Here are ten things that amaze me about the Bible.
1. Even though there is much “variety” in scripture (ever gotten whiplash reading Ecclesiastes after the this-world-makes-sense wisdom of Proverbs?) and even though the books in scripture came over hundreds of years, it contains an overarching theme, a narrative unity. It speaks with profound insight about creation, the fall, Israel, Jesus, the church, and the final consummation.
2. It speaks both simply and deeply, to child and to scholar.
3. While it keeps being claimed by groups who laughingly think they’ve figured it all out, it keeps resisting, plunging us to deeper insights and mysteries.
4. It doesn’t seek to prove much. It is a book of confession and proclamation more than it is a book of apologetics. It doesn’t try to prove that God created; it confesses that God created. It explores the implications for this world since God created (and since he delivered from bondage . . . and since he restored after the exile . . . and since Jesus was raised from the dead . . . ). It’s an inside job from those who are already on a journey of faith.
5. It isn’t embarrassed by faithful exploration of difficult questions. Words of doubt and lament don’t get edited out (unlike in many contemporary churches).
6. It permits the writers to explore faith through their own expressions (see #2 in this series). It doesn’t share our need to work out all the jars and clashes.
7. It points consistently to God, insisting that he–in all his glory, power, and mystery–has ways that are not our ways.
8. It seems to know me. It speaks to my life with profound insight.
9. It refuses to be the object of our desire. Some people saw the signs of Jesus (especially in John’s gospel) but never looked much beyond the signs to the one who performed them. (”My, my, really good wine,” said the wedding planner, smacking his lips.) Likewise, too many Christians develop a passionate devotion to the Bible as if it were part of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Bible. Like the index finger of John the Baptist, it points beyond itself.
10. It insists that I decide. It’s not JUST history; it’s not JUST prose and poetry; it’s not JUST insightful and true. It demands that I listen, decide, commit, and act.
Greg is just leaving the link from http://www.mikecope.blogspot.com to http://www.preachermike.com for a couple weeks. If you have a link to my blog, would you please go ahead and change the address? Thanks.
Also, as we mentioned earliers, any links you may have to things I’ve written the past will work again soon. We just wanted to give people time to get used to the new address.
Have a great day. And when you get a chance, read your Bible!
It seems to know me..that one’s my favorite.
I was raised to equate knowing my Bible with knowing God. Bible = God. That we were people of the Book and if you have Bible knowledge you know who God is.
So you can look at Jesus in the temple with the money changers and you can say, “See, Jesus was angry – we should be angry.”
And then you can turn over to the woman at the well and say, “See, Jesus was merciful, we should be merciful.”
But unless you know Jesus (and not just your Bible) you still have to figure out when it is appropriate to be angry and when it is appropriate to be merciful.
It is a hard thing for people to understand and accept that there is more to knowing God than just knowing and memorizing Scripture. Sounds easy enough now – but the baggage we carry from our short history has had a profound effect on us.
I am constantly reminding myself that my history follows me wherever I go and influences me even when I am trying to be aware of it.
Thanks, Mike. This is so relevant as the ladies’ class at Highland is reading through the Daily Bible this year. I’ve posted a link to your comments this morning on our fledgling blog; I hope you get a few visitors from our site.
As for my favorites, #4, 6, 7, 8 and 10.
Thank you for seeking to minister to those of us who are walking through the dark crevices of life.
Mike:
Every post in this series has been insightful. This one is my favorite, thus far. Thanks for challenging us to think outside the standard issue box of the same old stuff (again).
Blessings,
-bw
Mike,
I really appreciate this series. I hope you continue with this for a while. It is shocking, I suppose, for those of us raised to believe that the Bible is the actual, “Spirit breathed” , literal , inerrant word of God to have this discussion.
Is is inerrant? Is it the “Word of God”, or is it a collection of writings or stories of men who were part of an exciting movement? I think the key, is perhaps, your statement that “by faith” we believe in the inspiration of Scriptures.
Are the Scriptures inspired and yet not inerrant ?
Super Series. You should use this series for a new book.
Thanks for blessing us!
DU
Boy, does it resist me. How many times have I tried to read the Bible through in a year or start an online Bible study or whatever? What is sad though is that when I dive deeply into the Bible, my life is completely different. I guess it does know me very well. It almost shouts at me when I read because it knows that I struggle with long-term devotion. It wants to reach me when it can…I love that it is alive.
I really enjoyed the movie, Sling Blade. I suppose it hits close to home with the dialogue that reminds me the dialects that were spoken in my home area of North ‘Alabama. Karl Childers–a mentally challenged man, played by Billy Bob Thorton, is somewhat of a practical man’s theologian. Karl killed his mother and her young lover with a sling blade and for that he is put in a mental institution (Karl calls it the nervous hospital). While there he speaks some interesting lines that speak fairly plainly from a practical person’s veiwpoint as to what you find in the Bible.
“I’ve learned to read some; took me four years to read the Bible. I reckon I understand a good deal of it. It wasn’t what I expected in a lot of places.”
I’ve found the Bible to offer what I wasn’t expecting more times than I wish to say. I just wish I had always said, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
“2. It speaks both simply and deeply, to child and to scholar.”
I like # 2 because it gives me hope that it does not only speak to you but also to me, not as a scholar, simply and deeply.
Perhaps, tied in with Nos. 4 (which sort of ties in with No. 10?) and 5, what I really like about the Bible is that it never apologises for itself!
No. 6: I like this one, too, because through all the many authors we have a such a rich panorama of personalities on display. None of the authors were chosen for their marketability to sell anything. They did not have to be popular or hygienically correct to get their thoughts penned down for perpetuity. Their gifts remained intact and grew in spite of the moods they might have been in on the day the scribe came to dinner. Exciting stuff!
And No. 7 I love because in a huge sense, God is like my best most intimate friend, in that he will constantly challenge me — raising the bar — and will keep me on my toes. And he will do this regardless if I am a member of MENSA or not! (There are many perspectives to view the world from God’s imagination.)
Thanks again, Mike!
Can we nail this post to the doors of our churches?
To Jerry,
Hi Jerry. I’m not Mike, but I just think that you ask a great question. “Are the Scriptures inspired and yet not inerrant ?” Whether or not a person thinks they are “inspired” is up to the individual; obviously, some people say “yes”, some “no”. But whether or not it is inerrant is easy to decide by simply reading it and then being honest about any errors that might exist.
It doesn’t take long to read the gospels and see an inconsistency that is an obvious error. Matt.: Jesus is born at home in Bethlehem. The family flees to Egypt. Then they don’t return home to Bethlehem, but “went and lived in a town called Nazareth.” Luke: From Nazareth to Bethlehem and back to Nazareth (no Egypt). The stories don’t match, so the Bible does not live up to the modern claim of inerrancy, a claim which no book in the Bible claims for itself. (Notice what Luke claims about his book: “Lots of stories have been handed-down, but I went out and did some investigating on my own. Here’s what I found. . . . ” [my paraphrase]).
It takes some tough gut-wrenching honesty to see and admit. But this doesn’t have to shake anyone’s faith in the Creator, unless one is so rigid and unbending that they can’t adjust.
As I was reading this post the song “Ancient Words” started playing in my mind.
“In this world where ‘er we roam, Ancient words will guid us home. Ancient words ever true. Changing me and changing you. We have come with open hearts. Oh let the ancient words impart.”
Such a great song…and I have yet to sing it through without at least tearing up.
Great little series. I’m so jealous/upset that I won’t get to hear you and Randy Harries and Bob Russle at Tulsa. Will there be cd’s availble?
As I was reading this post the song “Ancient Words” started playing in my mind.
“In this world where ‘er we roam, Ancient words will guide us home. Ancient words ever true. Changing me and changing you. We have come with open hearts. Oh let the ancient words impart.”
Such a great song…and I have yet to sing it through without at least tearing up.
Great little series. I’m so jealous/upset that I won’t get to hear you and Randy Harris and Bob Russel at Tulsa. Will there be cd’s availble?
The Bible produces a sort of unsettling endearment in me, and your post gives words to that feeling. I love it even though I’m nervous when I can’t make all the pieces fit. Below are the lyrics of a song called “The Word” by Sara Groves (brilliant songwriter and singer!). I think it fits nicely, so I hope you don’t mind me sharing…
I’ve done every devotional
Been every place emotional
Trying to hear a new word from God
And I think it’s very odd,
that while I attempt to help myself
My Bible sits upon my shelf
With every promise
I could ever need
Chorus:
And the Word was
And the Word is
And the Word will be
The old Word is the new Word
People are getting fit for Truth
Like they’re buying a new tailored suit
Does it fit across the shoulders
Does it fade when it gets older
We throw ideas that aren’t in style
In the Salvation Army pile
And search for something more to meet our needs
I think it’s time I rediscover
All the ground that I have covered, like
Seek Ye first… what a verse
We are pressed but not crushed,
perplexed but don’t despair.
We are persecuted but not abandoned
We are no longer slaves
we are daughters and sons,
and when we are weak
we are very strong
And neither death nor life
nor present nor future
nor depth nor height
can keep us from the love of Christ
And the Word I need
is the Word that was
who put on flesh to dwell with us.
In the beginning….
really great post! been struggling with number 7 for sometime - but numbers 5 & 6 encourage me to press on!
So many of these words today have struck me in the heart. Yes, the word knows me….yes, yes, yes….convicting, challenging, reassuring, comforting and sometimes pushing to places and levels that I am sure that I am not ready for…but somehow I am.
Twice in the last month I have been told that I need to watch Sling Blade. My mother’s family is from North Alabama and my cousin told me that Billy Bob Thornton walks like my grandparents…one arm hanging behind the back and the other the other hand holding that arm while leaning slightly forward. Okay, I will watch it soon.
The songs here are powerful. I love Ancient Words…such truths. I need to find the song by Sara Groves…good words.
Thanks Mike for talking about all this. For many years this was a hush-hush conversation. Thanks for putting it out there.
The God in whom I live, move and my being is not far from each one of us. When I read scripture, I am able to identify that God–He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Scripture is a library filled with testimonies about God’s faithfulness.
I look forward to reading your book about this subject!
#9 has been for me a problem. I was somehow raised to worship the Bible. It somehow became our golden calf.
A big, fat YES to #1. Still can’t figure that one out.
All part of the mystery. Weirdly enough, I prefer Ecclesiates.
#2. #7. #8.
I remember when people used to ask how the Bible was “relevant to my life.” Much better question: how are our lives relevant to the Bible?
I like the new blog Mike. It looks nice! Hope you enjoy it!!!
I have really enjoyed your series on B-I-B-L-E. When does the book come out? (Your book on it, not the Bible!)
Anyway, it is interesting how God is sending me these little tidbits to enhance the already forming thoughts in my brain concerning the Bible. For months now, I have been thinking and discussing with my husband many of these same thoughts you have posted.
I realize that for all my years in the tribe of cofc, I read the Bible as a prooftext. I was always looking for ways to prove to someone why they needed Christ. I could use scripture to prove to them why my way was right and theirs was wrong. It was my total answer book. Any question I had was found in the Bible. I just had to continue to read it to find it and sometimes I thought I did; many times I couldn’t understand why the answer was not coming to me as I read and read. I was the one wrong all along. Not all my answers are in the Bible. The HS is sending me answers from all kinds of sources like other people, nature, my brain, out of the mouths of my grandchildren; really anyway He chooses.
I am thankful for my experiences and God’s work in my life to change my thinking. I am the one who has changed! God has stayed the same. I now read the Bible to deepen my relationship with Christ!
The new “filter” for my reading of the Bible is looking for Christ; who is the answer! This thinking has broadened my horizons beyond measure. I now know that if I can get someone to read the Bible, I can point them to Jesus.
My husband and I have started a Bible Study at work, (we work at the same company) with about three other people. Two are Catholic and the other is “generic.” In my past thinking, I would want to point out all the things they are doing wrong in the Catholic faith and get them to see that my way is the right way for them. But now I point them to Jesus in every reading. We are not teaching, we are discussing the Bible. We have started in the OT and are reading different stories to “paint” the picture God has for the world. We add our color occasionally, but it is their own painting. My painting is changing and different colors are being added to it as well.
The best part is that I don’t have to prove anything. I just have to point them to Jesus and the HS will take care of the rest. The Bible is not the book I grew-up thinking it was. The only “answer” from it that I need is Christ and how I can deepen that relationship!
I meant to add:
I don’t worship my Bible anymore the way I use to. I now worship
God; author and creator. Huge difference!