Liberating you from bad ideas about God
Stop relying on pastors and Bible teachers to tell you what the Bible means.
Read this book and learn to study the Bible for yourself. Available now on Amazon.
The book discussion questions with each chapter to make it perfect for a home study group. There is also a LONG appendix on how to understand the violent passages in Scripture.
Be careful not to quote too much Scripture to an atheist… because he or she may start quoting Scripture right back! There are a lot of verses in the Bible that seem downright, well, anti-biblical. Or at least anti-christ.
You know… verses about killing babies, marrying girls you raped, and slaughtering all your enemies (including their cows and sheep).
Would Jesus command such things? I don’t think so…
Have you ever seen this video? Watch it and follow the instructions carefully…
If you’ve seen the video before, you know what to look for, but if you have never seen the video, you might have been shocked at what the end of the video revealed…
I think that sometimes, the way we read the Bible is similar.
We have been taught by books, pastors, seminaries, and Christian friends for so long to read the Bible a certain way and look for certain truths in Scripture, that when someone comes along and says, “Yeah, but did you notice the gorilla in the text?” we reject such an interpretation and say, “No! That’s not there! I have read and studied the Bible for years and have sat through countless sermons, and since I have never heard that idea before and no pastor I have listened to has ever brought that up, it must be wrong! I went to seminary and never heard that in any class!”
And yet, maybe we missed what is really going on in the text because we have been counting the number of times people in white t-shirts pass the ball around. Just as we only see in a video what we are told to look for, so also, maybe we only see in the Bible what we are told to look for.
Maybe I’m only talking about myself.
For the past 7 or 8 years, I have been struggling with Scripture. Some days it almost literally feels like I am wrestling with the Bible. There is all my theological education on one side, screaming at me “Count the number of times the people in white t-shirts pass the ball!” and then there is a still, small voice over on the side saying, “Yes, but did you notice … ?”
I’m trying to notice. I really am. But it is so hard to retrain the mind to see and hear something else.
I was reading The Magician’s Nephew to my daughters last night, and there is a part in the story after Digory, Polly, and Uncle Andrew witness the creation of Narnia where C. S. Lewis explain why Digory and Polly could understand what the Narnian animals were saying but Uncle Andrew could not. It all began when Aslan was singing Narnia into existence and Uncle Andrew convinced himself that the lion was not actually singing, but was only growling. From there, Uncle Andrew’s logic carried him the rest of the way, so that by the time he is surrounded by curious Narnian animals, all he sees is dangerous, brutish beasts who want to eat him. Lewis says that by that point, it would have been impossible for Uncle Andrew to have ever hear the animals talking.
As I read this, I felt like I was Uncle Andrew. There are things I feel like I have believed for so long about God and the Bible, that I am not sure I could ever un-believe them, simply because I have believed them for so long. Try as I might, and despite all the people speaking into my life (and even the still small voice of God), I find it extremely difficult to believe something other than what I have believed my entire life.
Like what?
I’d rather not say.
Last time I wrote about some of the things I was having questions about, I lost my job…
That’s why for now, on this blog, I am going to have to steer away from my series on the violence of God and write about something I feel a little more confident about.
Namely, Calvinism.
I ran a survey earlier this week, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Over 98% of you want to know more about Calvinism, and specifically, why I am NOT a Calvinist. So, I am going to start that series on Monday.
Just so you know, however, I will still be trying to see the gorilla in the text. I will try to believe what some have been whispering to me, that “animals talk” and that the Lion is not going to eat me.
I have a long and varied history with Bible software packages. I like the idea of Bible software, but have often had trouble finding one that works well with my thought flow and study habits. A while back, I even wrote a complaint about QuickVerse.
So when I recently decided to give Logos a try, I was a little hesitant to use it. But I must say that I was quite pleased and surprised at how easy Logos Bible software was to use, and also how powerfully it helped my study, research, and writing routines.
To show you some of what I mean, here is a 15 minute video I made with some of the abilities of Logos Bible software that I am really pleased with.
Another thing I like about Logos Bible software is that every month or so, they make one of their books available as a free download. I think I have downloaded the last four or five books, and I am looking forward to getting some more free books from Logos in the future.
This month’s free book is Spirituality of the Psalms by Walter Brueggemann.
If you are thinking of buying some resources from Logos Bible Software, make sure you use this discount code to get 15% off your order:
There’s a “5” on the end there… don’t leave that off!
Yes, if you make a purchase using that code, Logos will pay me a bit of money as a “Thank you” for referring you to them, but that is not why I am recommending this software. I do not recommend anything I do not use myself or find helpful in my own studies, research, and writing. I recommend Logos because I think they have the best Bible study software available today.
Maybe it’s just me, but I seem to be running into more and more ignorant Christians who seem to think that the best way to learn theology is to not study it. When challenged on any of their theological beliefs, their only real defense is, “God revealed it to me.”
Here is how these discussions often go:
Ignorant Christian: I disagree with what you taught from the Bible today. You are wrong about _____.
Me: Well, I make no claim to infallibility. It is possible I am wrong. Why do you think so?
Ingorant Christian: Because you obviously haven’t read the Bible. If you had, you would know about Passage X, Y, and Z, which say this: (They then proceed to quote several verses to me from the Bible. I call this Shotgun hermeneutics.)
Me: I am actually quite familiar with those texts, and have studied them extensively. I just simply understand them in a different way than you do.
Ignorant Christian: Well, your way is wrong.
Me: Again, that is possible. Besides, I forgot that you are smarter than I am, and have more education than I do.
Ignorant Christian: Oh, you’re mocking me now? I may not have gone to Bible college or Seminary, but I know the Bible just as good as you do. In fact, it is at Bible college and Seminary that you learned all your heresies.
Me: Undoubtedly so. But tell me, where did you get your learning from? What books have you read? What teachers do you listen to? How did you gain the Bible knoweldge you have?
Ignorant Christian: I learned it all on my own. I don’t read any books except the Bible and don’t listen to any teachers except the Holy Spirit. Jesus has taught me everything I know about the Bible.
Me: Wow, I wish I was that spiritual… So have you ever been wrong in anything you believed?
Ignorant Christian: No, God wouldn’t teach me lies. Everything I learn from God is 100% accurate.
Me: …So you’ve never been wrong about anything?
Ignorant Christian: Of course I have! Just nothing God taught me. If I am wrong about something, I trust that God will teach me the truth as I study Scripture, pray, and listen to the instruction of the Holy Spirit. I don’t need human teachers or human books to teach me the truth.
Me: I see… So why are you correcting me again?
Ignorant Christian: Because you’re wrong.
Me: But you’re human, right?
Ignorant Christian: Of course. What are you saying?
Me: Well, you just said that everything you believe you learned from God through the study of Scripture and the instruction of the Holy Spirit, and that you don’t listen to human teachers or read human books, and yet here you are, a human, trying to instruct and correct me… It seems that if you really believed what you say, you would trust God to teach and correct me the way He teaches and corrects you.
Ignorant Christian: But you don’t believe God does that.
Me: I didn’t say that… I guess I’m just confused. You don’t want human teachers to teach and correct you, but you, as a human, want to teach and correct others?
Ignorant Christian: Because God has taught the truth to me, He has called me to teach that truth to others. And as you were teaching, He revealed to me that I was supposed to correct you.
Me: Well, thank you for being God’s mouthpiece. Please, next time you talk to God, tell Him that I am open to His instruction and correction, and that anytime He wants to correct my theology, He can come speak to me the same way He speaks to you.
Ignorant Christian: You can’t order God around like that! GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED! DON’T YOU KNOW THAT THE UNRIGHTEOUS WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD?!
Me: Ok, this conversation is over. Thank you for voicing your concerns with my ideas. Good bye.
Ignorant Christian: I WILL PRAY FOR YOUR ETERNAL SOUL!
Not all conversations go exactly like that, but that tends to be the genearal direction. My favorite part of these conversations is always that “I only the need the Bible, but you need to listen to me” argument. It is shocking to me how many people I encounter who have that sort of mindset.
Any of you have similar conversations? Maybe you have interactions online with people like this? Share below!
Kregel sent me a copy of What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About: A Survey of Jesus’ Bible, edited by Jason DeRouchie.
By the title, I expected a Christologically-centered survey of the Old Testament, which, frankly, would be a welcome addition to the typical Old Testament survey fare.
Most Old Testament surveys operate under the assumption that what follows later in the Bible (i.e., the New Testament), should not be read back into the Old Testament. So when scholars write about the Old Testament, they primarily seek to understand only what the original human authors and original human audience understood when the text was written.
I do not deny that such studies should be of primary importance for understanding the biblical text. But what such approaches fail to recognize, is that the human authors and audience were not the primary author or audience. Since the Bible is an inspired book, God is the primary author of Scripture, and since He has a view toward the redemption of all humanity from the predicament we find ourselves in, God’s primary intended audience is all people throughout time.
So anyway, I was hopeful that What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About would fill the void that is missing in Old Testament studies, and show us what God meant when He inspired the authors to write the various books of the Old Testament, and how these books point to and were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Ultimately, I was hoping that this book would show us how Jesus Himself read and understood the only Bible He had, namely, the Jewish Scriptures.
The book started off great. The opening chapter by Jason DeRouchie showed how the organization of our modern English Bibles is not the same organization that Jesus would have known, and this opening chapter also showed that the constant and recurring themes of the Old Testament authors are also the constant and recurring themes in the life and ministry of Jesus. Themes such as exile and redemption, the inauguration of the Kingdom of God, and how Christ is the climax of the various covenants were all discussed in this opening chapter. So far, so good.
But then something happened. I am not sure what. The rest of the volume contained summaries of each book of the Bible by various scholars and professors. They presented the main idea of each book, gave a synopsis of the outline and thoughtflow in the book, and discussed some of the major themes. But one thing that seemed missing from nearly every chapter was the one thing that I thought I was reading: the chapters were missing explanations of how these Old Testament books pointed to Jesus or were understood by Him.
For the most part, the rest of the book seemed like every other Old Testament Survey I have ever read.
Maybe DeRouchie as the editor for the book did not adequately explain to the contributing authors what exactly the purpose of this book was. Maybe he figured that having read the opening chapter, we the readers could fill in the blanks for the rest of the book. Maybe the failure was completely on my part to connect the dots between the opening chapter and the chapters that followed. I don’t really know.
So I suppose that when it comes to Old Testament surveys, this one is just as good as any other. It just doesn’t seem to fit the bill of what the cover and the first chapter led me to believe I was reading.
Having said that, however, there is one main reason I cannot recommend this particular Old Testament survey. My complaint will actually be a reason which many people will find this to be one of the best surveys available. My complaint is this: Most of the chapters (including the first one) seemed to focus not so much on pushing the reader toward Jesus Christ, but toward John Calvin.
Sure, Calvin was never mentioned by name (that I recall), but Calvinistic themes were evident throughout the book. Themes such as God’s supremacy and sovereignty, the depravity of man, God’s wrath toward sinners, the redemption of the elect through God’s irresistible grace, and the idea that God’s holiness required a judicial, substitutionary atonement in the form of retributive judgment.
I, for one, am not convinced that this is indeed the way Jesus understood His Bible. I don’t think Jesus was a Calvinist (or at least, held the theology that Calvin and his followers later taught).
If you’re a Calvinist, of course, then you will think this Old Testament survey is great (which helps explain all the Calvinistic endorsement in the front). But if you’re not a Calvinist, then you will frustrated by this survey, as it seems that according to the authors, no matter what happens in the Old Testament, it is done “for the praise of God’s glory.”
In the end, it appears that “What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About” is Calvinsim. Since I am not a Calvinist (nor an Arminian!), I will stick with some of the other Old Testament surveys on my shelf.
