Which Bible Is Preeminent, the Style Bible or the Holy Bible?

Mark Coppenger | May 23, 2013 | The Bible + Culture

Metaphors can flip and become the literal meaning, and the original, literal expression can become the metaphor. The word “broadcast” is a case in point. When the first radio towers went up, pioneers of this new technology turned to agriculture to describe how their signals went out with a wide sweep. It struck them that their equipment worked like a farmer broadcasting his seeds on the ground, flinging them in arcs. It was an apt expression, gaining universal currency, so much so that people today are inclined to smile at an ad for a “seed broadcaster”: “That’s clever! It spreads seeds like a radio tower spreads its waves.”

The word “Bible” may today be a candidate for a linguistic flip of its own. It used to be the case that The Deer Hunter’s Bible and The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible were derivative, drawing their meaning from a respectful understanding of the Holy Bible. Like the true Bible, these guides were meant to supply the hunter or gardener with the keys to success. While Scripture showed the way to an abundant life and heaven, these shadow bibles put their readers on the path toward serving luscious tomatoes and hanging a 12-point trophy on their den wall. They didn’t presume to supplant the real Bible in sweep and authority.

The April 2013 “Style Bible” issue of Gentleman’s Quarterly is a different matter. It offers sub-Christian religion of its own, with, for instance, “A Gentleman’s Guide to a One-Night Stand.” It counsels the wayward that “there’s a difference between dressing up and playing dress-up” as a “zealous prepster” or “urban lumberjack.”

It honors the most stylish NBA players, including the “King James Version,” namely LaBron James of the Miami Heat. James’ teammate, Shane Battier, notes the pressure on these men “to dress well every day” and the occasional need for “church discipline”: “LeBron falters occasionally. And when he does, we let him know about it.”

It records great acts of faith, such as Dwyane Wade’s “most famous risk to date,” when, at the prompting of his stylist, Calyann Barnett, he wore “pink-chocolate-yellow patent leather Louboutins” to the White House.” The president was duly impressed, remarking, “If any of you can pull this off other than Dwyane Wade, let me know.”

Instead of “slaves to Christ” (Romans 1:1), it features best-selling author Buzz Bissinger, with his “Gucci Addiction,” which threatens his life savings. His “pearl of great price” (cf. Matthew 13:45-46) may be his collection of 81 leather jackets, $5000 pants, and a $22,000 coat. And on it goes.

So, has the metaphor flipped, with the “style bible” gaining supremacy? Preposterous? Yes, for the time being. But it’s fair to ask whether one could more nearly get away with criticizing a woman’s fashion choices than her sexual behavior. Or, to put it another way, could a network field a show called “Righteousness Police” to match Joan Rivers’ “Fashion Police”? Alas, those who appeal to a style bible to dismiss another’s dress come off as savants and sophisticates. Those who use the real Bible to declare something unholy are attacked as “phobes” or “haters” of one sort or another.

Perhaps the day will dawn when we hear, “So you’re saying that this book with 66 chapters from Genesis to Revelation is a ‘bible,’ like the Style Bible, in that it shows you how to ‘dress’ your soul? I get it. Isn’t that clever!”

Is the Book of Revelation Only about the Future?

BibleMesh | May 20, 2013 | Q&A On The Bible

For some, studying Revelation can become a mere mental exercise, void of life application. They simply speculate over the meaning of the book’s mysterious symbols—all without necessarily considering what it calls them to do.

Of course, Revelation does challenge the mind. Scholars who devote their lives to studying it will never figure out every detail. Nonetheless, like all Scripture, Revelation is intensely practical. And one unmistakable theme is the need for believers in Christ to persevere in their faith and obedience. In fact, the book teaches that the only true believers are those whose faith endures through trials and challenges. Consider the plentiful references to perseverance:

The Apostle John tells the Christians in Smyrna to “be faithful unto death,” for only then will they receive the “crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
The church in Thyatira is told to “hold fast” and that the one “who keeps [Christ’s] works until the end” will receive “authority over the nations” (Revelation 2:25-26).
In chapter 7, the multitude in heaven is comprised of those who endured in faith through “the great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14).
Chapter 13 issues “a call for the endurance and faith of the saints” (Revelation 13:10), which is echoed in the subsequent chapter, where John adds that the redeemed are those who refuse to defile themselves with sin and who “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Revelation 14:4).
The final chapter exhorts the righteous to continue doing right and the holy to continue the pursuit of holiness (Revelation 22:11).

Such calls to perseverance make it abundantly clear that Revelation is not just a book about the future, but about how to live in the present.

(Note: This article is presented within The Biblical Story Course as an Insight under Books of the Bible, Perseverance in Revelation).

Why Does God Allow Pain & Suffering?

BibleMesh | May 15, 2013 | The Bible + Life

“Pain Is God’s Megaphone” – C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

An author of more than thirty books, C. S. Lewis taught English literature at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities during his life. As a World War I veteran teaching at Oxford during World War II, Lewis addressed the hard questions brought on by war—specifically the problem of evil. In his book, The Problem of Pain, Lewis understands pain as one kind of evil, which God superintends for the good of mankind—as a megaphone to wake up the sleeping sinner, alerting him to his need.

The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt. . . .[i]

And pain is not only immediately recognisable evil, but evil impossible to ignore. We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. A bad man, happy, is a man without the least inkling that his actions do not ‘answer’, that they are not in accord with the laws of the universe. . . .[ii]

Until the evil man finds evil unmistakably present within his existence, in the form of pain, he is enclosed in illusion. Once pain has roused him, he knows that he is in some way or other ‘up against’ the real universe: he either rebels (with possibility of a clearer issue and deeper repentance at some later stage) or else makes some attempt at an adjustment, which if pursued, will lead him to religion. . . .[iii]

No doubt Pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for atonement. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.[iv]

[i] C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 90.

[ii] Ibid., 90-91.

[iii] Ibid., 93.

[iv] Ibid., 93-94.

What Did Jesus Teach about the Bible?

David Roach | May 13, 2013 | Q&A On The Bible

It’s relatively common to encounter professed Christians who say they love the Bible but don’t think it’s entirely true. This has occurred famously in church history, as when Karl Barth wrote that “arithmetical errors, whimsies and impossibilities may have crept in” to the Bible and that the authors of Scripture were “guilty of error in their spoken and written word.” But such dismissal of the Bible occurs among believers today too, as when someone told me at a recent church function that belief in the Bible’s complete truthfulness is not regarded as a “serious academic position” at the Christian college where he works.

In response to such claims (as American theologian Carl Henry reminded us), it’s worth taking a look at what Jesus taught about the Bible. First, He said nothing could invalidate the truth of the Old Testament. Most of the time the Greek verb luo means “to free” or “to loose.” But four times in the Gospels, Jesus used it to reference the Old Testament, giving it the more technical meaning “to invalidate.” For example, He said that “whoever relaxes (or invalidates) one of the least of these commandments and teaches other to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19). For Jesus, no one had the right to say the Old Testament was in error.

Jesus also said Old Testament Scripture was more authoritative than any religious tradition, as when He told the Pharisees in Mark 7:9, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.” And in the Sermon on the Mount, He elevated Scripture above Jewish traditions on matters like adultery and divorce.

But Jesus didn’t only hold up the Old Testament as truthful and authoritative; He claimed that His own teaching was as authoritative as the Old Testament. A trademark of His earthly ministry was to use the phrase “I say to you” to introduce His teaching as sure and binding (e.g., Matthew 5:22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44). And in the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount, He compared His teaching to a rock that could not be moved by the storms of life (Matthew 7:24-27).

Then, at the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus promised to deliver future authoritative teaching through His apostles. The Holy Spirit would “teach [them] all things and bring to [their] remembrance” all that He said (John 14:36). As promised, when the apostles wrote New Testament books, they claimed the authority of Jesus. Revelation, for instance, though written by John, calls itself “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1).

Much more could be said about the Bible’s authority and truthfulness. But in the teachings of Jesus we find a validation of the Old Testament, of His own teachings, and of the New Testament books written by His apostles. This alone is enough to remind us that something is amiss when Christ’s supposed followers claim that errors have crept into Scripture.

Should We Interpret a Bible Verse Literally or Figuratively?

David Roach | May 8, 2013 | Q&A On The Bible

It depends on context. A person’s soul is in peril if he thinks Jesus was using poetic exaggeration when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). On the other hand, a Bible reader might maim himself unnecessarily if he fails to recognize the hyperbole in Jesus’ statement that we should cut off our hands and gouge out our eyes to avoid sin (Matthew 5:29-30). Like all people who have ever spoken or written, biblical authors use different styles of communication at different times.

Of course, everything the Bible affirms is true, regardless of its literary genre. Still, every time we open our Bibles, we must determine what style of communication is being used and read accordingly. As a primer, here are a few of the literary styles used in Scripture and some rules for interpreting them taken from Robert Stein’s helpful book, A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible.

–Historical narrative recounts events and is meant to be understood literally – not as fable. In this vein, Article XIII of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics insists that literary techniques not be used to evade historical accounts.[i] For instance, some scholars have tried to fictionalize the story of Jonah and the Fish, but Christ treats Jonah as a real person in Matthew 12:40-42, and so should we. More than 40 percent of the Old Testament and nearly 60 percent of the New is historical narrative, including much of the material in the Gospels and Acts.

–Songs and poetry are geared toward evoking emotion rather than speaking with scientific accuracy. With biblical poetry, the reader must determine the author’s message without misconstruing symbolism as narrative description. For example, the song in Exodus 15 poetically describes Pharaoh’s army as being “thrown into the [Red] sea” (15:1) even though it actually followed the Israelites through the parted waters before God sent them crashing back down.

–Proverbs are pithy sayings that express general truths or rules of thumb; they don’t convey ironclad guarantees. A classic example is Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” While parental training generally sets the course for a child’s life, there are exceptions. (See BibleMesh blog article, “Is Proverbs 22:6 a guarantee?”)

–Parables are fictional stories that illustrate spiritual points. Generally, a parable teaches one basic point and is not intended as an extended comparison in which every detail has spiritual significance. About a third of Jesus’ teachings are in parables, including the story of the sower and soils in Luke 8 and the lost sheep in Luke 15.

–Idioms are expressions with meanings not derived from the normal meanings of the words in them. In modern English, our idioms include “raining cats and dogs” and “kick the bucket.” In the Bible you will find idioms like “their hearts melted” to describe a loss of courage and “the apple of His eye” to describe being precious in God’s sight.

The list could go on, but you get the idea. Unless we know what style of communication a biblical author is using and how to interpret it, we may wonder if archaeologists have ever found the tombs of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son.

[i] Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics, with commentary by Norm Geisler http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago2.html

The Bible, a Book with Edge

Mark Coppenger | May 6, 2013 | The Bible + Culture

Back in the 1990s, I was involved in the launch of a new publication, and I attended a workshop in New York to be sure we were crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s. One of our teachers explained that we would need to decide first off if we were going to publish a magazine with “edge” (such as The Nation or National Review), or one that avoided provocative opinions on hot issues (such as Saturday Evening Post or Martha Stewart Living).

Of course, most publications offer mixed fare, but it’s useful to distinguish those which strive always to be amiable to the exclusion of conscious affronts to the general reader’s sensitivities, and those quite willing to sacrifice gentility (though not civility, one hopes) in the cause of truth.

We decided we would not shrink from applying edge to our pages, and it occurred to us that our reference point, the Bible was a book with considerable edge. While Scripture is full of comforting and gracious passages—regarding the Lord’s shepherding in Psalm 23; regarding the rest promised for those who labor and are “heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28); regarding “living water” in John 4; regarding the glories of heaven in Revelation 22—it also has great cutting power.

Indeed, the Bible speaks of itself in these terms. Hebrews 4:12 says that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” And, as Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

In his memoir, Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss, former Saturday Night Live regular, Tom Davis of Franken and Davis, chronicled a life of prodigious drug consumption. Not surprisingly, he befriended drug guru Timothy Leary. He recounted their times together, including a phone conversation where Leary asked him what books he was reading. When Davis said he was trying to read the Bible from cover to cover, Leary exclaimed, “Oh no—there goes another one.”

Davis urged him to relax: “You don’t have to worry about me. Maybe you’ll feel better if I read you something really good that I just found in it.” With Leary’s okay, he pressed on, reading 1 Timothy 1:9-11 in the old King James. It declared that the law was “not made for the righteous man.” Rather, it was made for “the ungodly and for the sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons . . .”

Laughing, Leary exclaimed, “Whoa! That was wonderful! Thank you for that.”[1] Being two very laid-back fellows, they rolled their eyes at the “over the top” language, but they had to recognize that this was a book that didn’t fool around. It had edge. (And one suspects there was a touch of nervousness in their laughter.)

Though modern translations speak of the “sexually immoral” rather than the “whoremongers,” and the expression “slave traders” is less weird to the modern ear than “menstealers,” there’s no diluting the force of those verses. In fact, the newer versions can be more provocative, as when “them that defile themselves with mankind” are shown to be “men who practice homosexuality.”

The message to the church should be plain. While the Bible is a boundless source of blessing and encouragement, it is also a book whose words can sting and divide, and efforts to disguise this truth should embarrass those who presume to be ministers of the Word.

[1] Tom Davis, Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss (New York: Grove, 2009), 189-191.