The central place of the Bible

I am a Baptist by birth, by church nurture, by conviction, and by life-long practice. The kind of Baptist experience and training I had in family and church is so deeply ingrained in me that I have accepted I can never be anything other than a Baptist. Baptists are religious libertarians. From the beginning of our history, Baptists did not embrace and did not recite any of the historic Christians creeds. We did not take popes, bishops or superintendents of any kind seriously. In matters of faith, there was one authority — the Bible.

When I began my educational journey, a new searchlight was turned on the holy Bible for me. The halo which had engulfed the Bible dimmed, and the searchlight of examination brightened. The Bible turned out not to be what I thought it was. The Bible was not a collection of revelations straight from God. Rather, it was a great mixture of reports about God through the writings of men who claimed special experiences with God. Their words passed through decades and sometimes centuries of oral traditions and multiple translations. Hoping to recover original writings has turned out to be a bad joke, and terms like “verbal inspiration” and “inerrancy” are recognized as nonsense or at least non-functional.

On closer examination, I found that the Bible had contradictions, discrepancies and errors. Editors and editorial additions are obvious. The peculiar opinions of writers and editors abound.

Critical studies of the Bible have come of age during the past 50 years. Departments of religion have flourished at almost every major American state university. The study of Christianity has moved from church-sponsored colleges, universities and seminaries to state universities. As this has happened, scholars have been freed from the supervision of religious institutional hierarchies. Religious beliefs and writings have been torn away from the protection of church officials and institutions. Heresy (a differing opinion) is expected. The study of the Bible is front and center in this radical change of location of religious academic settings.

In the process, the Bible has lost its position of authority in the Christian world. It has impacted Baptists especially. From our beginning in the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th century, Baptists have clung to our Bibles as the ultimate authority.

The Bible has held a dominant place in Western civilization for nearly 2,000 years. For 1,000 years prior to the dawn of Christianity, the Hebrew religious writings played a heavy role in the culture of the Middle East. In the hardest of times, Hebrew prophets, priests and rabbis, continued to practice their faith and ponder and write about their God. The commitment to writing about one’s faith continued with Christian leaders. The collection of the writings of Christian and Jewish authors is unparalleled in human history. The Bible is history’s best seller by a wide margin.

We are now in the midst of the single greatest examination of a collection of writings in history. In some circles, panic has set in. A dominant authority is being challenged. I find the current flood of scholarship not a threat, but an opportunity to examine and to learn. If my Christian faith is strong and valid, it should be able to withstand every challenge and to grow stronger through being questioned.

What are we learning from the flood of scholarship we are now experiencing? At the top of the learning list is argument. The Bible is a collection of writings that argue. Sometimes the argument is with the beliefs and values of those outside the circle of faith. Sometimes the argument is within the family of faith. The most exhilarating experience in Bible study and reading takes place when the reader joins the arguments. Those who have insisted that we submit to the authority of the Bible without question miss the point. Argument is a tool for the refinement of truth. The Bible is full of discussion starters. For example, most of the parables of Jesus should be read as the beginning of a vital argument.

The next lesson that is being learned through modern scholarship is that every part of the collected writings of the Bible has a context. Every portion of the Bible has a social, economic, religious and political setting. Sorting out the context for a particular Bible passage can be a challenging task. It can also be clarifying and satisfying.

The Bible will remain one of the most important writings in the Western world. Like all writings, it has some warts. However, it challenges evil. It encourages serving and helping. It presses the right issues. Am I my brother’s keeper? If I am to love my neighbor, who is my neighbor? Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. Love your enemies. And what does the Lord require of us but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly.

I suspect the Bible will continue to do well. It had some great contributors.