The Bible says! The Bible says! Over and over, we hear this from Christians and their leadership. It is often used in a manner to cut off all further discussion or comment on some issue. What I have often noticed is when some say this the Bible does not even say or support their paraphrased quote. I remember someone telling me the Bible is against bi-racial marriage. Really? Where does the Bible say this? Where is even race of any kind mentioned?
On the other hand, there are those who dismiss the Bible as fantasy, as fairy tale, and find it irrelevant. Really? A book where there are stories of murder, lust, scheming, torture, death, evil seeming to have the upper hand? The Bible to me, at times, seems more like the front page of a newspaper (or these days news website) than fantasy or fiction.
I wonder if we approached the Bible with this question in mind, how we might see the Bible’s relevance and authority for us: “How does the Bible seem to understand human life in this world?” Might this change our perspective a bit?
Of course, we need to lift our sights quite a bit. The Bible is more than about us and our lives. It is about God and God’s record of relating to God’s people and God’s world. It is a continual saga of God hanging in there with God’s rebellious people. It is a series of stories of failure, alienation, rebellion, and redemption. Shakespeare might be able to spin better prose, but he could not improve upon many of the story lines. In fact, I tend to see the Bible as having more in common with Tom Sawyer, Catcher in the Rye, and other such books that seem to understand some aspect of human life so well.
If I were to sum up the Bible in a single word, it would be “authentic.” It is an authentic depiction of human life long ago and today. It is the Bible’s authenticity that gives the Bible its authority. It is the Bible’s depiction of human life and a God that won’t let go of that life that makes it authoritative.
The Bible is not a law book, though many laws and expectations by God for human living are in it. Neither is it a warm and fuzzy book, which we also many times like to quote, that says all will be well. It is a picture for today of how God enters into human life often and especially at its worst and works to redeem it.
The Bible says. Yes, the Bible says God is a loving God, relating to God’s rebellious people in love.