(Developing a relationship with your Creator is a bit different than getting to know a new neighbor, co-worker, or classmate. Duh! But there are some similarities. For instance, openness to and tolerance for differences, not to mention humility and sincerity, can help grease the relational skids. The following is offered in the sincere belief that God reveals Himself through scripture in tangible ways that are not explainable as wish fulfillment or other psychological “tricks,” yet only if the reader or hearer observes some basic common-sense guidelines.)
Don’t Bite the Book that Feeds You, Part I:
Introduction
If anyone desires to know who God is and what He is like, we Christians point to His dual self-revelation: nature and
the bible. Nature is God’s 24/7 beacon to the entire human race; no one can avoid it, and so it is Exhibit A in the case against those who claim ignorance of God. At the same time, nature’s communication to us is largely passive, outside of lightning strikes, tornadoes, and other displays that re-direct our thoughts to the metaphysical.
Those predisposed against belief in God (all of us!) can convince ourselves — with small encouragement — that the intricacy and intelligence pervading nature is purely accidental. Indeed, nature often has the appearance of randomness; for some, it is only under a microscope that its ingenious design and mind-boggling complexity are plainly evident.
Also, nature’s testimony to God’s existence is limited in scope — while it provides important clues to God’s character, it pales in comparison to the detailed and comprehensive disclosure of God in holy scripture. To really know God, then, we must actively engage scripture with our minds and hearts. We will not apprehend God in the bible – just as we won’t apprehend the meaning of any book – until and unless we permit (and even invite) the author to speak his or her unique message to us.
Jesus often prefaced his teaching by saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” By this metaphor, in which he likens hearing to spiritual receptivity, he challenges his audience’s readiness to consider something completely different from what they were used to hearing from their spiritual masters. He was under no illusion that everyone was prepared, morally and spiritually, to receive His message. Most especially, the “spiritual masters!”
Openness to spiritual truth is an incredibly important component of the discovery of truth: How one approaches the bible – and ipso facto, God – is inextricably tied to a genuine encounter with God. The wrong approach can easily sabotage one’s apprehension of God and doom the pursuit of Him from the outset. God does not operate within cultures and throughout history as we may expect and hope, and thus we must be at least as tolerant and open-minded as is demanded in 21st century America of differing lifestyles. With that in mind, we hereby propose a few guidelines on cultivating “ears to hear.”
Don’t Off-load the Heavy Lifting to Third-Party Cynics
Too often, folks have negative impressions of the bible not due to their own reading, but because of what has been conveyed to them by third-party bible “experts”– including and perhaps especially folks with deep animus to scripture. We all bring our own biases and preconceptions to scripture, but at least they’re our own. Any additional baggage from self-anointed YouTube bible scholars is just as likely to obfuscate as elucidate.
So, should you “take up and read,” as St. Augustine famously did upon the inadvertent promptings of children chanting that phrase in Latin (“Tolle Lege”), we strongly recommend engaging scripture firsthand, at least prior to resorting to third party commentary.
Stay tuned for Part II of “Don’t Bite the Book That Feeds You:” “Go Woke, Wind Up Spiritually Broke”
SpoofsandProofs.com is written and produced by David Culver Brenner. To learn more about his recent novella exposing the dangers of socialism, visit UnsocialistChickens.com. For a free subscription to SpoofsandProofs.com, enter your email in the “Subscribe” box on the right sidebar.