Creativity, Writing

Rev Gav

Have we made the Bible into an idol?

2 Timothy 3.16

“Woe to you conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists for you wield the Bible as a weapon to subjugate and oppress my beloved children.”

I’m going to begin this article with a bold statement, that should not be controversial, and it seems almost incredulous that it should even need saying, but here goes:

The Bible is not God.

You might read that and think, “Duh! Of course it’s not!” but I have heard it said by Christians, countless times, “The Bible says…” If the Bible is not God, then why quote it as the ultimate and supreme authority?

You see, the conservative evangelical or fundamentalist Christian is caught between a rock and a hard place. If they say, “God says…” then they are speaking for God, and they know, of course, that the Bible is not God. If they say, “The writers of the Bible say…” then they admit that the Bible was written by human beings and therefore is not the authority they claim it is. And so, they opt for the middle-ground by lumping all the different genres of writing, spanning countless centuries, into this thing called ‘The Bible’ and they anthropomorphise it, giving it voice as an authority equal to God.

Let me speak plainly. When you make something other than God an authority equal to God you have created for yourself an idol, and no matter whether you are liberal or conservative, one thing I’m sure all Christians can agree on is that putting anything other than God on a pedestal, and bowing to its authority, is idolatry.

Now, before you stop reading and call me a heretic (although you won’t be the first or last to do so), let me assure you that I am an evangelical and believe and trust that the Bible is the inspired word of God. I write daily Bible-based devotions and have written a Bible-based sermon every week for over twenty years. Prior to being ordained, I attended an evangelical Bible college for two years, and afterwards spent six years in training before becoming a fully-fledged pastor. I spent months of my life writing The Hip-Hop Gospel of Luke, a modern translation of Luke’s gospel, and going right back, I became a Christian — gave my life to Christ and fell in love with Jesus — after reading through the New Testament five times. My life has been influenced and oriented around holy scripture, and I love it. But… the Bible is not God.

If we back-pedal a little, you may have heard of different ‘flavours’ of Christian — evangelicals, liberals, catholics, and charismatics (or pentecostals). Broadly speaking (and these are very broad strokes with which I write), evangelicals use the Bible as their ultimate authority, liberals use human reason as their authority, catholics use tradition as their authority, and charismatics use the Holy Spirit as their authority. When it comes to, for example, an ethical question, the evangelical will ask, “What does the Bible tell us?”, the liberal will ask, “What does our common sense and life experience tell us?”, the catholic will ask, “What is our church tradition and history?”, and the the charismatic will ask, “What is the Holy Spirit telling us?”

Now, in reality, most Christians are a mix of all four, but they will have different emphases, and yes, in each quadrant we have extremists, and when it comes to the Bible, the extreme evangelical becomes a Bible literalist or fundamentalist, the extreme liberal treats the Bible as only myth, the extreme catholic can only read the Bible through the lens of the early church ‘fathers’ or papal interpretation, and the the extreme charismatic can only interpret scripture as the Spirit leads. Therefore, when it comes to idolising the Bible, you guessed it, it is us evangelicals that are in danger of becoming idolators.

If you believe that the Bible is equal to God, you divorce the text itself from its author, its social and historical setting or context, its intended readership, and its original reason for being written. This means you can lift any text from across the sixty-six books — any sentence or verse — and quote it with the words, “The Bible says…” and use this as an authority — to pronounce judgment — when it comes to any contemporary ethical or life situation.

I can only pray that you comprehend how utterly dangerous and idolatrous this practice can be. Why? Because, by quoting verses out of context, you can make the Bible say pretty much anything you like. The Bible has, for example, been used to subjugate women and justify slavery — after all, they’re both ‘biblical’! In addition to this, when someone quotes the Bible, they must be aware that they are quoting a translation.

Every English Bible is a translation of the original Hebrew and Greek and Bible translation is not an exact science and it is complex.  For example:

1. There are words in the original languages that have multiple meanings dependent on context.
2. There are words which have no other examples of use in ancient literature, and the translators have to make a best ‘guess’ as to what English word to use.
3. There are words that have no direct comparison in English — for example, both Hebrew and Greek have multiple words that in English are redacted and rendered as ‘love’, and the word ‘hell’ exists as three words – Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna, each with a different meaning and context.
4. There are biases where the translator has used a word based on his or her own ‘biblical’ understanding or tradition resulting in giving the text an emphasis.
5. There are ancient idioms that have no direct comparison in our contemporary world. It is like me writing that it is, “raining cats and dogs” and someone from a different culture thinking, “Woah! They must have strong umbrellas!?” In these cases, Bible translators have to decide whether to be literal or write something dynamically equivalent so we can understand that perhaps the rain was just heavy!
6. Some older Bible English translations used versions of the Hebrew and Greek text that have since been updated due to the discovery of more ancient manuscripts.
7. Sometimes the ancient manuscripts do not tally and two different manuscripts will have used two different Hebrew or Greek words with different meanings, and the translator has to decide which one to translate and which to add a footnote. Sometimes whole extra lines are present or missing. A good example of this is the Lord’s Prayer. Go look in your footnotes!

Can you see how saying, “The Bible says…” and using an English translation is not only idolatrous but quite possibly also not being faithful to the original text?

Does all this mean that the Bible has no value? Far from it, and dare I say, it is where some who call themselves ‘exvangelicals’ I think may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater (another idiom that may confuse people in a different culture — I don’t believe exvangelicals have harmed any babies). No, the Bible has immense value. It chronicles the story of God’s people and their interaction and understanding of God, and of Jesus Christ. Scripture points to God’s salvific work in the world, the redemptive, reconciliatory, and eternal work of Christ, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into every believer.

When we put scripture into context — when we understand who wrote it, to whom they were writing, why they wrote it, and the social, historical, and religious context, it comes alive to us. It becomes richer, deeper, more meaningful, more impactful, and more relevant to our contemporary lives. I like to call this ‘contextual evangelicalism’ which makes me a contextual evangelical! I am not a conservative evangelical nor am I a fundamentalist.

A contextual evangelical holds the Bible in high regard, and uses this contextual understanding as a mirror to our life experience, our history, along with an ear to the Holy Spirit’s leading. We do not (by definition) quote the Bible out of context or use it as an authority with which to pronounce judgment over, or condemn, others. We will never anthropomorphise the Bible and use the phrase, “The Bible says…”, instead, we may say, “Paul, in his letter to the Galatians wrote…” and then back it up with some context!

If you have been on the receiving end of someone wielding the Bible as a weapon or a panacea; if you have ever felt less worthy, more guilty, or not good enough because of someone quoting the Bible at you; or if you have turned your back on conservative evangelicalism and wonder where the Bible fits into your life journey, be assured that you are not alone and that there is a third way. Many churches, Christian communities, and individuals are rediscovering a love for the different texts found in the Bible, but more than that, through doing so, they are discovering a God who loves them more than they can possibly imagine.

Amen.