On My Emergence - Part 1

On My Emergence – coming to grips with my own faith
Part 1: Dealing with Scripture

This is the first episode in a series primarily written for myself. As I wade through the waters of my faith, struggling with disillusionment and newfound ways of thinking, I have attempted to categorize some of my biggest issues in writing. Hopefully, this series will help some of you identify, understand, or begin to discuss some of these issues in your own life and faith.

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I’ve recently noticed a change in the way I approach the Bible. It’s kind of hard to talk about without sounding like a heretic, particularly coming from a Bible-Believing-Baptist-Background, but I don’t know how else to begin to understand my new faith. I am realizing more and more each day that the way in which the Bible was taught to me as a youngster has deeply impacted my understanding of God—mainly in a negative way.

THE WHOLE BIBLE
First of all, I will say that I’m not sure if it was childish interpretation or childish teaching that was the problem, but thinking back I realize that the significant foundational assumption behind most Biblical instruction I received was that the Bible contained simple answers for whatever struggles you might face in life. All you had to do was find them. That meant reading, studying, memorizing and applying Bible verses to your life (in quite a formulaic way, I might add). The problem, of course, is that this approach simply doesn’t work, either as a way to read the Bible or to align your life with its truths.

I am discovering that the Bible is a complex story of God’s interaction with humankind—a narrative filled with truth, some of which is straightforward and some of which is subtle. The Bible is not a book of pat answers, an instruction book, or a textbook. To extract one sentence or paragraph and apply it universally—the way I was taught growing up in church—can be dangerous. My favorite example of late is Jeremiah 29:11 which says, “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you…plans to give you hope and a future,” which sounds great when taken out of context. The trouble is that these words were actually a promise made specifically to Israel while in exile in Babylon for 70 years. Does it apply to you and me? Maybe. But if so, what about verse 18? “I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth and an object of cursing and horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them.” Hmm.

What I am slowly coming to grips with is the idea that the Bible needs to be understood in its broadest context, with its original intent and the complexities of its human authors clearly in mind. Jeremiah 29:11 does not necessarily mean that God has a plan for YOU…it means that God had a plan for Israel, and he wanted them to know he wouldn’t forget about them during their Babylonian exile. There is great truth in that, and it can most certainly give us hope today, but that one verse—or any verse, for that matter—is not a simple answer to life’s difficulties.

This new kind of holistic understanding of scripture is coming slow for me, but I’m working on it. I have to say that one of my biggest concerns is that I see so many Christians and Christian teachers who extract and apply verses willy-nilly whenever they seem convenient and/or inspiring. In the process, we lose the narrative and miss important aspects of God’s character and the way he interacts with us.

READING THE BIBLE THROUGH OTHERS
If this is true, then I have much more work to do. I can no longer simply listen to someone else “teach” or “preach” and accept his or her understanding of who God is. The responsibility lies with me to decide if what I am hearing is consistent with what the Bible says about God. More often than not, I find myself comparing what I hear to a version of God or Jesus that is more “cultural” than “Biblical,” primarily because I don’t know what the Bible really says about God. I have, for too long, been viewing God through the lenses of everyone who has ever taught me.

Admittedly, this is a difficult thing to do. We are all shaped and influenced by those who teach and lead us. I am not necessarily advocating rejecting all teachers—I am simply redefining the extent to which I take their perspective to heart. I’ll say it another way. I believe the Bible to be infallible, but I do not, however, believe in the infallibility of those who read, interpret, and teach it (myself included). One of my greatest discomforts is seeing good-hearted Christians following the exhortations of their pastor or favorite radio teacher without examining the scriptural claims for themselves. There is a great deal of misinterpretation being perpetuated by teachers and those who listen without questioning. Far too often I hear the words, “my pastor said” used in a conversation about spiritual things. As a pastor myself, I continually challenged my own listeners to doubt what I taught. Go see for yourself, I told them. If I’m not teaching in accordance with the whole Bible, I’m not worth listening to.

CONVERSING WITH THE BIBLE
Another great area of change for me has been the way in which I interact with the Bible. As many modern evangelicals have been, I was taught to examine the Bible like it was a frog in my 9th grade Biology dissection tray: tear it apart, dig into it with footnotes, cross-references, and concordances. Honestly, I am probably the better for it. Those skills have helped me read and understand scripture in very important ways. Lately, however, I have discovered in a new way what it means to say that God’s word is living and active. To me, a “living word” is something that interacts with you, has dialogue with you and is shaped and formed in a different way each time you encounter it, with the Holy Spirit as teacher—leading, guiding, nudging. Reading the Bible without the Holy Spirit might be a worthwhile academic endeavor, but it won’t help your spirit grow.

Lately I have been enriched by learning about some of the more contemplative approaches to the scriptures. These practices have been around for centuries in churches and monastic communities outside of my tradition, but they are new to me. I am attracted to these disciplines first because of their history and rich tradition, but second because many of them are rooted in a period of Christian history when the Holy Spirit was central to the life of a Christ-follower. The Holy Spirit is in the scriptures, and through silent meditation the words of God wash over me as the Spirit imbeds them into my soul. Reading the Bible has so much more meaning to me now that I am focused on letting it meet me where I am instead of tearing it apart academically.

NOTHING BUT THE BIBLE?
Here is where I start to sound heretical. I was raised in a tradition that relied on the Bible alone for truth. “Sola scriptura” was the one of the cries of the Protestant Reformation. But not long ago I realized the stunningly obvious truth that the idea of “sola scriptura” was impossible unless we had an agreed-upon Canon of scripture. So where did our Canon come from? The answer is that the books of the Bible were slowly, gradually, accepted as inspired until finally the council of Carthage in 387 A.D. sanctioned the 66 books we know today. In other words, the very existence of our Bible is based upon tradition. In my mind, this begged a question: “If tradition is reliable to give us the canon of scripture, can it be reliable in other matters of faith?” Any Catholic will say “of course.” But as a protestant, I was running up against a fundamental aspect of our identity.

This was further put to the test when I was curiously challenged to research the scriptural basis of “sola scriptura.” What little support there is seems to be sketchy at best—certainly not as clear as a Protestant would hope. In addition, the case against “sola scriptura” was equally present and arguable. And for me, that was the end of that. I have decided it is time to begin listening to the tradition of the entire church. God spoke to his people long before the council of Carthage, and he will continue to speak to us, his Church.

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It sort of goes without saying that the Bible is central to one’s understanding of the Christian faith. For me, that’s why this whole “emerging” journey has been so frightening at times. As I reinvent the way I engage scripture, I am shaken to my very core. I find myself sometimes wondering if I am still really a Christian because I am asking such deep-rooted questions. My comfort is that I know there are many others asking the same questions, and we are all doing so in faith. Our hope is to find God deeply, truly, and really.

Comments

[Thomas J. Wilson]

I think it is funny taht you should have started this series when you did, my friend. I have been having discussions with my circle, at times heated, over the infallibility of scripture. I think one of the things that I consistently get to is that YES, i DO think that God was capable and willing to reveal his will to mankind, but with 2-3 millenia of human tampering, transcribing, translating; who can be sure of WHAT God's message originally was. One could contend that God, either miraculously or "providentially" (whatever THAT means)could have preserved "His Word", but if he was going to intervene in THAT way outside the bible, then is it possible that he was continuing to intervene in OTHER ways.

I think the problem is, with the fundamentalist arena with which we grew up in, is that they depend upon an OBJECTIVE approach towards the "Word of God". They sit back and say THIS is it (whatever "THIS" may be). I personally believe that ALL ways of approaching god, of understanding Him are HIGHLY subjective. What I hear you saying is that you are coming to believe that the Bible, or at least UNDERSTANDING the Bible, is subjective as well.

[Barry]

barry writes:

this is so interesting to read, duane. it just underlines for me the extent to which the church we grew up at -- trinity -- was in fact many many churches all under one roof.

the idea that the bible was inspired by god working through people and then preserved and compiled and passed on by god working through people is so second-nature to me that i can't imagine anyone with a similar background to mine being shaken to the core and wondering if they're still a christian for thinking it.

but that's just it: our backgrounds are not as similar as we might think. john & betty tompson and larry & carolyn heitzman and john & pat coventry and clint dunagan are radically different in their approaches to some pretty basic questions. who you had as your sunday school teacher, who you had as your parents, who was your youth minister at a given point -- those are all watershed questions in a church like ours.

all those truisms about baptist life turn out to be true after all.

at any rate, catherine and i will be in prayer for you on this journey.

[Barry]

barry adds:

by the way, *did* you ever have larry heitzman? he had this pet lesson, "refrigerating the gospel," in which he would comically propose slicing up scripture to be placed on your refrigerator. it's a powerful emblem of exactly the thing you're talking about, pulling out bleeding chunks of scripture to be misused however one sees fit.

"refrigerating the gospel:" what a redolent phrase. by cross-stitching our favorite sentences, out of context, and framing them and putting them on magnets, we do indeed refrigerate the mighty flames of gospel truth that could so transform us.

[Cliff Knighten]

Duane,

Thank you for honestly sharing your journey of faith. I have asked and continue to ask many of the same questions. It seems clear to me that many conservative Christian presuppositions about the bible are rooted in the fundamentalist/ modernist controversy in the early 1900's.

The terms that so many of us have viewed as unquestionable dogma, like "absolute truth" and "inerrancy" reflect the specific context of academic and scientific challenges to faith. While these challenges had been brewing ever since the Enlightenment, they came to a head in the early 20th century. Think J.Gresham Machen and Old Princeton theology for example.

Of course, these challenges to faith were and in some cases still are real. Unfortunately, I believe the challenges led many in the church to overreach and make claims for scripture that are found neither in scripture nor the historic Christian tradition.

My personal view is that there is a great deal of fear underlying terms like "absolute truth" and "inerrancy." We have accepted the foundationalist project and sought to ground our faith in the bedrock certainty of "absolute truth." This gives us certitude and confidence that we are right and others are "wrong." I once heard Walter Brueggemann say that he grew up in a church with "acres and acres of certitude."

This is a way of eliminating anxiety and doubt. But I would argue it also eliminates faith. Our security is not in an "inerrant text" but in the one who is "the way, the truth, and the life."

[D.J. Bulls]

Duane...love the blog. I also am wading through an emerging faith, dealing with changes in how I view religion, faith, church, all that stuff! Yet another commonality we share! Love to chat with you about it! Until, tommorow, "urah hanevel, v'chi nor..."

[soupiset]

great post. i resonate. keep writing.

[Matt Norman]

Hey Duane,

Great conversation. I too have found myself on this journey of faith. Stepping out of a false comfort. It is amazing to me how we search and study and construct ideas/thoughts all in the attempt to find God...understand God.

Vincent Donovan writes in his book "Christianity Rediscovered" of a conversation with a Masi worrior about faith and God. The worrior says that we humans think that we are like lions, hunting, stalking, searching for God. When really the lion is God, hunting and stalking us.

Sometimes it hits me that we are so busy hunting for God that we forget to sit still and be overtaken by that which we seek.