Elemental Season 1 - Day 22

Does the bible give us a particular type of certainty? And is that what it is supposed to be used for?

The great Protestant tradition, beginning with Martin Luther, has always been a great search for the certainty of correct understanding of scripture to answer the questions that we have about God, ourselves, our lives, and our trajectory. But is the Bible set up that way? Is the Bible the “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” as some say it is supposed to be?

And if this is the case, then why are there so many divisions in the history and reality of Christendom? Why wouldn’t we all be landing on the same set of principles and doctrines to understand God and ourselves better? What do we agree upon, and is that something that can give us a sense of certainty as to what Scripture is really saying?

Why wouldn’t we all simply read the same book, and come up with the same conclusions?

If only it were that simple!

Unfortunately, there are so many different schools of thought as to how we are to read scripture, where scripture came from, and how scripture is used, that we can hardly come to a consensus on much of anything.

Add to this worship style, language, culture, history, and more, and we find ourselves in a pretty confusing morass of decisions and quandaries. How do we sort all of that out?

 I know these are a lot of questions and very few answers, but it is the beginning of the conversation. How are we supposed to even approach the bible so that we might have a better understanding of who God is, and is the Bible even able to be trusted to give us some sort of certainty?

So, what is the Bible?

This video by the Bible Project can help us understand:

https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/what-is-bible/

In fact, I would follow along with the whole series to give you a great understanding of timelines, literary styles, and how the stories hold together. This is a very cool resource.

Let me put this very succinctly.

The Bible can be trusted to be used by God to help inform, to help guide, to help us understand, and to see the values and principles that God would have us live and that define who God is.

However, the Bible is not a book of correct science, a categorically correct history, or a perfect work of God’s voice. Our faith tradition does not include us understanding scripture to be inerrant or perfect. The reason for this, as mentioned before, is that we believe there was a partnership between God and man, and as such, there are sometimes errors that can be admitted to and dealt with.

However, to say that this means the Bible cannot be trusted would be to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and we shouldn’t do that, metaphorically or literally!

More tomorrow.

1. What did you learn about the origins of scripture by watching those videos? 
2. How have you understood the Bible in the past? 
3. Is that understanding changing? Should it change? 
4. How can we still believe in the Bible if it has human hands involved in its origin? 
5. Has the Bible helped you understand God?