puts it when talking about the words of the Bible, “We started out reading them, but they end up reading us.” So why would I prepare a “Christian” message totally void of any words directly from the Bible? What’s more odd is that I was convinced that God wanted me to speak this message.
I think this has to do with the mind set most of today’s Christians, (especially Christian teachers), have about the Bible. Many of us were brought up in the school of thought that the Bible is the absolute final word. To one degree this is true but I think we have taken it to a level that God did not intend it to go. I believe whole-heartedly that God inspired every word the Bible. But men wrote it in those men’s different writing styles and those men’s thought process. It was the Holy Spirit at work in their styles and thought process that make the Bible so unique and special. But often times, we act as if God stopped speaking when John penned the final words to the book of Revelation. We act as if the Bible is as big as God is and that, outside of scripture, He is silent. I reject this notion.
I reject it for many reasons really. First off, the Bible didn’t exist until 250 to 300 years after Revelation was written. Second, the Bible as we know it was voted on by a group of men who decided what was inspired and what was not. Third, with the exception for the Torah, the Bible’s writers had absolutely no idea that they were writing God’s Word. Fourth, in the New Testament we are told that there are still prophets, which wouldn’t be needed if God were done speaking. I could go on and on. So what is the Bible for?
I think the Bible is definitely for study and learning and teaching and growth and examination. But ultimately I think it is for testing. When I am speaking a “Christian message” or teaching a “Christian concept” my ultimate goal is to always speak the truth. To discuss a worldview that is in line with the realities of both the natural world and the supernatural world. And there does exist truth, outside of the Bible.
Did I just say that? Yes, I absolutely did. Truth is not unique to only the 66 books that make up the Protestant Christian Bible. “Blasphemy!” you may say but before you pick up that rock or simply write me off as a heretic let me explain. Every writer of the bible would have held a view of the solar system that said the earth is the center of the universe and things like the sun and other planets rotate around us. Today, we know that this is not true. So how do we resolve this? In the story we know as “Jonah and the Whale” found in the Old Testament, the word whale is not used. The Bible refers to it as a “great fish,” (Jonah 1:17), not a whale. But Jonah did not realize that a whale is a mammal not a fish. He simple saw an animal that looked generally like a fish and swam in the water so therefore must be a fish. But the idea of it being a fish is highly unlikely. So how do we resolve this?
Please understand… God is bigger than the Bible. I know this because he has used other things to speak to me. One time he answered me with a Billboard I used to drive by everyday. So is that Billboard scripture? Of course not! I taught that message Sunday night and it had no scripture in it. But I believe that the same Holy Spirit that inspired Paul and Moses and Jonah and John and the rest can use me too. Not to write more Bible to express more truth. Use the Bible to test what you are being taught. My message Sunday should not go untested. Examine the points I made with scripture to make sure I was in line with what we know God has said. That is the function of the Bible and I reject the notion that God is wrapped up in those pages only. God is bigger and deeper and more complex than the Bible just as you are bigger and deeper and more complex then that email you sent out.
I love the Bible. I know that as a Christian and a minister that I am supposed to say that but I seriously do. Why does this collection of letters, and poems, and laws, and songs, and proverbs and histories, and prophecies affect me so much? Why does this group of writings, that is thousands of years old, continue to challenge me and speak to me on a level that transcends the mere transfer of data? I love how pastor and author Rob Bell puts it when talking about the words of the Bible, “We started out reading them, but they end up reading us.” So why would I prepare a “Christian” message totally void of any words directly from the Bible? What’s more odd is that I was convinced that God wanted me to speak this message.
I think this has to do with the mind set most of today’s Christians, (especially Christian teachers), have about the Bible. Many of us were brought up in the school of thought that the Bible is the absolute final word. To one degree this is true but I think we have taken it to a level that God did not intend it to go. I believe whole-heartedly that God inspired every word the Bible. But men wrote it in those men’s different writing styles and those men’s thought process. It was the Holy Spirit at work in their styles and thought process that make the Bible so unique and special. But often times, we act as if God stopped speaking when John penned the final words to the book of Revelation. We act as if the Bible is as big as God is and that, outside of scripture, He is silent. I reject this notion.
I reject it for many reasons really. First off, the Bible didn’t exist until 250 to 300 years after Revelation was written. Second, the Bible as we know it was voted on by a group of men who decided what was inspired and what was not. Third, with the exception for the Torah, the Bible’s writers had absolutely no idea that they were writing God’s Word. Fourth, in the New Testament we are told that there are still prophets, which wouldn’t be needed if God were done speaking. I could go on and on. So what is the Bible for?
I think the Bible is definitely for study and learning and teaching and growth and examination. But ultimately I think it is for testing. When I am speaking a “Christian message” or teaching a “Christian concept” my ultimate goal is to always speak the truth. To discuss a worldview that is in line with the realities of both the natural world and the supernatural world. And there does exist truth, outside of the Bible.
Did I just say that? Yes, I absolutely did. Truth is not unique to only the 66 books that make up the Protestant Christian Bible. “Blasphemy!” you may say but before you pick up that rock or simply write me off as a heretic let me explain. Every writer of the bible would have held a view of the solar system that said the earth is the center of the universe and things like the sun and other planets rotate around us. Today, we know that this is not true. So how do we resolve this? In the story we know as “Jonah and the Whale” found in the Old Testament, the word whale is not used. The Bible refers to it as a “great fish,” (Jonah 1:17), not a whale. But Jonah did not realize that a whale is a mammal not a fish. He simple saw an animal that looked generally like a fish and swam in the water so therefore must be a fish. But the idea of it being a fish is highly unlikely. So how do we resolve this?
Please understand… God is bigger than the Bible. I know this because he has used other things to speak to me. One time he answered me with a Billboard I used to drive by everyday. So is that Billboard scripture? Of course not! I taught that message Sunday night and it had no scripture in it. But I believe that the same Holy Spirit that inspired Paul and Moses and Jonah and John and the rest can use me too. Not to write more Bible to express more truth. Use the Bible to test what you are being taught. My message Sunday should not go untested. Examine the points I made with scripture to make sure I was in line with what we know God has said. That is the function of the Bible and I reject the notion that God is wrapped up in those pages only. God is bigger and deeper and more complex than the Bible just as you are bigger and deeper and more complex then that email you sent out.
I know this post was long. I hope you made it this far without falling asleep. Because I think this is an important thing to understand about the Bible. God did not stop speaking with Revelation. God continues to speak to us today through all sorts of different avenues. The Bible is a transcript of things God said and did in specific times and places but it is not as if He isn’t saying anything here and now. Let us use the Bible to test what is being taught to us as truth. But let us not pigeonhole God in what we can find in 66 books. Because God is bigger than the Bible.
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