One of the trademark beliefs of CC is that the Bible is the complete Word of God. They say that all of what you need to know about the Christian life and how to get closer to God is given by the Bible. In fact, most members of CC will say that God wrote the Bible directly. From my knowledge and reasoning, all of this seems to be incorrect.
The meanings and definitions belonging to words on a page are very dependent on your personal experience and prior knowledge. This is a basic concept. A person can't possibly decipher the parable of Jesus feeding the five-thousand if he has been living in an arid desert all his life, a place completely devoid of fish. In addition, much of how we interpret the Bible is based upon what we've learned throughout history outside of the Bible. Just go online and look at the numerous apologetics and theological studies about the Bible written on web pages -- it relies on archaeological evidence and background knowledge about Jewish and Greek culture and other outside historical knowledge. Open any book on the history of the world, and chances are most of what you'll find was hardly mentioned in the Bible.
Science and mathematical textbooks are also an interesting topic to add to this discussion. If teachers in the private Christian schools teach that it is only the 66 books that will sustain you, and that that is all you need, why teach science and mathematics? There are hardly any science or mathematical principles taught in Scripture. But, these principles are still the truth -- and we believe in them, even if the Bible leaves those things out.
So what do I currently believe about the modern Bible? It's hard to know at times...but there are some overarching patterns I've noticed about the world (specifically the CC sect of it) and their approach to it. This is why it's confusing: there are more than one version to the Bible, each one teaching different things and each one leaving out certain scriptures. Which one is correct? Also, after reading some apologetics outlining the Bible's origins, a lot of the choices made of whether or not to leave out certain books of the Bible (e.g., the Apocrypha) seem to me to have been based upon "authority figures" instead of God himself. It seems to me that the decisions were based on faith in man, instead of faith in God (or by labeling these men as God, which is close to blasphemy). In addition, there are many different denominations of Christianity, some waging wars against one another due to their different interpretations of the Bible, even though they all refer to themselves as "Christians." The reason for this? To me, the answer seems to be "different experiences and ways of seeing life." Consequently, this also causes people to "pick and choose" what they want to believe about the Bible -- to take the Bible literally at times, whereas other times (especially when contradictions are proposed to them), to say, "Look at the verse in context," or "Given knowledge about the Apostle Paul's personal life, that verse means something different."
Because of this, it seems like a lot of the Bible is what we make it to be. And it also seems to me that knowing God happens with both learning about the lives of those in history (and the ones around us) and going through personal experiences -- just living life every day, seeking to know Him more instead of merely going to words on a page for an encounter with God. We can learn many great lessons from the Bible, sure, and without the manuscripts upon which it relies we might not be aware of Jesus Christ. However, if we experience life always asking the question, "Is that in the Bible?" we'll never learn or experience anything more than what we already know or have experienced. It is life itself, your personal experiences and knowledge, and your attitude that makes the Bible spring to life. Without those things, you're just reading words on a page with no meaning or weight to them. Words are symbols that reference certain emotions, spiritual states, concepts, or personal experiences. To me, the Bible is just that -- it's a collection of spiritual diaries, documents, and letters of men who were very close to God (as they have much to say about Him and the life-giving experiences they've had). But to say that they are God is having faith in man instead of God, not to mention, like I said earlier, blasphemy.
It's illogical to reason that the word "inspiration" or "moved" as mentioned in the verses II Timothy 3:16 and II Peter 1:16-21 respectively mean the same things like the words "direct revelation" or "written." To me, "inspiration" means just that: inspiration. Much as a great tragedy in real life (like the death of a loved one) inspires a playwright to write a sad play, so does God with man when he's inspiring authors to write the stories and concepts found in the Bible. God is the reason they write, but it's not Him writing it per se (like the deceased love one not writing the sad play). In a case like this, that would mean that all the things the authors of the Bible did was God directly doing them, and thus we could reason that all of us, if we would document our spiritual lives the same way, are being God. I don't see it this way -- I see it as God giving them (and also us) the life and the inspiration to do the things we do. But He's not actually doing them for us. God gives us the experiences in real life (if we choose to see them or accept them). It is we who write about them and interpret the way we do. God will remain God, man will remain man.
In this light, it is thus logical to conclude that there are more works out there documenting experiences with God -- not just the Bible itself. Works written by historians, scientists, priests, pastors -- even writers of autobiographical works -- these are all major contenders of God's Word. If God inspired the Book of Romans, He also inspired The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. To members of CC, the latter book might not seem to be inspired by God due it's lack of the word 'God', but if leaving out the word 'God' is the sole basis for making a work "non-Christian," then that must mean the Song of Solomon was written by Satan. I'm not saying that all works are inspired by God (some are very good expressions of a lack of God in the author's life) -- but The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People brings life to those who read it. And we all know who the giver of life is, right?
In short, the Word of God consists of more than just 66 books, much as the fully documented life of Jesus would span thousands of volumes according to the Gospel of John. We can read God's Word not only by reading the NIV Bible but by exploring the world around us and learning about other people, by learning about different places and cultures. We can learn more about God by doing research in a given field, or reading a history book. To say that in all cases a person who doesn't read the Scriptures very often is farther away from God than a person who reads the KJV Bible every single day of his life, is very, very inaccurate.
In fact, I question the spiritual validity of those who solely read the Bible but don't experience much else in life, other than reading words on a page.
Why? Because the words will lack definition.
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