Monday, June 3, 2019
655 - Team Effort
Spirituality Column #655
June 4, 2019
June 4, 2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Team Effort
By Bob Walters
“All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching.” –
Paul, 2 Timothy 3:16
An interesting tête-à-tête between two friends appeared on my Facebook feed this
week. I knew better than to respond to it
there but I can’t resist discussing it here.
Gentle friend Betty posted, in one of those big, square
black-box memes with reverse white type: “God is not going to rewrite the Bible
for your generation. Stop trying to
change scripture when it is written to change you.” I love that.
Bold friend Mike responded: “Check real close, it’s been
rewritten a few times, and God didn’t write it the first time.” Those are sorta fightin’ words.
Since technically a tête-à-tête is
a “private” chat and this was on Facebook, it was more of a quasi-public
meow-match with no other participants. Now,
I know and like both Betty and Mike, and I know both are professing Christians,
and I thought it was interesting that after they had another brief exchange, nobody
else commented further. Obviously, folks thought the issue was better left
between the two of them.
That said, both of their posts are cornucopias of commentary
bait. I can’t resist.
On my agreement with Betty, modern culture’s biggest mistake
and black hole of knowledge is its tendency to make the Bible mean what today’s
“me-first” culture wants it to mean rather than what God wants it to mean. We are stuck on “My rights,” “Who I am,” and
“I gotta be me,” while the Bible explains human freedom in the light of our having
been created in God’s image. We “change”
because the Bible shows us a better way; it shows us the person of Jesus, purpose,
sacrificial love, joy, and divine judgment.
When we “die to self” or “die for our friends,” we love others as Jesus
loves us; we examine the ethic of what’s best for all, not the fashion of what
I can get away with.
It also occurs to me that the Bible is a “living” document
in a very different way than say, the “U.S. Constitution” is allegedly,
politically, and conveniently “living.”
The Bible is living because every time I read it, I see something
new. It speaks to my heart and enriches
my life. It lives in me. When I hear “living” Constitution, I know
somebody is trying to take away God-given fundamental rights culture no longer
agrees with. That is the kind of
“living” that will kill us all. The
Bible teaches us to live in God’s Kingdom.
Mike’s boldness is not entirely wrong, because while all
Bibles (with a few heretical exceptions) depict the same Jesus, the Catholic,
Orthodox, and Protestant Bibles do contain differences in books, verses, and
organization. Greek is the “official
language” of the New Testament, though it’s unlikely Jesus spoke anything but
Hebrew and Aramaic. Scholars suggest the
third century Syrian Bible is more accurate than the Greek. Bible translations and paraphrases continue
today. But “rewritten”? No.
Modern gender-fluid culture urges only the Gospels be believed
because “Jesus never said anything about gays.”
News flash: Jesus didn’t write the Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
did, and Paul’s line about “God-breathed
and useful …” includes the whole Bible.
Forty or so different humans wrote the Bible, and what’s common throughout
is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of the Father-Son-Spirit Godhead.
The Bible was and is a divine team effort, God
included. You can look it up.
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