Rev. Rodgers: The Bible is Authority, but not without error
For a Christian the Bible represents the God’s message for the world. Scripture boldly proclaims the authority and authenticity of the Bible. In the second Biblical letter written to Timothy in the early church, the great Apostle faithfully records that “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:19-17.) On the basis of this sacred testimony to the validity of Scripture, Christians have long interpreted the Bible as authoritative and absolutely relevant to Christian life. The problem is, many Christians misinterpret the meaning of this passage and unwittingly distort God’s meaning within Scripture.
First, God never wrote the Bible. God inspired it but did not write it. The Bible was written by hundreds of people—mostly, if not totally, by men—as their own personal understanding of how they experienced their relationship with their beloved Creator in their own time and cultural context. As an “inspired” work, the Bible is largely influenced by the working of the Holy Spirit, but such an inspiration need not be understood as anything close to absolute or completely without error, misunderstanding, or personal bias.
If the Bible were so absolute and “inerrant,” there would not be so many diverse and frequent contractions of scripture within Christian theology, practice, doctrine, and worship. Any serious student of the Bible is painfully aware of the reality that there are multiple contradictions within Scripture and that there is no way to authentically take all of scripture seriously without addressing the reality that the Church embraces the passages it likes and frequently glosses over the passages it does not like. This reality is not limited to any single Christian tradition. Christians that are extremely conservative as well as Christians that are extremely liberal both like to embrace and celebrate the passages of scripture that they believe support their own unique definition of that which authentic Christian fidelity must be defined. The ultimate definition of who is “right” and who is “wrong” (or perhaps who is “blessed” and who is “cursed”) is ultimately God’s decision, not that of the church, its doctrine, its dogma, or its worship.
Tragically, many in the church have taken their own preferred interpretation of Scripture—along with its associated doctrine, dogma, and worship—as the absolute definition of who will be loved by God and who will be cursed by God. In turn, whole manifestations of the church have absolutized their own individualistic doctrine as the supreme authority and subsequently condemned, excommunicated, ostracized, and cursed those who experience the Divine in fundamentally different ways. Yet, God is bigger than our own narcissistic experiences of the Divine. All Scripture is truly inspired by God, but it is far from perfect or without error. This is because the Divine inspiration that both created Scripture and subsequently transmitted it throughout time, distance, and language, is also subject to the fallacies of human frailty.
For the Christian to rely only on what the Bible presumably “says” in line with one’s preferred English translation of the Bible is not enough. Christians must also prayerfully and carefully ask, “What does the Bible mean?” In asking this question we must also break free from the political weaponization of the Bible, transcend our own preconceived assumptions of its presumed authority, and beloved attachments to personal theological assumptions. The Bible—filled with errors as it truly is—remains the binding force uniting Christians with diverse experience. Ours is never to worship its presumed perfection. Rather, we are to serve God.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Rev. Rodgers: The Bible is Authority, but not without error
