What Are We to Believe about the Bible?
Psalm 119:97-104; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
A mom brought her daughter to see me one day. The little girl was probably about five or six year old. The mom, nudging the little girl toward me, said, “Go ahead. Ask him.”
The bashful little girl looked down, squirmed a bit and then asked, “If the church catches on fire and burns down, will the Bibles burn too?”
Behind her question lay some important questions about the nature of the Bible. Is it supernatural? Is the Bible somehow divinely protected from the ravages of fire? We call it the Holy Bible, so is it so holy that, like the burning bush in Exodus, it can resist consumption by fire?
Here’s what I told her: “Honey, if the church burns, the pews will burn. The hymnals will burn. All the books in my study and my papers will burn. And the Bibles will burn too. What makes the Bible special is not its ability to resist fire. What makes it special is the message it gives us about God and how to live.”
We do call it the Holy Bible, right? The word “holy” in Hebrew is kodesh, hagios in Greek. Both words mean “set apart.” Something that is holy is not common. It is set apart as more than common. The books in my study are common. Our hymnals are common. My papers are common. The Bible is not. It is appropriate for us then to refer to the Bible as the Holy Bible.
However, sometimes I hear people refer to the Bible as the Divine Bible or the Divine Word. Oh, I urge caution here. God alone is divine. The Bible is not a god. We must not in our zeal for the Bible elevate it to a position it does not claim for itself. That would be a heresy. The Bible likewise does not claim to be inerrant or infallible or even without error. That language is not a part of the language of the Bible itself. Those are all terms men have created, in their zeal, to describe the Bible.
So, what are we then to believe about the Bible? We are people of science and history and mathematics. We respect the other religions and cultures of our world. We are not in competition with them. We are also aware that some, in their zeal for the Bible, have used it to do great harm though history. We remember the Crusades and other wars. We know powerful men have wielded ungodly power in the name of God. We are aware of the resistance to the discoveries of science, the oppression of Blacks and women, and discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
Some of you may be thinking about some of the more difficult passages in the Bible and how we deal with those. Did you know that Leviticus 20:9 says that a child who curses his or her parents should be put to death? That’s what the Bible teaches. Not put in the corner for thirty minutes or put to bed without dessert. Put to death. Leviticus 20:10 says anyone who breaks the seventh commandment should be put to death. That’s the one about adultery, by the way. Remember the prophet Elisha? One of the heroes of the Old Testament. One day he commanded two bears to eat forty-two children for acting like children. And then there’s this sweet little ditty from Psalm 137, “Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!”
Inerrant? Hardly! We recoil in horror at words like those now. So, I ask again, What are we to believe about the Bible?
Paul’s second letter to his young friend Timothy is very helpful here. Paul had a high view of Scripture, as do I. We must remember that when Paul refers to Scripture, he is referring to what we call the Old Testament. The New Testament had not yet been written. We can infer, though, that his high view of the Old Testament Scriptures applies to the New Testament Scriptures too, even though he never got to read them.
In 2 Timothy Paul tells his young friend he has two sources for guidance. The first is Paul’s own example. Paul was a mentor to Timothy. Here’s what he says:
Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and suffering the things that happened to me…. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
So, take a look at my life, Timothy. My life can be a source of guidance for you.
The second source of guidance is “the sacred writings.” Thanks to Timothy’s mother and grandmother he was well schooled in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, what we call the Old Testament. Paul notes that they were able to instruct him “for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Yes, it was the Old Testament, but it pointed forward to Jesus and the gospel. Verse sixteen is probably the most important verse in the Bible about the Bible. Here’s what it says:
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
If the Bible is not divine or inerrant, what is it? Paul says it is inspired by God. Would you indulge me a little Greek here? I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t important. The Greek word that is translated “inspired by God” is an important word. It is used only here in the New Testament. It is a combination of two words. The first word you know: theos. It means God. We get the word “theology” from it. The second word is from the word pneuma. It is translated various ways depending on context—wind, breath, or spirit. We get the word pneumonia from it. Pneumonia is when our wind or breath rattles within our chest. The word that is translated as inspired by God literally means “God breathed.” As God breathed into Adam and Adam became a living being, so God breathed into the Scriptures, through Paul and Luke and John and others, and they became alive with meaning. They are not static, locked in time long ago. They are dynamic, alive, with a fresh message for each new generation.
Therefore, Paul says the Bible is useful for these purposes.
It can make us wise unto salvation. If you’re concerned about your salvation, turn to your Bible.
It is useful for teaching. I teach it every week.
It can be used for reproof or rebuke.
It is good for correction or improvement.
It is useful for instruction or discipline.
It is a great tool for training in righteousness, Paul says, thereby making us capable followers of Christ.
That’s what the Bible is. Here’s what it is not. It’s not a science book. It was never intended to give a scientific description of creation. It gives a religious description of creation, which, by the way, is very rich and meaningful. It is not a history book. Maybe Jonah was a real person, maybe he wasn’t. That didn’t matter to them. The message of Jonah mattered regardless. It isn’t a math book. Yes, someone could live to be 969 years old back then. That was their way of saying he was a great man. Just like the number 666 has symbolic meaning. If we try to force the Bible to be something it was never intended to be, we box ourselves into a religious corner that is hard to get out of.
I tell people there are certain books you need to read before you die. You need to read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The unabridged version. You’ve seen the musical; you need to read the book. You need to read William Faulkner, our son of the south. My favorite is Light in August. You need to read Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. I could list many other great books we all need to read before we die. But if you don’t get to those, you must read the Bible. Critically. Seriously. Through adult eyes. No other book has done more to shape the world than the Bible.
No, it’s not supernatural. It has endured the test of time because it is truth. It is inspired by God, God breathed. That is something we can all believe about the Bible.
Closing Prayer
For this great treasure we call our Bible, we thank you, Lord. May we never take it for granted. Amen.
