Here is something you should hear more of at church: DON’T read your Bible (at least, not the way you have been reading it).

There is a definite hunger for truth in the world right now. The debate about where to find it, and what processes would be most beneficial, is heating up. Radical atheists are becoming ever more vocal, and raising doubts and concerns in people’s minds about what to believe. Yet, Christianity (and other major religions) are responding. A battle for the hearts – and minds – of people continues. At this time of year, it’s worth reflecting on how best to engage in that interaction.

Christmas is a not a good time for atheists and skeptics these days. “The war on Christmas” has largely failed – we call them Christmas trees, greet each other with “Happy Christmas”, include a baby Jesus in school Nativity plays and say ‘Christmas’ rather than ‘Xmas’ on our greeting cards without too much come back. Once upon a time religion was equated with ignorance and superstition (it still is for many), which would eventually give way for science, fact, evidence and reason. Secular elites and thinkers especially explained that the world would be better off without superstitious belief in God. The last hundred years have not been good for them, though. The last century has been the most anti-Christian and most secular in history, yet it’s hard not to notice that scientific rationalism has not delivered a peaceful world to us. Denouncing God (and Jesus specifically) has not made the world a better place – but it has led to an increased spiritual hunger in the Western world.

But this is no cause for gloating amongst Christians (or other religions). The problem is that people who are going on a spiritual quest do not see traditional Christianity as a viable place to go looking (the same is probably true for other traditional religions as well). One of the major reasons for this is that ordinary Christians seem so happy to believe stuff that is just patently absurd or contradictory. By this, I don’t mean belief in some of the difficult to accept concepts that are integral to the Christian faith (such as the incarnation, the death and resurrection of Christ, or a personal God who both loves and judges us), but rather I am referring to the way many Christians continue to insist that all parts of the Bible are literally true (in a modern scientific sense). And the way that many Christians continue to claim that the way they interpret the Bible must be true in spite of all the scientific evidence to the contrary (the best example of this is the continued insistence by so many Christians that there either were never dinosaurs or that any that did exist were wiped out by a global flood just a few thousand years ago).

Those are bold statements that could easily be misunderstood, so let me quickly explain. Too many readers of the Bible do not take into account some of the key factors that need to be understood when doing proper and detailed Biblical interpretation. This is partly because evangelicals and Protestants have long encouraged everyone to do daily Bible “study” and rely on pithy devotional notes as the basis of their Biblical interpretations. Most of these people do not have the background required to analyse the original language and critique the translation they’re using, or delve into the historical and ancient cultural references and background that colour the story, or dig deeply into the literary context and understanding of the usage and forms of the specific genre of the passage they’re reading, or compare the Biblical text to other ancient extant texts of the day, and so much more that would be required to do a complete Biblical exegesis.

Continue reading Dealing with skeptics – and with bad Bible readers →

This post was first published on my old blog on 26 July 2005

Here’s something your church lives by, but never says: you don’t have to believe what you learn here.

A few years ago, I visited an emerging (more experimental, actually) church for their evening service. One of Christianity’s foremost thinkers and philosophers was there that evening, Dallas Willard. I have been a great fan of his writings, and as a collector of signed books, I took the opportunity to drive across town to get him to sign the books (I don’t often hold out hope that great authors will also be great speakers, so I must be honest that I didn’t expect too much).

Dallas was great. I found some random notes I scribbled down that night, and one of them hit me hard. This is what Dallas had to say:

We spend way too much time sitting in classes (and churches) learning things we don’t need to know. Even worse, we are not required to believe what we learn.

Imagine if our theological colleges had exams which said “write only what you believe”.

So, we learn the right answers to predetermined questions. There is little focus on actual belief. (And therefore there is a definite lack of application and life change). Which is why we forget it all so quickly.

Problem – this is how we approach Christianity. Our focus is not on belief which affects action, rather the focus is on learning the right answers, so that when we meet God we can get the answers right.

A comment was added to the original posting which deserves to be part of this thought:

Marcus Borg explores this idea even further (in his book -The Heart of Christianity-). He suggests that one of the problems of Christianity today is that we worry too much about belief – getting the ideas or -answers- (as you put it) right, and not enough on doing the right things. He compares the idea of believing with the idea of -beloving- -that Christianity is not so much about what you believe (not that you can just believe anything – what we believe is important, but not to -get any answers right-, rather because belief influences character and action), but rather about how we love and continue to grow better at loving Jesus-style, which is a practical, healing and transforming love. I must confess – Borg’s got me buying what he’s selling!

I agree. After all: Education is what remains when what has been taught has been forgotten.