{"id":6566,"date":"2011-08-20T10:00:43","date_gmt":"2011-08-20T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=6566"},"modified":"2011-08-19T20:07:49","modified_gmt":"2011-08-20T00:07:49","slug":"bible-made-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bible Made Impossible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Christian<\/p>\n

In light of my recent series on the the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, someone wondered if I had read The Bible Made Impossible<\/em><\/a>\"\"\u00a0by Christian Smith.<\/p>\n

I had not heard of the book, and so obtained a copy. What a fantastic book! Either Christian Smith has been reading my notes, or I have been reading his. This book will\u00a0go onto my Burning Books<\/a> list.<\/p>\n

The Problem of Biblicism<\/h2>\n

In Part 1, Smith spends four chapters talking about the problems of “biblicism.” Biblicism\u00a0consists of the\u00a0constellation of beliefs and practices surrounding the way most Christians in the United States view and use the Bible. Among other concepts,\u00a0biblicism contains the ideas of the Bible as the inspired Word of God, the inerrancy of Scripture, the ability of anyone to read and understand Scripture, the inductive method of Bible study to find the universal truth within Scripture, and above all, the idea that the Bible contains all the truth we need for Christian belief and practice.<\/p>\n

Christian Smith shows convincingly that the goals and claims of biblicism have not worked, and so it is an impossible\u00a0way of viewing and reading Scripture. It has great ideas and goals, but it just doesn’t work.<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/a>His primary evidence for this is the wide diversity in opinions on all theological and practical matters among those who hold to biblicism. The claim is often made that we agree on the major issues, and only disagree on the minor. But this is demonstrably false, as Christian Smith shows.\u00a0There is almost no agreement on any single issue.<\/p>\n

The goals of biblicism have failed, and so biblicism as a way of approaching Scripture is false.<\/p>\n

The Way to Read Scripture<\/h2>\n

In Part 2, Christians Smith goes on to provide three suggestions for helping us view, read, and study the Bible in a way that allows for the complexity of Scripture while maintaining its authoritative role in our lives.<\/p>\n

Two of his best points was that\u00a0we must read everything in Scripture as pointing to Jesus Christ, that the complexity and ambiguity of Scripture must be accepted and embraced. About both of these points, Smith writes that<\/p>\n

All Scripture is not clear, not does it need to be. But the real matter of Scripture is clear… that God in Christ has come to earth, lived, taught, healed, died, and risen to new life, so that we too can rise to life in him. On that, the Bible is clear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I believe that in time, this will become the prominent view of Scripture. It is becoming increasingly obvious to more and more people that the way we have viewed and used Scripture for the past 500 years is severely deficient. But what Scripture does provide, it provides amazingly well, if we can learn to read it properly.<\/p>\n

Scripture is not clear on how <\/em>we continue the work of Jesus in our life, or what it will look like, but that is where the ambiguity, flexibility, freedom, and creativity of Scripture come in.<\/p>\n

If you want to be challenged about how you read the Bible, and how to use it, I highly recommend\u00a0The Bible Made Impossible<\/em><\/a>\"\".<\/p>\n

FTC Disclaimer: This book was sent to me for review by Brazos Press.<\/h6>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Bible Made Impossible” shows how the traditional view of Scripture is cannot provide the accurate and authoritative truth which it promised. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13],"class_list":{"0":"post-6566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-books-im-reading","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Bible Made Impossible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""The Bible Made Impossible" shows how the traditional view of Scripture is cannot provide the accurate and authoritative truth which it promised.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Bible Made Impossible\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""The Bible Made Impossible" shows how the traditional view of Scripture is cannot provide the accurate and authoritative truth which it promised.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Redeeming God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-20T14:00:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-20T00:07:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"264\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"191\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"headline\":\"The Bible Made Impossible\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-20T14:00:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-20T00:07:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/\"},\"wordCount\":544,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Books I'm Reading\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible Made Impossible\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-20T14:00:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-20T00:07:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"\\\"The Bible Made Impossible\\\" shows how the traditional view of Scripture is cannot provide the accurate and authoritative truth which it promised.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg\",\"width\":\"264\",\"height\":\"191\",\"caption\":\"Christian Smith\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Bible Made Impossible\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\",\"name\":\"Redeeming God\",\"description\":\"Liberating you from bad ideas about God\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\",\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeremy Myers\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. He is a popular author and blogger and often gives away free eBooks to his blog subscribers.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/redeeminggod\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Bible Made Impossible","description":"\"The Bible Made Impossible\" shows how the traditional view of Scripture is cannot provide the accurate and authoritative truth which it promised.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Bible Made Impossible","og_description":"\"The Bible Made Impossible\" shows how the traditional view of Scripture is cannot provide the accurate and authoritative truth which it promised.","og_url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/","og_site_name":"Redeeming God","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","article_published_time":"2011-08-20T14:00:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-20T00:07:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":264,"height":191,"url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeremy Myers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@redeeminggod","twitter_site":"@redeeminggod","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Myers","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Myers","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"headline":"The Bible Made Impossible","datePublished":"2011-08-20T14:00:43+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-20T00:07:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/"},"wordCount":544,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg","keywords":["Books I'm Reading"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/","name":"The Bible Made Impossible","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg","datePublished":"2011-08-20T14:00:43+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-20T00:07:49+00:00","description":"\"The Bible Made Impossible\" shows how the traditional view of Scripture is cannot provide the accurate and authoritative truth which it promised.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bible-made-impossible-image.jpg","width":"264","height":"191","caption":"Christian Smith"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/bible-made-impossible\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Bible Made Impossible"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/","name":"Redeeming God","description":"Liberating you from bad ideas about God","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c","name":"Jeremy Myers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeremy Myers"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. He is a popular author and blogger and often gives away free eBooks to his blog subscribers.","sameAs":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","https:\/\/x.com\/redeeminggod"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}