Give Me the Bible
I’ve noticed a change in the way people twist the Scriptures.
In the past, people reinterpreted the Bible to suit their preferences. They’d tell us we’re reading it out of context or that the Greek means something other than what our English translations were telling us. Or they’d argue that certain things they didn’t like were cultural trends, not universal norms.
But now the skeptics are just cutting out things they don’t like. They’ll say, “Paul’s words don’t carry the same weight as Christ’s,” or, “The Bible wasn’t meant to be followed as the literal word of God.”
Take, for example, a sermon preached recently in Birmingham by Katie Gilbert, reported in AL.com. Concerning reading the Bible as the literal word of God, she said, “We love you, Bible, just not like that.”
In another strange statement, she said, “We have worked to make sure that we aren’t worshipping the Bible, that we aren’t putting the Bible on a pedestal, over and above the teachings and example of Jesus.” Aren’t the “teachings and example of Jesus” in the Bible? How can you rank the Bible higher than itself?
She accused the Bible of being “full of contradictions” and “inaccuracies.”
But still she sees the Bible as “a dynamic and beautiful book.” How does this so-called preacher read the biblical accounts? “I like to think of them as the stories I grew up on, Aesop’s fables,” she said. So there’s no difference between Noah’s flood and the Tortoise and the Hare?
Those of us raised in the church may be tempted to write off Gilbert’s words as the opinions of a progressive crackpot on the fringe of society, but the statistics tell a darker story.
AL.com reports that in a 2022 Gallup poll, only 22 percent of Americans say the Bible is the literal word of God, down from 24 percent in 2017, and half of what it was in 1984.
Meanwhile, a new high of 29 percent of Americans say the Bible is a collection of “fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man.” That’s a far cry from Paul’s claim in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God.”
Gilbert’s ideas are more mainstream than many of us realize.
I’ll ask some obvious questions. First, why would a preacher spend her time deconstructing the word she was commissioned to preach? Isn’t the preacher’s job to proclaim the word of God?
Also, how can you call a book “beautiful” if it falsely claims to be the word of God? Isn’t deceiving people into thinking something comes from God when it doesn’t one of the ugliest, most dangerous things someone can do?
Finally, how much faith can someone have without belief in God’s word? “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). If you can’t believe the world was created in six days or that God can inspire his word, how can you believe that God raised his Son from the dead? And how can you believe he will raise you when Christ returns?
Without faith in the Bible as God’s word, the church will die. Hope will wither. Christians will give up.
We must teach our children the Bible is God’s word. We must reinforce this truth to all believers.
That’s why this quarter we will be discussing “Give Me the Bible” in our open home meetings. Each lesson focuses on reading the Bible as what it really is—the inspired word of God.
God has spoken, and his words are powerful, living, and active (Heb. 4:12). By renewing our confidence in the Bible this quarter, our faith will grow stronger and our hopes will be revived.
