The Late Great Holy Scriptures
In Defense of the Faith
Monday, September 29, 2014
Wendy Wippel
Peter Enns, (who claims to be a Christian) wrote the book: The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It. Why can’t “we” read it? Because “like a knockoff Chanel handbag: it’s believable only as long as it’s kept at a distance, away from curious and probing eyes.”
Enn’s biography says that he was trained as an evangelical and taught at Westminster theological seminary. But the further he studied the Bible, the more he found himself confronted by questions that “could not be answered within the rigid framework of his religious instruction”.
Enns goes on to say that its “murky beginnings” involved ancient stories and poems, written by obscure peoples in one tiny corner of the world, but despite that, translated into hundreds of different languages, it has topped the list of book sales consistently for years.
But according to Enns, its got a problem. Actually multiple problems.
Don’t get me wrong, Enns claims to love the Bible because he meets God on its pages. And he prophesies that, despite its problems, the Bible will hang around, because it’s the go-to book for comfort and spiritual insight.
The problem, according to Enns, is that WHAT we have been taught IS that the Bible is truth, sent straight to us from heaven. (Enns says “downloaded from heaven”) and that we are taught to defend it as such.
But that dog don’t hunt, because according to Pete, the Bible doesn’t read like a Holy book should.
In fact, Pete says, it misbehaves. It doesn’t give you straight answers, and it leaves you with an awful lot of questions.
Exhibit A: In Enn’s book (or his stunted view of the Bible) are those ridiculous stories in Genesis and Exodus. They “read more like scripts for a fairy tale”.
Adam and Eve with magical talking serpents? God speaking face to face with mankind? Seas parting? People turned into salt? Fire coming out of the sky?
Pete postulates that if we read these kinds of stories in documents from other ancient cultures we would dismiss them out of hand, but because they are in the “Holy Bible” we know we should believe them so we pretend to despite their obvious mythological nature. “It’s not supposed to read like the SyFY channel”, Enns says, asking, “what are we supposed to do with a Bible like this?”
Actually we do read these kinds of stories coming out of other ancient cultures and indication of their common origin in history. But maybe that’s not what he studied as an “evangelical” at Harvard.
Exhibit B: And then there’s the Law. So out of touch with real spirituality, Pete says, that we don’t know “whether we should it seriously or just move along without making eye contact.”
The law is barbaric and racist and sexist and well, just not tolerant or inclusive.
Like rules that ban disfigured individuals from the priesthood. “Strictly speaking, Pete complained, the Americans with Disabilities Act is unbiblical”.
That’s the reason, he says, that nobody every reads or teaches the Old Testament anymore. You just don’t know what to do with the barbarism, the vulgarity, the vindictive nature of God, and the Semitic ethnocentrism of the text. Sodom and Gomorrah? The Flood? The Egyptian Army? The occupation of Canaan?
All so completely contrary to today’s smug political correctness. If we read this anywhere else, Pete says, “we would call it genocide”. For much of Israel’s history, warfare with other nations was as common as football in October, and defeating Israel’s enemies wasn’t a necessary evil but brought God glory and honor. And when provoked, God wasn’t bashful about killing or plaguing his own people. The God of the universe often comes across like a tribal warlord.”
“What are we supposed to do with a Bible like this?” he asks, “What are we supposed to do with a God like this?”
Don’t worry, he has an answer. Since “taking the Bible seriously …can generate more than its share of uh-oh moments” it’s time to come clean and admit the problem.
The stress, he says of knowing that the Bible is seriously flawed but still pretending that we can believe it is making us tense, aggressive and nasty. (Don’t ask me.)
We have to admit our doubt. Pete believes that God never meant for us to have to “be in constant crisis, in a stress-reduction mode of having to smooth over mass floods, talking animals, or genocide.” He doesn’t want us to “ live our lives wringing our hands over how to make the Bible behave itself, expending energy 24/7 to make the Bible into something it’s not, and calling that “serving God.”
Nope. The answer is to change our expectations of the Bible. It’s not actually revealed truth, so that makes it not a problem to be defended or fixed.
It’s an invitation to a spiritual journey. One where we embrace the “troubling” places where the Bible has supposed conflicts with modern history and science. And above all, where the Bible seems to represent a different morality and worldview than the “tolerant and inclusive” mantra of our modern culture.
But, hey, does that really mean that it is no longer "inspired?" Pete asks.
Not at all.
It is, but just not divinely. In fact, he chides those of in traditional Christianity for even thinking that it was. (Pete entitles his blog on the Huff Post “Free the Bible”, as in free it from our expectations of being divinely inspired). Claiming that the Bible is divinely inspired, when any fool that digs into it can see from the multiple errors/fantastic stories/conflicting statements that it is not, is not spiritually productive.
And in a dizzying burst of convoluted thinking, Pete then goes on to say that those of us who believe in divine inspiration need to realize that “we are not free to create a Bible we would like. What the Bible looks like is God's call. Accepting that Bible, the one that exists, is the beginning of true faithfulness to God and submission to His Word. Once we free the Bible from these unnecessary shackles, we allow it to once again to be what it was designed to be. Not something we go to as an index guide for absolute truth but which points us to the source of truth, inspiration, and hope.”
My, my, my. I don’t even know where to start.
First of all, despite the fact that Pete asserts that the Bible never claims to be truth or divinely inspired, it does. John says, “Your word is truth” (17:17), and Timothy says that all Scripture came from the inspiration of God. (II Timothy 3:16)
And obviously the Bible plays a part in our spiritual journey, but I don’t think that first step is deciding that it was all a lie. In fact, God describes our spiritual journey in John 5:24: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (NKJV)
Sounds to me like the journey starts with reading it and believing what it says. And it’s a pretty short journey. Kind of like in the twinkling of an eye.
Finally, if you don’t think that the Bible is true, why take it seriously at all? Why spend all that time reading and contemplating and blogging about it?
If I was his life coach, I would say Pete, get a life! Take up golf. Yoga. Go fishing.
Something.
I just don’t get it.
What was it that John also said? “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12)
I know there are probably bigger things to worry about right now but this depresses me more than Ayatollahs with nuclear weapons, Ebola, ISIS, Al-Qaeda OR Khorasan.
This is the face of the new evangelical, and from where I sit it feels like we are about to be outnumbered. And I am fairly sure you all feel like that too.
But we know that this is prophesied (Jesus wondered if there would still be faith on the earth when He returned) and we know God’s still in control (even when lawlessness increases at a staggering pace).
So I leave you with this:
The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted.
And this: “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.”
(Hebrews 10:37)
Pete says that the Bible has been around in one form or another for twenty-five hundred years or so, and, by anyone’s standards, it’s had quite a run.
But apparently it’s time to move on.
I don’t know about moving on, but I’m expecting to move up any day now.
That’s a fantastical promise out of the Bible I read.
http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=7898
Subject: The Late Great Holy Scriptures 
Tue Sep 30, 2014 8:46 am
