We have a Bible Problem.

Photo by Taylor Wilcox

A dear friend of mine recently asked me a powerful question this week on the nature of the Bible. "Why are people so afraid to question it or criticize its content?" The heartbreaking thing about this question is that it comes from a place of hurt. She wants to believe and be loved by Jesus but feels smothered by the institutional control she's experienced in the past. She grew up in an evangelical school and Church, where she was heavily involved in both. There she was taught about the authority of the Bible over one's life. Yet the experience pushed her further from Jesus, rather than alluring her closer. A significant part of that story is the way the institution used Scripture. In her world, asking honest questions of the Bible was considered anathema and equated to apostasy.

I strongly suspect this was never anyone's goal. I doubt most of those who taught her she should never question the text believed that themselves. Yet it was clearly communicated to her. So what happened? To combat the theological winds of its day, the institution over-corrected and began to overemphasize the authority of scripture. The over-correction coupled with superficial methods of reading and interpreting the Bible (hermeneutics) led to abuse. 

But first, what do we mean by the authority of Scripture? The authority of scripture espouses that the Bible has the final say over all things pertaining to life and godliness, stemming from the belief that God inspired the Bible. As such, it holds an authoritative position over all of humankind as God's revelation. God, being the Creator, is over all things, and so what God says goes. In short, what we mean by authority is that the Bible is right and should be listened to. To question the Bible is then equated to questioning God.

On paper, this heavy-handed theology isn't terrible. It certainly has some merit to it, and I agree that the scriptures are authoritative. But the problem becomes determining what the scriptures say. If the scriptures are authoritative, what is their message?

But really, the question of authority is one of knowing (epistemology). It is a question of who I should listen to. Throughout western civilization, marked shifts occurred when the seat of authority changed. We see this in the shift from the institutional Church to the Scriptures during the reformation. Then shortly after to the individuals' rational ability during the enlightenment. The modern age saw another shift with rapid scientific advancements and technology. We have seen the struggle for authority play out in our modern world with the weaponization of misinformation. In short, the question becomes how I can know what's what? Who should I believe? Who has the authority?

To be clear, the Christian answer to this question has always been Jesus.

The scriptures are authoritative in that Christians believe they are writings inspired by God that reveal Jesus. But Jesus is the ultimate authority and revelation of God. God reveals Jesus to the world through the testimony of God's Spirit and the testimony of God's prophets and apostles (i.e., The Bible). The scriptures first and foremost introduce us to the risen Jesus. We can encounter God when we read them and hear them read. It is in this that their authority lies. Jesus chides the Pharisees for the mistake of mistaking following the Scriptures with knowing Him (John 5:39). Our encounter with the Bible should lead us to an encounter with the living God. So what has gone wrong?

We replace God with the Bible. Now, of course, no one believes that the Bible is God, but we often treat it as such. We see this clearly in our tendency to read "the word of God" in places like Hebrews 4:12 as the Bible instead of Jesus. In that case, and others like it, we literally replace Jesus with the Bible. This is telling. We have a Bible problem.

So if we acknowledge that Jesus is the ultimate authority, and revealing Him is the aim of the Bible, then yes, the Bible is authoritative. What complicates this is the reality that the majority of us lean on the translation and interpretation of others to read and understand the Bible. This was where the real hurt my friend encountered originated. She was being told the Bible is authoritative and that it said particular things (about the age of the earth, gender, sexuality) that just weren't necessarily true. To be accepted by God, she had to agree. Read that last line again and let it break your heart the way it must break God's. Her freedom to question, explore, wrestle and be curious about God's revelation was snuffed out by the fear of being on the outside. While the Bible may be authoritative, our interpretations of it are not. Yet, interpretation is always necessary.

The reality that the scriptures demand interpretation means that the Bible as the highest authority is relatively new in the history of Christian thought. Before the printing press and the translation work of the 1500s, copies of the Bible were precious commodoties, and the ability and opportunity to read one were rare. For the first 1500 years of Christianity, the Church was the highest authority. While the reformation changed this, even then, Luther's sola scriptura (scripture alone) did not literally mean all we need is the Bible (he ironically had four other solas). Later, John Wesley articulated the use of four sources of authority to draw theological conclusions. They were Scripture, reason, experience, and tradition (or the church's historical interpretation of what the scriptures say).

The reformation's reaction against an unhealthy authority was good and cleansed the Church of a lot of toxic and unhelpful beliefs. But the intention was never to place the scriptures as the sole authority, precisely because the scriptures demand reading and interpretation. The Scripture needs the community. And this is really the point. 

Authority used to coerce, control, and solidify the institution is not Jesus' type of authority.

The Bible should be a source of joy, delight, and refreshment to our souls as it places our hand into the hand of a loving God. We should expect something mysterious and mystical to happen because God has promised us that God works through these writings in a supernatural way. But they are an invitation to know Jesus deeply and more intimately. If we are reading them any other way, we are falling short.

So we read and look to the scriptures to help reveal Jesus to us, but we do so in community, not laying aside our rationality or experiences, but instead bringing them to our readings and allowing the Spirit of Jesus to speak through His people as we read together. Take up and read. Delight. Question. Doubt. Find yourself ushered into the hands of a loving God.