Fast-forward to my post-high school years. An impressionable (but grounded) young adult, I entered college. Faced with secular history that starts somewhere before the Genesis account and tracing human history with Judeo-Christian history thrown in the middle I realized the real, valid challenges to my faith. Looking through the eyes of others, I was able to acknowledge the seeming discrepancies and realize absurdities I had embraced when I was younger.
Thanks to my secular education and the challenges of listening to different views, I have learned to look at the Scriptures as more than a strict instruction manual. Don't get me wrong, the Bible is to me God's word and the foundation of my faith, but it's now more than it was.
Take Genesis as a sart (afterall, that is where the story begins). Some are adamant to argue that everything in Genesis happened just as it was written, even arguing that if this is not the case, we could dismiss the whole Bible. A secular viewpoint -- which it's taken me a long time to understand -- looks at the account as allegory: a way for a nomad named Moses* to get his mind around how this world and his people came to be. Before you dismiss me as a heretic, please consider this: Almighty God could have inspired Moses to communicate this history to his people to illustrate important truths and build a way to relate to mankind.
With a less-literal viewpoint, I can see creation and the fall as a beatuiful allegory of how God Almighty values humanity and the tragedy of every person's self-will that carries us away from His perfect will, tarnishing everything, and the need for a redeemer. God becomes our benevolent provider in a way that anyone can acknowledge. All of this communicates the same creation story beautifully, opening the door to the gospel, without ostracizing someone who doesn't interpret the scripture literally.
This begs the question: when you feel lead to defend your faith, or perhaps the way you've been taught to view that faith, are you sure about that? Is your viewpoint the only valid way to look at it? Does your translation get in the way of you communicating the essence of the message, leading to arguements about viewpoint and semantics, not about the gospel message? Can you learn something of another's interpretation that enriches your own faith?
As John admonishes, "Test the spirits"(1 John 4). Perhaps by listening and pondering others' viewpoints of Scripture and faith you can strengthen your own and better communicate your faith with others.
*Some would argue that these stories are accumulations of years of oral history compiled post-Moses. This acknowledged, the mystery is the same.
3 comments:
Ten-foot pole anyone? Mike, can you pass me yours? Thanks.
Quite a provocative viewpoint. I like what you say about it all leading up to the same gospel message anyway. Of course the "danger" is that if you question the literality of one section of scripture, why not question other parts that don't make sense to you right now? The foundation for the gospel could completely crumble if one takes too passive a view on scripture. (I'm not saying this of you, Mike! This is all for arguement's sake)
The reason some may feel the need to take secular viewpoints and mix them with scripture is because their logical minds get stumped or they have trouble explaining certain passages to others during this age of information.
A big stumbling block for many people is whenever they come to a place where science, history and scripture appear to mismatch. Whenever I come across this, I know that God could have easily made it possible through His supernatural powers, just as He did when He created the universe. Take Noah and the Ark for example. How DID all those animals fit? I have heard a great theory where all the animals were infants and that's how they fit, but what do you fall back on if THAT theory ever gets disproved? What I fall back on is one word - Miracle. Many of us have forgotten the power of God and try to figure it all out scientifically and with our head rather than simply having faith.
God has also said that He confounds the wise of this world and rather chooses to make his truths known to low-lifes instead.
Another scripture says "...For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie." What if this delusion is a miraculous fabrication of scientific flaw or removal of evidences?
We don't have to have all the answers. We see dimly at present, and that's all we need for life and godliness in this present age. It's more about faith than head-knowledge anyway. "All scripture is God-breathed",
"...faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
With all that said, I actually agree with most of what you said, Mike, and like the way you think!
And yes, I do believe it's healthy to be open to other's interpretations and test your own.
Good article! Let's see who else dares to touch the subject.
PS. I was driving down Walsingham today and had the displeasure of seeing the staff at FBCIR gathered in the front parking lot burning your effigy.
Thanks Burt. I appreciate the insight. Bu8rn baby burn.
Well,
I must say that your "liberal thinking" has finally allowed you to see through a "clearer lens" to a better understanding of being able to see God's Word in a way that others (who don't know Him) can come into the picture of not being ostracized
as has been the case far too long.
Keep thinking more openly and not lose sight of those "without"...
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