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Hack the Theologian – Brian Wright

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

Hack the Theologian – Brian Wright

This is part of an ongoing series where I briefly interview a theologian, pastor, author, or Bible scholar that I highly respect, and ask them to tell us a bit about themselves, their most current teaching project, and the one most important truth (the hack) they wish every Christian could learn.

I call the series “Hack the Theologian.” This doesn’t mean I think these theologians are hacks. Far from it! It means that I am trying to find (and share with you) the one thing that makes them tick, the one insight that keeps them writing and teaching, the one truth they are most passionate about, the one idea that turned their life and theology upside down. You can read the other posts in the series right here.

(Do you know an author I can highlight in this series? Have them contact me!)
Brian Wright

So Let’s “Hack” Brian Wright

Brian Wright is an adjunct professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and has been a nationally known speaker, sharing the stage with such noted celebrities as Patricia Heaton, Nick Cannon, and many others. He currently lives in Pensacola, FL, with his wife and four children.

Here are my questions to Brian…

1. Can you tell us who you are and what you do in 40 words or less?

I am a pastor, professor, author, public speaker, and prison chaplain. I’m married to Daniella Wright and we have four amazing children. If I had spare time, I would be playing sports with friends or at the beach with family.

2. Tell us something about yourself that few people know.

My first paid job was cutting curly fries at a local flea market.

3. What is the best book you have read this past year? (It doesn’t have to be theological!)

The third volume of the collected letters of CS Lewis.

4. You have a new book out. Tell us a bit about it. What is the main point and what do you want people to learn or do?

Communal Reading Brian Wright Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus argues that communal reading events were a widespread phenomenon in the Roman Empire during the first century AD. This is important for a number of reasons, such as overturning the predominate idea that only a small segment of society in certain urban areas could have been involved in such literary activities, but for believers today my book helps us understand why there was such an emphasis on reading communally in the New Testament (1 Tim 4:13; Col 4:16; 1 Thess 5:27; Rev. 1:3; etc.). Therefore, I hope it encourages people to reinstitute this important spiritual practice and retrieve this great tradition of reading together.

5. Karl Barth was once asked to summarize his life’s work in one sentence. He answered, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” How would you summarize your life’s work? To put this question another way, if you could get people to understand just one idea, what would it be?

In Christ, only faith working through love counts for anything.

God is Redeeming Books, Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: bible reading

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Is Biblical Illiteracy a Problem in the Church?

By Jeremy Myers
30 Comments

Is Biblical Illiteracy a Problem in the Church?

This past week I was interviewed by Thom Schultz, the CEO of Group Publishing, for his “Holy Soup” podcast. Thom interviewed me about whether or not biblical illiteracy is that big of a deal in the church today.

My answer was “No. Biblical illiteracy is not that big of a deal in the church today.”

The interview was only 30 minutes, and so I didn’t have time to say everything I wanted to say about this topic, so over the next few weeks I am going to write a series of posts which explains more. I wrote about biblical illiteracy back in 2013, but I want to say more about it now, and will do so in these posts.

biblical illiteracyIronically, this series of posts may seem to undercut everything I do here at RedeemingGod.com. After all, one of the stated goals of this blog and my Podcast is to help you better know and understand the Bible. However, by the end of these posts you will hopefully understand why I believe what I believe about biblical illiteracy and why I still think I should be writing and teaching about Scripture and theology on this website and through my podcast.

So in this first article, I simply want to review why this is an issue in the church today and what some Christian leaders and publications are saying about the so-called problem of biblical illiteracy.

My Primary Problem with the Quest for Biblical Literacy

One of the primary issues I have with the so-called problem of biblical illiteracy is that biblical illiteracy is all in the eye of the beholder. That is, depending on who you ask, biblical literacy has different definitions. That is, even if someone earned a score of 100% on a Bible Trivia quiz, does this mean they are biblically literate? What if someone memorized the entire Bible? Does that make them biblically literate?

Even if you said “Yes” to these questions, does knowing Bible facts, Bible trivia, and thousands of Bible verses actually help you live, love, and look more like Jesus? The answer is clearly “No.”

While it might be true that studies have shown that people don’t know much about the Bible, studies have also shown that even those who are Bible experts don’t often look or act all that much different from people who are ignorant about the Bible. Sometimes the Bible experts behave less like Jesus than those who know next-to-nothing about the Bible.

So for me, the whole quest for increasing people’s biblical literacy level is wrongheaded from the get-go. If there is no direct correlation between gaining Bible knowledge and facts and actually living like a follower of Jesus, then what’s the big deal about becoming biblically literate?

Anyway, I will write about all this a lot more in future articles. In this article, I simply want to show you what some people are saying about biblical illiteracy in the church today and respond briefly to their concerns.

Is Biblical Illiteracy an Epidemic?

A recent article written by Ed Stetzer in Christianity Today argued that we are facing an epidemic of biblical illiteracy in our churches today.

epidemic of biblical illiteracyAfter laying out his case and citing some statistics, Ed Stetzer said that the following eight activities indicate that someone was more likely to be biblically literate.

  1. Confessing sins and wrongdoings to God and asking for forgiveness
  2. Following Jesus Christ for years
  3. Being willing to obey God, no matter the cost
  4. Praying for the spiritual status of unbelievers
  5. Reading a book about increasing spiritual growth
  6. Being discipled or mentored one-on-one by a more spiritually mature Christian
  7. Memorizing Bible verses
  8. Attending a small group focused on Bible study

I don’t know how Ed Stetzer came up with this list, but I disagree with each one of the points. I do not think that such activities are all that important for the Christian life. Yes, if someone does these things, they might gain more Bible knowledge, but who cares?

Again, what matters most? Knowing Bible trivia, or living and loving like Jesus? Since doing these eight activities will not necessarily lead to people loving their neighbors and interacting with the world with lives of grace (but is just as likely to lead to the exact opposite!), what’s the point?

knowing the bibleTo see what I mean, consider these eight items again from a different perspective.

  1. Confessing sins. Why oh why do some Christians always start with the issue of sin? Why are so infatuated with sin? When we begin with sin, this leads us to start focusing not only on our own failures, but also on the failures and “sins” of others, which leads us to develop attitudes of judgmentalism, condemnation, and accusation. Such attitudes more closely resemble Satan than Jesus. Maybe rather than focus people on sin, we can point people to God’s love, grace (neither of which are mentioned in this list!!!), and unconditional forgiveness. Yes, the first item on the list does talk about asking God for forgiveness, but this too simply reveals a lack of understanding about God’s forgiveness. God has already forgiven all people for all their sins no matter what. If we Christians really want to bring up sin, maybe we should bring it up that way instead. Instead of saying, “Confess and repent of your sin!” we could say, “Hey! Sin is not that big of a deal to God. He’s already forgiven you for everything! That just shows you what kind of God He is!” I think this would be much better. Talking about sin and confessing sin is not that good of an indicator that someone knows the Bible (or the heart of God, for that matter).
  2. Following Jesus Christ for years. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Who gets to decide who is following Jesus? If sitting in a pew and attending Bible studies is what it means to follow Jesus, why is it that so many people who “follow Jesus” in this way don’t act much like Jesus after years of “following” Him? Again, this supposed indicator of biblical literacy is too vague to be of any help.
  3. Being willing to obey God, no matter the cost. Again, by whose definition? What is “obeying God”? The people who blow up abortion clinics think they are obeying God. Christians who hate Donald Trump think they are obeying God. Christians who hate Hillary Clinton think they are obeying God. Christians who hate Muslims or LGBT people or gun owners or police or CEOs of oil companies or Osama or Obama all think they are obeying God. Lots of these Christians fill our pulpits and have initials after their names and would consider themselves Bible experts. But I sometimes wonder how much they really know about “obeying God.”
  4. Praying for the spiritual status of unbelievers. I find this item the saddest of all. Praying for unbelievers? Just praying? What about loving? What about befriending? What about serving? I am writing a book right now (tentatively titled Cruciform Pastoral Leadership … I hope to publish it this fall … make sure you are on my mailing list to be notified when it comes out) which contains a chapter called “Let Prayer Meetings Cease.” In this chapter, I bemoan the fact that we Christians often use prayer meetings as a substitute for actual love and service to others. Rather than go help our neighbor with his drug problem or dead son, we would rather bring it up at a prayer meeting and put it on the prayer chain. We often pray, “God! How come you aren’t doing anything about this situation?” and I believe He says right back, “How come you aren’t? I’m trying, but you won’t go!” Anyway, I don’t think that praying for unbelievers is a good indication of biblical literacy at all.
  5. Reading a book about increasing spiritual growth. This item is only true if they are reading one of my books … THAT’S A JOKE! Again, the problem here is what how to define the idea. What book? By which author? There is so much garbage in the Christian publishing world today, I firmly believe that reading some of these books will actually mess up your understanding of Scripture more than help it. So there is no connection whatsoever between reading books (even if they are my books) and spiritual growth, spiritual maturity, or biblical literacy. Related to this, why the emphasis on books? I love to read. I read a lot. But I don’t think for a second that because I read a lot, I am closer to God than those who hardly read at all. I will tell you a story later in this series of posts about a man I know who is literally illiterate. He doesn’t know how to read. He has never read a single sentence in his life. But I believe he is closer to the heart of God than I ever hope to be. So reading books means nothing about state of someone’s heart or spiritual grown.
  6. Being disciple by someone who is more spiritually mature. I am all in favor of discipleship. But again, what is discipleship? The way it is most often defined in Christian circles today is sitting in a room with books on our laps while someone tells us things. But that is not biblical discipleship, and so will not lead to biblical literacy, and will definitely not lead to biblical living. Furthermore, who is the more spiritually mature Christian, and what are they telling you to do? Just because you are in a discipleship relationship, this does not mean that you are actually becoming more like Jesus.
  7. Memorizing Bible verses. I have memorized a lot of Bible verses in my life time. I have even memorized entire books of the Bible. But I now consider all of that memorization a complete waste of time. I have met atheists who have more of the Bible memorized than I do. Bible memorization might help you win a memorization contest, but it’s not that good for much else. Why do I say all this? Because anyone can memorize and quote Bible verses. Satan quotes Scripture at Jesus, after all. Satan can probably quote the entire Bible. So for me, what is most important is not Bible memorization, but Bible understanding, and more important still is Bible application. Understanding and living 1 Bible verse is better than memorizing 100.
  8. Attending a small group Bible study. My answer to this is the same point I have been making over and over. I just don’t think it is that important for people to be constantly studying the Bible. We have too many Bible studies and not enough Bible living. Instead, we should get off our butts and go put into practice whatever it is we already know. And when we have exhausted that (in about 90 years), we can feel free to come back to the Bible for more. In my neighborhood, there are two families that have regular Bible studies in their homes. Every week, 7-10 cars show up like clockwork at these houses, and the people carry in their Bibles, and then 90 minutes later, carry them back out and drive off. In our neighborhood, the people who host these Bible studies have the reputation for being rude, spiteful, and complainers. They do not help, love, or serve anyone along the street unless you agree to attend their church. Yet they have regular Bible studies every week. Tell me, would you consider them to be “biblically literate”?

I think you see the point. Who cares about biblical illiteracy in the church today, since (1) it is nearly impossible to define and (2) those who supposedly have it don’t act any more (sometimes less) like Jesus than those who don’t.

Let’s look at one more article.

biblical literacy

Is Biblical Illiteracy a Crisis?

Biola University published an article saying that biblical illiteracy was a crisis. They said it was because we spend too much time on TV, movies, social media, and video games.

Yes, we humans waste a lot of time. No argument from me there.

But I am not sure that Bible study is a good substitute. I often think that maybe Bible study is the biggest waste of time, because we think it is what God wants us to do, when really, He wants us to get out there and love others. And guess what? Loving others requires us to learn something about the life and culture of the people we want to love. So in one sense, watching TV and spending time on social media might be a good use of our time, because such activities allows us to engage with our neighbors and co-workers in activities and discussions that are meaningful to them.

By spending time with others where they are at, we can learn to love and minister and serve those in our families, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

I work at a secular workplace. For the past eight years, I have noticed that the most ineffective Christians are those who know nothing about TV, movies, social media, and video games. But wow do they know their Bibles! And everybody knows that they know their Bibles, because they are always carrying it around and quoting from it and talking about what they learned in church last Sunday. Which is why nobody wants to talk to them, befriend them, or hang out with them.

But I hang out on social media. I watch movies and TV shows. I play games. Why? Well, for one, because such things are fun (*gasp*), but also because I love the people I work with and I love talking about these things with them, and even joining them in these sorts of activities.

TV, movies, social media, and video games is where much of the world resides, and if we want to build relationships with people in this world so that we can show the gospel to them through our lives, we not only needs some understanding of the gospel, but also some understanding of secular culture and leisure time activities.

Speaking of which, I have such confidence in the power of God and the work of the Holy Spirit as a wind that moves wherever He wills, I am certain that the Holy Spirit is teaching people about Himself through TV, movies, music, social media, and video games. We just have to have eyes to see it. The person with spiritual eyes will see more of the gospel in Harry Potter than the person without spiritual eyes will see of the gospel in the Bible.

So Biblical Illiteracy is not that big of a deal

I will have much more to say about this topic in future posts, but I think you get the point I will be making.

On every day of the week, I will take someone who loves like Jesus even if they don’t know His words over someone who can quote all the words of Jesus but don’t do what He says.

And guess what? Despite what we might hear from some pulpits and read in some books, it is quite possible to do what Jesus says without knowing what Jesus says. I see it all the time. Have you?

What do you think about the issue of Biblical illiteracy in the church today? Is it a crisis? Is it an epidemic? Or are there other and better things to focus on? How would you respond to the points by Ed Stezter above? Weigh in below!

God is Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: bible reading, Bible Study, biblical illiteracy

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Reading the Bible Literally

By Jeremy Myers
49 Comments

Reading the Bible Literally

reading the bible

I take the Bible seriously, but a literal reading of the Bible undermines pretty much everything we do in church…

God is Redeeming Church Bible & Theology Topics: bible reading, church, humor, laugh a little

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What I learned from almost following my GPS to my death

By Jeremy Myers
31 Comments

What I learned from almost following my GPS to my death

Olallie Lake
A friend told us that her favorite place to camp in Oregon was Olallie Lake.

So one Monday morning, my family and I hopped into our Toyota Sienna with all of our camping gear, I plugged Olallie Lake into my GPS, and we were off.

GPSThe GPS said it would take about 3 hours to arrive.

The first two hours of the trip went great. We drove up past Detroit Lake, and took a winding mountain road through luscious forests and cascading waterfalls. Since well all love camping, we were excited with anticipation.

With about twelve miles to go, the GPS told me to take a right hand turn off of the paved mountain road onto a dirt road. Though it was only twelve miles, the GPS said we would arrive in 1 hour. This was no surprise, since one has to drive slower on dirt roads in the mountains.

Five hours later we pulled in to Olallie Lake. Nevertheless, we were relieved to have even arrived. The road which the GPS took us down was nearly impassible. The road was nearly overgrown on both sides, with sometimes little more than two feet of visible road showing through all the brush, branches, and brambles.

Every few feet there were huge potholes or giant rocks which had to be carefully avoided. On the one hand, if our Sienna drove into one of those potholes, I knew it would not get back out, and on the other hand, if we drove over one of the giant boulders in the road, I knew it would rip the underside off our van. There were frequent times where my wife and I had to get out of the van to roll boulders out of the middle of the road.

As we were drove along at 2 miles per hour, we encountered many 4WD vehicles coming back down. Usually, one or the other of us would have to back up to find a place where one of us could pass the other. And without fail, as they passed, the driver of the other vehicle rolled down his window, looked at us in our Sienna van, and told us to turn back. Even they, with their 4WD, could not travel the road ahead.

But we pressed on. In our Sienna. Loaded to the gills. “Our Sienna is from Montana,” we told our girls. “It thinks it is a rugged 4WD pickup.”

At numerous times in those 5 hours, my wife and children had to get out of the Sienna while I crept along the treacherous road, slowly maneuvering around the potholes and rocks ahead of me, while carefully keeping my eye on the precipitous drop-off to the right.

As I look back now, it truly is a miracle that we made it to Olallie Lake.

Olallie LakeYet when we arrived, I was absolutely shocked to discover that there were dozens of cars and campers already there. And most of the cars were the little two-door and four-door sedans you see driving around a major city; none of them could have traversed the road we had just traveled.

I went and spoke to the camp host about how all these other people had made it up such a treacherous road, and he informed me that nobody, absolutely nobody, comes up the road I had taken. When I told him this was the way I had come, he stared at me, and then stared at my Sienna and said, “In that? I am surprised you made it. Why’d you go that way?”

“I followed my GPS,” I told him.

“Yeah,” he said. “A GPS is great for city driving, but once you get out into the hills, it doesn’t know the difference between a good dirt road, and an impassible mountain road which not even a 4WD truck can handle. Don’t follow your GPS when you go home.” He then pulled out a map and showed me the proper way to get home.

We had a great week of camping—probably the best week of my entire life. We saw eagles. We went on hikes. We had deer, ducks, and chipmunks in our campsite. We picked huckleberries. We played games. Talked around the fire. Read books. Went rafting. It was a wonderful week of camping.

And then traveled home. And just as the camp host had said, the road was a beautifully smooth dirt road for a mile or two, and then pavement all the rest of the way home. We made it in less than three hours.

I learned that day that my GPS, my infallible roadmap which I blindly follow around most of the time, was not infallible in all situations and circumstances. By following it, it had actually endangered not only my vehicle, but the life of my family as well.

And it got me thinking.

What else do I blindly follow in life, thinking it is an infallible guide for what I should think and how I should live? Even if this approach is safe 99% of the time, what happens when I follow it that 1% of the time when I shouldn’t, and it leads me down a road from which there is (almost) no return?

the Bible as a roadmapYes, I am talking about the Bible.

Reading, studying, memorizing, and learning the Bible has been my life passion for as long as I can remember. I remember the thrill of getting my own personal Bible in Kindergarten when I learned to read. I remember in high school at the lunch break, going out and sitting in a car to read my Bible for 30 minutes while all my friends went to shoot hoops or take a break. I remember as a pastor, sitting down eagerly every Monday morning to begin the study process of preparing a sermon for the next week.

But a few years back, the Bible I thought I knew led me down a path that almost destroyed my life and my family.

This caused me to step back and reconsider and rethink everything I thought I knew about the Bible, how to read it, and what it means. I have been doing that for six or seven years now.

Some days I think I am getting closer to wherever it is I’m headed; but other days, it feels like I have only just begun. But I believe that if I keep driving down this rock and pothole filled road, I will eventually arrive at Olallie Lake, where I will enjoy the best week of camping of my life.

And I really think I’m getting close.


This post is part of the January 2015 Synchroblog. Here are links to the other contributors.

  • Done With Religion – Looking Back, But Moving Forward 
  • Mark Votava – Learning to Love: Crossing a Decade of Rootedness 
  • Tara at Praying on the Prairie – A Year of New Beginnings
  • Carol Kuniholm – Looking Back, Praying Forward  
  • Mary at lifeinthedport – roaring chickens: how i found my voice
  • Moments with Michelle – The Year that Was: Looking Back at 2014
  • Glenn Hager – Things I Don’t Ever Want to Forget 
  • Michelle Torigian – Looking Back at All the Stuff 
  • Fedex at His Urban Presence – A Year of Changes
  • Charity at His Urban Presence – God is There 
  • Lisa Brown at Me Too Moments for Moms – Lessons from 2014
  • Bram Cools – 2015: Looking Forward, Looking Back 

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: bible reading, Bible Study, Discipleship, family, synchroblog, Theology of the Bible

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Because the Bible Tells Me So… or does it?

By Jeremy Myers
28 Comments

Because the Bible Tells Me So… or does it?

Do you struggle with the Bible? Do you wrestle with what it says, what it means, and how to apply it to your life?

Confession time…

I do.

Here’s another confession….

When it comes to helping me understand what to do with Scripture, Bible college and seminary didn’t help me much. In fact, some days, I wonder if Bible College and Seminary hindered more than they helped.

We have probably all had run-ins with Christians who like to condemn others (or condemn you) by saying, “The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it.”

Okay, here’s another confession…

god said it I believe it that settles itI used to be one of those Christians. I used to preach that very thing.

Anyway, the only thing that Bible College and Seminary really did for me was giving a more “scholarly” way of saying, “The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it.”

We were trained to talk about the Greek and Hebrew, and to reference the cultural, historical, and grammatical contexts of whatever passage were were studying, thereby giving us more and better ammunition against those with whom we disagreed.

In the end though, it all boiled down to the same thing…

Though the uneducated masses say, “The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it!” I could now say, “The Hebrew says this, the cultural background study backs it up, therefore, I believe it, and you better not disagree with me, you ignorant and uneducated worm!”

Anyway, I have begun to try to back away from that sort of approach to Scripture, mostly because it looks nothing like Jesus, and have begun to try to figure out what the Bible is, how it should be used, and how it should be read, taught, and applied to our lives.

The Bible Tells Me So

So it was with great interest that I recently picked up The Bible Tells Me So, by Peter Enns. I had previously read his book, Inspiration and Incarnation, and found it extremely helpful, and so decided to read this newest book of his as well.

The Bible Tells me So

As with everything Dr. Enns writes, this book was full of deep insights and helpful ideas about the nature and authority of Scripture. What surprised me most about this most recent book, however, was the keen sense of humor that was displayed on every page. There were numerous places where I laughed out loud at what I was reading. Dr. Enns has a very good sense of humor!

Humor is important for a book like this, where so much of what is foundational to many forms of modern Christianity is being challenged.

In The Bible Tells Me So, Peter Enns attempts to present an approach to Scripture which allows for us to accept that it has historical and scientific errors and that it contradicts itself at various places, and yet still retain the Bible as an important witness to the theological and spiritual struggles which were faced by our forefathers in the faith, and more importantly, as a historical document about the life of Jesus and how the death and resurrection of Jesus resulted in the transformation of the first century mediterranean world.

Reading over that paragraph again, I am pretty sure that Peter Enns would not agree with how I phrased everything in there…

…Maybe it is best to say this: Peter Enns wants us to stop agreeing with the Bible in everything it says, and instead, begin arguing with God about what is in the Bible. That, he says, is the purpose of Scripture. He says that if the Bible teaches us anything about God, it is that we learn about God and develop a relationship with Him, not by simply accepting everything the Bible says, but by actually engaging with God in a spirited (both senses of the word are intended there) discussion about the Bible.

In other words … don’t be this guy…

wrong approach to Scripture

Frankly, I really, really like this approach, because (as you may know if you have been reading my blog for the past six years or so), this is all I have been able to do with Scripture for the past decade or so. Despite all my training and education, I still cannot make heads or tails of the Bible. If Peter Enns is right, this is exactly how God wants it!

Though not directly stated anywhere, Peter Enns appears to be a proponent of the idea that the Bible is a library of books written by various authors from various theological perspectives, who are in dialogue with each other over the nature of God and what the human response to Him should be. Others who hold this view say that rather than the Bible being “uni-vocal,” it is “multi-vocal.” That is, rather than speaking with one voice on various topics and subjects, there are numerous voices, and sometimes they disagree with and even contradict one another.

In The Bible Tells Me So, Peter Enns begins by showing that most of the traditional approaches to the Bible don’t match up with what the Bible actually appears to be. Following this, he goes through several sections of the Bible, forcing us to read it and see it in a way that you probably won’t hear in most seminaries, churches, or home Bible studies. Then, the book concludes with some explanation of how Jesus, Paul, and the apostles used Scripture, and what we should do with the Bible as it is. 

Frankly, this book is going to require a second read for me, and I plan on reading it out loud to my wife. She is a better theologian than I am, and I trust that she will have discernment to see the right (and wrong) with what Peter Enns has written. I figure that if he invites us to argue with God about the Bible, he will not mind too much if my wife and I argue with him…

For now, though, here is my one main reservation about what Peter Enns has written (I have many reservations about the book …. please don’t read my review as a glowing endorsement)…

The problem with the approach of Peter Enns in The Bible Tells Me So is not so much in what he says, but in the logical ramifications of what he says.

For example, he says that the Bible teaches us about Jesus (p. 237). But does it? If large chunks of Scripture are stories that have been fabricated to answer the pressing social and theological questions of the author’s day (pp. 75, 94, 105, 107-130, etc.), why could this not also have been true about the stories of Jesus? This is especially true if the Gospel authors were not actually eyewitnesses to Jesus (as Enns believes – p. 78).

Ultimately, if Enns is right, the Bible is little more than the best-selling piece of historical literature of all time. Is it inspiring? Yes! Interesting? Sure! Can it guide us in our own life and with our own questions? You bet! Is it life changing? It can be. But is it really from God? Not so much.

the bible tells me soLook, this approach to Scripture is way better than the fundamentalist approach where we carry out all manner of atrocities in Jesus’ name. But I just struggle with having a Bible like this. If Enns is right, what sets the Bible apart from other religious books? How can it be authoritative at all? How can it be reliable or trustworthy in what it says about anything?

In the end, I highly recommend you buy and read The Bible Tells Me So. I recommend it, not because I agree with everything that is written (though in time, maybe I will!), but because the book made me think. This is the best kind of book! I like books that make me think, even when I disagree.

Hmmm…. maybe that is what the Bible is after all….

Until then,  what sort of issues do you have with Scripture? Do you think that the approach of Peter Enns (according to my woefully inadequate summary above) could provide a way of escape from your problems with the Bible? Or do you think his approach simply creates more (and greater) difficulties? Let me know in the comment section!

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: bible, bible reading, Bible Study, books, Books I'm Reading, Theology of the Bible

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