Theological Fragments

 One of the challenges of reading the Bible is the fact that it’s an anthology—a collection of shorter works, shorter stories, that don’t always seem to fit together all that easily. It’s not always obvious to us what this story in Genesis has to do with that story in Judges, or why this prophet has to do with that prophet. Sometimes it can seem like the Bible is a bit of a jumble, without a greater design. If you look deeper, however, you will find that this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Bible is an intricately woven masterpiece, a single work of dazzling complexity and elegant simplicity. See, every Biblical author was also a Bible-reader, and was inspired by the ultimate Biblical author, so that when they wrote they made all kinds of connections with other books and stories to help you fit the Bible into one great story.  True, some of the strands that connect scripture together can be harder to see once it’s been translated into English, but they are still there...

This month in Powerhouse we’re going to start a new series in our “year of the Bible,” called “Bible-ese.” This series focuses on the words we use that get their meaning from the Bible, such as soul, spirit, sin, salvation, atonement, mercy, grace, and messiah. If you’ve been in the Church long enough, you probably think that you know what all of these words mean. The problem, however, is that all of these concepts are rooted in ancient languages and cultures, and they have had thousands of years to develop and change (for better or worse) since they were written down. What we assume these words mean may not be exactly what the Biblical authors had in mind. Let’s look at an example: atonement . The dictionary defines atonement as “reparation for a wrong or injury.” When you atone for something, you are paying for a crime or offense you caused in order to make things right. This is probably how most of us use the word, and this is what we think of when we talk about Jesus atoning f...

There are three basic types of literature in the Bible: narrative, poetry, and discourse, and each type communicates in a different way. In April we talked about reading Bible stories, and last month we talked about poetry.; this week we’re talking about the last genre: discourse. What is “discourse?” Basically, discourse is any passage of scripture that lays out logical reasoning for why we should behave a certain way. Think of the Law of Moses, the Wisdom books, the Sermon on the Mount, or the New Testament Letters. Discourse is what we are used to reading, because it’s often simple and easy to break down into short statements. “Do not murder.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.” “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul and mind.” These are short, simple, and easy to apply. This is how we want the whole Bible to be. The truth is, however, that even in discourse things are not quite so simple. There are several factors we have to keep in mind while we are reading, in o...

There are three basic types of literature in the Bible: narrative, poetry, and discourse, and each type communicates in a different way. Last month we talked about reading Bible stories; this week we’re talking about poetry. Did you know that one out of every three chapters in the Bible is poetry? When you think of poetry in the Bible, you probably think of the Psalms, or maybe the Song of Solomon—but there’s a lot more poetry in the Bible than that. In fact, Hebrew prophets tended to also be poets. You can’t tell as easily once it’s been translated into English, but when the prophets wrote down their prophecies from God they were writing deep, sophisticated poetry. Even the Apostle Paul incorporates some poetry into his writings! (I’m glad we don’t expect that from our pastors now—I can’t imagine writing an entire sermon in verse!) So why do we care that there is so much poetry in the Bible? Because poetry is read differently from other kinds of writing. When you see a passage of s...

The Bible is not one book; it’s an entire library. And in that library, there are many different types of books: history, biography, poetry, music, philosophy, novel, letters—the list goes on. When reading the Bible, it’s very important to understand the type of material you are reading so you can interpret it properly. For our purposes, we’re going to divide the Bible into three types: narrative (stories), poetry, and discourse. This month I want to focus on narrative: how do we read Bible stories? Narrative is the biggest category of Biblical material: it makes up 43% of the Bible. The majority of Biblical stories are found in the Old Testament History books (Genesis through Esther) and the Gospels (Matthew-Acts). In my opinion, the key to properly interpreting Bible stories is: remember that Bible stories are history, not fables. They tell us what really happened, warts and all. If you keep this in mind, it will help you avoid two common pitfalls: 1. Do not assume that you are s...

Last month I wrote about how complicated reading scripture can be: there are language, culture, and literary barriers that can keep us from properly understanding the text. These obstacles can be discouraging—they can make it feel like we’re just not qualified to read and understand the Bible. However, our tradition, the Restoration Movement, is founded on the idea that every Christian can read the Bible for themselves. How can this be if there are so many obstacles before us? How is an average Christian to read the Bible without a seminary degree? Many people read the Bible with a certain approach, which I call “Dragnet” Reading: they’re looking for “just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.” In Dragnet reading, you take a passage, chop it up, and mine it for the “facts” it contains. When you’ve figured out the facts in that passage, then you can say “This is what the passage means!” and move onto the next passage. For example, someone who is Dragnet-reading might read Leviticus 19:28 (...

Reading the Bible is simple, isn’t it? “The Bible says it, I believe it.” It’s a simple as that, isn’t it? Of course, if it is that simple, then why are there so many interpretations of the Bible? And not just small disagreements, but perspectives that are completely opposite of each other? The founders of the Christian Church movement believed that the Bible is accessible to each and every Christian, not just pastors or scholars—and I agree whole-heartedly. But just because the Bible is accessible to everyone does not mean that the Bible is simple. In fact, I believe that many of the theological problems we get into come from the fact that we assume the Bible is simple and easy to read. In reality, there are several obstacles that we have to hurdle in order to understand the Bible: Language: Quick: can you recite Genesis 1:1? If you started with “For God so loved the world…” then you’re… wrong! Well, in a way. That’s an English translation of John 3:16. The actual test of Joh...