Preacher, Chris Ayers

EVERYTHING IN THE BIBLE IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD

John 5:39

 

The B-I-B-L-E, that’s the book for me.  (Sing it with me from the beginning.)  The B-I-B-L-E, that’s the book for me.  I stand alone on the word of God, The B-I-B-L-E.

Does anybody know the second verse?  (Sing it for us one time and then repeat it and we’ll join you.)

God’s Word shall never fail, never fail, never fail.  God’s Word shall never fail, never fail, never fail.  No, no, no!

We sang that song with vim and vigor, with spirit and sassiness.  We sang the B-I-B-L-E song in a type of marching, preachy way with bows in our hair and snot running down our noses.  Some of us sang it with our pants flying at half mast waving our little hands at our parents.   And our parents loved it and the Christians loved it and we got our kool-aid and cookies and everybody was happy.  Kinda, sorta.

Our education, our training, our indoctrination about the Bible began early. 

I bet a good many of us engaged in Bible memory verse contests.  If you did, raise your hand. 

John 3:16.  Go on say it with me.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 3:23-------------For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Matthew 22:37-38------------You shall love the Lord your God with all our heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

John 11:35---------------Jesus wept.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We all knew that one.

Bible memory verse contests.  And let’s not forget the infamous, legendary Bible sword drill.   That was an interesting thing to call it, wasn’t it?  Sword drill?  A little Three Muskateers image alongside the Bible.  On guard.  The teacher announced the book, the chapter and the verse and the competition began.  Touché. 

And when we became a Christian, when we got baptized triple-dunked face forward total head/body immersion, we were given a King James Version red letter edition zip up Bible with our name engraved on it in gold letters. 

The Bible.  It is the very Word of God, we were instructed.   God-breathed and God-written.  All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, 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 3:16)  Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.  (Psalm 119:115).

The church taught us early on and repeatedly about the Bible’s centrality and importance.  But what if,----------------what if the Church never really told us the truth about the B-I-B-L-E or only told us a half-truth?  What if the Church practiced censorship, discouraging us from reading the passages that didn’t fit into the four point plans of salvation?  What if the church frowned upon any inquiry we had about anything in the Bible that puzzled us?  What if the church never fessed up about the contradictions within the Bible or the horrific, appalling texts?

Now this is important and I’ll tell you why.  This is important because what we believe about the Bible is directly related to what we believe about God, directly related to what we believe about ourselves.  My sense is an overwhelming majority of Christians read the Bible and because they believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible they end up believing things about God and themselves that simply are not true.  Or put another way, because of their beliefs about the Bible they are not able to discern texts that do not measure up to the revelation we have received in Jesus Christ.  And I don’t know about you, but I’m putting my money on Jesus and what he reveals about God.

I am of the opinion that if the Church is going to be as Christian as God wants it to be, if the Church is going to be what the world desperately needs it to be, then we Christians must start being honest about the Bible, more educated about the Bible, more informed about its content, its contradictions, its tensions, its settings, its cultural contexts, its historical backgrounds.   Honesty.  Can we have a little honesty for God’s sake, for Christ’s sake, for our sake, for the sake of the world, honesty that not all parts of the Bible are the Word of God?

One of the most honest Christians about the Bible I have read is Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer who is the Assistant Professor of Justice and Peace Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.  In his book Jesus Against Christianity, Nelson-Pallmeyer outlines seven troubling images of God found in the Bible. 

Troubling image of God number 1 is the image of a God who orders the murder of disobedient children.

Leviticus 20:1-2a, 9, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:  “Say further to the people of Israel:. . . .All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them.”

Ouch.  We’re talking capital punishment.  Even those folks today who favor capital punishment, and I’m not among that group, but even those folks who favor capital punishment don’t propose capital punishment for disobedient children.   To kill a child for being disobedient is---why it’s overkill. Yeah, we may want to ring their necks, we may want to slap them silly, we may, in a moment of frustration even threaten to send them to Duke, but-----but we wouldn’t want them dead because of their disobedience.

If you as a child were obedient one hundred percent of the time, please raise your hand.  That’s what I thought.  Point made.  Point made.

Leviticus 20:1 is not the Word of God.  Sounds to me more like the word of a parent trying to keep a child in line.

Troubling image of God number 2, the image of a God who uses willingness to murder a child as a test for faith.  Genesis 22:2, 9b-12, [God] said, “Take your son, you only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” . . . He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.  Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.  But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”  And he said, “Here I am.”  He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him,; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Now many modern Christians read that and because they think it is the very Word of God they see nothing wrong with that image of God, but what kind of sick God would put a child through such a test, put Abraham through such a test, and let’s not forget Sarah even though the text forgets her.  I mean, the whole family would have to be in therapy for the rest of their lives.   That’s 90 bucks an hour.  That’s weekly sessions for Abraham, Sarah and Isaac.  That’s $270 per week.  It could add up because it’s not like one or two sessions per person would do the trick.  You don’t get over your Dad coming at with a knife quickly.  You don’t get over your husband taking your son off to kill him quickly.  You don’t get over God asking you to kill your son quickly.

I’ll do a lot of things for God and so will you, but not one of us would ever kill our child as a way of proving our faith. 

Troubling image of God number three, the image of an angry, punishing God.  Do you know someone who is angry all the time, walks around with a chip on the shoulder, constantly looking for some reason to jump on you for?  That image of God is prevalent in over the Bible.  God is constantly finding people to be imperfect and then he gets angry and then he starts destroying, going on a rampage.  God seems to be related to The Hulk, in need of some anger management help.

Genesis 6:13, 7:23, And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. . . .”  He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth.  Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.

As if Noah was righteous.  Nobody, nobody is righteous.  If God has to blot out sin, God has to blot us all out. 

And did you notice God was upset with all the violence on earth?   So God’s solution is to be violent himself?

And did you notice that after all that divine blotting out, all that divine killing, nothing really changed after the flood?  The world was just like it was before, only with a new set of imperfect, sinful people. 

Troubling image of God number 4, the image of God the land thief.  On the surface, giving the Hebrews a promised land seems to be a nice thing to do.  After all, it hadn’t been a picnic in Egypt.  But have you ever realized that the land that God gave the Israelites was inhabited, as in populated.  It’s not like God gave the Hebrews some exotic island in the Mediterranean Sea that had never been discovered.  God gave them land that was the land of others.  In effect, God encourage land thievery. 

Genesis 15, 18-21, On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites,, the Rehaim, the Amorites, the Cannanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”  The author, or authors of Genesis, would have us believe that God could care less about all the “ites”. 

This just in.  God doesn’t care about any of you.  This just in.  God loves me mostest.  God has decreed that I am to have all of your property and wealth.

We read Genesis 15 and we don’t think twice because it’s in the Holy Bible.  We don’t think twice or raise an eyebrow because we aren’t the ones being harmed, we aren’t the ones losing our property because of God.

Listen to me.  Genesis 15 is not the Word of God, it is the word of someone justifying theft.

Troubling image number five, the image of a land-thieving God ordering humans to commit genocide.  You see, the people on the land didn’t believe the God gave us this land story and they didn’t just pull out their property deeds and hand them over.    No, here’s what happened.  Numbers 21, 31-35, Thus Israel settled in the land of the Amorites.  Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they captured its villages, and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.  Then they turned and went up the road to Bashan; and King Og of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.  But the Lord said to Moses, “Do not be afraid of him; for I have given him into your hand, with all his people, and all his land.  You shall do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites. . .”  So they killed him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left; and they took possession of his land.

And they took possession of his land and there was not a survivor left.  Divine genocide!

Numbers 21 is not, is not the Word of God.  To me it sounds like the word of people who would believe anything and do anything to justify land theft.  And that is not anti-Semitic.  Frankly, most of the Jews I know are far more godly than your average Christian.  This is not about putting Jews down or the Old Testament down.  But it is about dealing straight up with the Bible, and that includes the New Testament which has its share of rough spots too.

Troubling image of God number 6, according to Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, is the image of a God who is a Holy Warrior capable of genocide with or without human hands.  Ever head of the Passover meal?  Do you know what it celebrates?  I’ll tell you what it celebrates.  Listen.  Exodus 11:4-6, Moses said, “Thus says the Lord:  About midnight I will go out through Egypt.  Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the first born of the livestock.  Then there will be a loud cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again.”

The Passover celebrates Israel’s deliverance through the divine killing of firstborn Egyptian sons.  And let’s not forget the killing of the firstborn of the livestock. 

Do you remember the scene in the movie  O Brother Where Art Thou where the three escaped prisoners come across Baby Face Johnson, a criminal himself, who is being followed by the Police.  He has just robbed a bank and they are on his tail so Babyface starts shooting his machine gun at the police.  But he isn’t just willing to kill humans.  Seeing a field of cows he starts shooting them to get the herd to block the police.  Alarmed by such an action one of the prisoners says, “He’s shooting livestock.”

What kind of God would kill Egyptian livestock?  What kind of God would kill Egptian sons? 

Troubling image of God number seven, the image of a God who destroys his special people.-----------  Having special people, having favorites, loving some over others is problematic in and of itself, but that point aside, killing your chosen people is almost enough to make you not want to be chosen.

Jeremiah 21:5-6, I myself with fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, in fury, and in great wrath.  And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both human beings and animals, they shall die of a great pestilence. 

Astonishing!  Unbelievable!

If you think that is bad, it gets worse, so worse you may need to cover your ears on this one.

In the book of Lamentations God reduces the people to cannibalism. 

Lamentations 4:4, 9-11, The tongue of the infant sticks to the roof of is mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives them anything.  Happier were those pierced by the sword than those pierced by hunger, whose life drains away, deprived of the produce of the field.  The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of my people.  The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.

Sickening.  Horrific. 

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer makes this observation.  “If we behaved like God often does in the Bible or did what God tells us to do within the pages of the Bible. . . [our behavior] would lead us straight to jail and we would stay there for a very long time. “  To act as God acts we would be considered a criminal and off the map mentally ill. 

Some parts of the Bible are not the Word of God.  I want you to know that not only in your head, but also in your heart, especially in your heart.  And I’ll tell you why.  I know more than a few good Christians, fine people, smart people, who have gotten a lot of their theology straight, but there’s one big hurdle they just can’t seem to get over.  I’ve come across many Christians who can’t shake the idea that God is watching their every move and is ready to pounce on them for each and every sin.  I know some wonderful Christians who believe their misfortunes somehow are tied to or correlated with a God who must punish them and punish them even severely.

The Bible, if it is not read with the revelation of Jesus Christ in mind, the Bible can be very harmful.  It can turn us into people like Saul before he became Paul, people who think they are doing what God wants them to do who, in fact, are doing exactly the opposite of what God would want.   The Bible read without Christ in mind might as well not be read.

But if the Bible is read intelligently, critically, with its historical and cultural background in mind as well as with Christ in mind, if the Bible is read that way, I believe the Bible can be a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path.  The Bible read that way can provide us with wonderful words of life.

This I know.  I know that many church people with the Bible stuffed under their arms can be very unchristian.

But I also know this.  I know that our lives have been hard and our journeys have been rocky.  And I know that the Bible for many of us has kept us in touch with our Rock and our Salvation.  And I know this.  I know the Bible has made me and many other people better than we would have ever been without the Bible.

One example will suffice.  A man that went to Park Road Baptist several years ago read the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and he said, “Well, if Jesus fed 5,000, then I need to feed 5,000.  And early every Sunday morning for several years until he had a heart attack this man made bag lunches for homeless people and brought them to Hope Chapel.

Without the Bible, he wouldn’t have done it.

The Bible can provide us with wonderful words of life.   This morning I invite you to follow Jesus.  Not to believe the Bible is inerrant or infallible, but to follow Jesus.  He’s what it is about.  I invite you to pattern your life after him.  And I invite you to be a part of a community that will encourage you to read the Bible intelligently, critically, and always with Christ in mind.

 

Print in pdf