Category: How to Read the Bible

What’s In A Name?

by Matthew Stidham, posted in Exodus, How to Read the Bible, Life, Scripture

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.”

William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet

Juliet tried hard to convince Romeo that names don’t matter. To put it another way, for Juliet, who we are is not dependent upon a name, nor are we defined by a name. While I admire Shakespeare on many levels, on this point he’s wrong.

I think the real question is “Do any names matter?” And the Biblical answer to that is a resounding “YES!” What we learn as we read the Bible is that who we are is precisely dependent upon a name—the only name that matters.

The Name

For an ancient Israelite, one name in particular mattered more than any other name.

Exodus is the retelling of God’s powerful rescue of Israel out of the bondage of slavery and oppression in Egypt. God uses a human, Moses, to be his representative before Pharaoh during this miraculous rescue. To Pharaoh, in essence, it is as if Moses is God, performing signs and wonders, and delivering the Divine message to Pharaoh, with Aaron as his helper (Exod 4:15-16).

This is an awesome task! To represent the God of the universe to someone who does not know God is a frightening endeavor, especially if you don’t really know the God you are representing!

Moses instantly feels inferior to the task, asking “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exod 3:11) God never answers the question directly, but indicates that God’s presence will be sufficient. Simply put to Moses, “I will be with you.” (Exod 3:12)

The second, and possibly the most informative question that Moses asks is how to acknowledge God before the people. Here is God’s reply:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.”

Exodus 3:14-15 NIV

The Meaning

There is a long rabbit trail here concerning the name(s) God chooses in this revelation to Moses. Without going too far down that trail, we need some clarification here. The Hebrew phrase “Ehyeh asher ehyeh” is what the NIV translates as “I AM WHO I AM.” Without totally nerding out on Hebrew, we should know that depending on how one views this phrase, it can mean variously “I AM WHO I AM,” or “I AM WHAT I AM,” or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE,” or any combination of these options. God’s revelation of being in this name shows that God is not dependent on anything, and everything else in all creation has its dependence upon God. You and I are human, we are tired, we are in a particular location at a particular time, etc. Simply put, we are finite. God simply IS.

And that’s the second name. What most English language Bibles translate as “LORD” in all capital letters, is the actually the 3rd person version of Ehyeh. Instead of “I AM”, the Hebrew name Yahweh (LORD) is means “HE IS.” (For more information on why the English translation does this, Bible Project has this great video.)

This name, Yahweh (LORD/HE IS), is the name of Israel’s God (Exod 20:2), the only god Israel is to worship (Exod 20:3), and the one whom his people are to represent well through bearing this name (Exod 20:7).

Bearing the Name

That last part, bearing or misusing the name of Yahweh, might be one of the most misunderstood commands of the Bible, and one that I intend to unpack a bit in my sermons over the next few weeks. But here’s the short take on what this command means:

  • Humans have always been designed to bear the image of their Creator (Gen 1:27).
  • Instead of bearing the image/name of their Creator, sinful humans decided to make a name for themselves (Gen 3:5; 11:4).
  • The Creator then decides to create a new people to bear his image/name in the world, thus growing his reputation/name as well as theirs, in the process of bringing blessing to all humans (Gen 12:1-3).
  • This new family commits to bearing the Creator’s name, Yahweh, and being representatives of the name/reputation of the Creator in the earth (Exod 19:5-6).
  • This is not a light responsibility, and must be taken seriously. Bearing the name of Yahweh in a careless way brings guilt upon the people (Exod 20:7).
  • (This point needs more unpacking, but…) That name/reputation has been transferred to Jesus, the name we must now represent, respect, and honor (Phil 2:6-11).
  • This Jesus (which means “Yahweh Saves”) is the physical representation of Yahweh (John 8:58 – I AM), and the name of Jesus is the only name that brings us salvation (Acts 4:12).
  • When we place our allegiance in the name of Jesus, coming to God through Jesus, we become chosen people, that priesthood of representatives in the world (1 Peter 2:4-10).

What’s in a name? EVERYTHING! And the name we need for salvation, the name we must bear carefully, the name we must represent to others is the name of Jesus.

Click here to view Matt’s sermons on Bearing God’s Name.

What do you mean it’s an elephant?

by Matthew Stidham, posted in How to Read the Bible, Women of Scripture

There’s an old story of three blind men who are led to different parts of an elephant. One feels the tail and thinks it’s a paint brush. One feels the leg and thinks it’s a tree. One feels the ear and thinks it is a large leaf. By the information that each person had they made their best judgement. But when they got together and compared information they realized that none of them had the full picture. Then they worked together to find the head which clearly revealed that there was an elephant in the room.

This Sunday, we will begin a journey through the First Testament in our Bibles, exploring 14 different passages. There are common themes in these texts, and all of them are themes included in John’s Gospel (which we will spend the winter and spring studying). To put it another way, we are surveying the First Testament with an eye toward passages that inform our reading of John’s Gospel. Some of these texts will be familiar, others not so much. Some are confusing, some may seem irrelevant to our lives today, and some have been the point of much controversy, both inside and outside the Church.

One of the things I’ve noticed about some of these First Testament stories is that we learn them as children, such as VBS or Sunday School, and then never really consider them in depth as adults. When we think of the story of Moses and the burning bush (which isn’t actually burning…), our mind goes to the flannel graph images and summaries of our childhood Bible class teachers.

I am so thankful for the teachers that taught me to love the Bible! They taught very difficult, adult Bible stories in a way that my childhood brain could comprehend and appreciate. But when they taught me to love the Bible, they taught me to always study the Bible as well. And what I’ve discovered, especially with this portion of the Bible, is that we rarely spend the time studying these texts that we should. And when we do actually study them, or hear them taught at an adult level, there’s a certain shock involved. We remember the faithfulness of people like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Miriam. We forget that they were also drunkards, liars, murderers, and extremely jealous. The stories are far more complex than our childhood memories convey. And when we only focus on the children’s story version of the text, we can miss the point of the story altogether.

The issue is not with the texts themselves, but how we read the texts. All of us come to Scripture with existing biases. I read Scripture through the eyes of a white, middle class, married father of three, recently moved to southwest Missouri from West Texas. That is my perspective. Someone who is middle eastern, impoverished, single, living in Europe will see things differently than I do simply because of their background and surroundings. They view the world differently than I do, and that’s a good thing! Just read the story of the prodigal son(s) with someone from an impoverished country. Most of us read that story not realizing that a famine plays an important role in the story, and in the repentance of the son. People who have suffered from famine pick up on that right away.

Proverbs reminds us that there is wisdom in having “many advisors.” If I am looking at something alone, I only see things from my point of view. But if I talk about it with others with different views, I can begin to see more of the picture.

Some have suggested that addressing controversial texts does no good. “It means what it says and says what it means, and that settles it!” But it doesn’t settle things, does it? The greatest clarity of Scripture I have ever found has come when discussing the text with people who have differing views. Though I may not agree with everything they see, I always walk away with a greater understanding of their view, my view, and most importantly the Word of God. Just this week, a new detail stood out to me in Genesis because I was talking to someone about the text. I’ve been on a mission to re-read Genesis 50 times. I’ve spent considerable time with this book, and I noticed something I had never considered before simply because I was willing to sit down and discuss the text with someone. Basically, I missed the point of the text and only discovered this by talking about it.

I have no doubt that God will do powerful things for us over the next 14 weeks, and through us as we study his word together. I also believe that all of us will discover things that we haven’t seen in these texts before. My prayer is we listen to the voices of “many advisors,” reexamine our view in light of others, but most importantly, we consider what the Scripture actually says, and grow in the grace and wisdom of the Lord. And when we do this cooperatively in community, maybe then we will better identify the elephant in the room.

See you Sunday!

New Light in Old Texts

by Matthew Stidham, posted in How to Read the Bible

Why do we assume contradictory information is invariably wrong?

It’s a serious question. I encounter this phenomenon on an almost daily basis. Someone learns a new piece of information that challenges a currently held belief and instantly dismisses the information as false without the slightest thought that perhaps, just perhaps, their original belief was lacking.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

Psalm 119:105 NIV

A friend of mine likes to apply this verse by saying, “We walk by the light that we have.” Simply put, we live out our faith by what we know. We walk by what we have learned through God shining the light of his Word in our lives.

But what happens when his Word shines in a new way in our life? Do we change to walk in that light, or do we dismiss the light as false or misleading?

Please don’t hear me saying that God’s Word is false or misleading. I’m saying exactly the opposite! What happens when we discover something new to us in God’s Word that challenges our currently held belief? Will we walk in this new light, or will we cling to the old path because of its comfort and familiarity?

In the past I have applied for ministry jobs where a few churches provided lists of passages and topics that were not to be taught or referenced in sermons or Bible studies. Is this viewing God’s Word as a “light on my path,” something that could illuminate and correct my walk with God? Apparently for these congregations, all Scripture was not useful for teaching (perhaps 2 Timothy 3:16-17 could shine a little light in those congregations.)

Friends, why should we ever fear the Word of God? What could possibly lead us to censor the Bible in our assemblies? Even when…especially when it contradicts our beliefs, we should never fear the Word of God. Instead, we should dig into it deeper in order to see where the light might lead!

Two quick case studies of people encountering God’s Word with new light. Luke tells us of two disciples who had given up hope that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

“…we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”

Luke 24:21 NIV

Leaving town and dejected by the events of the previous week, these disciples had given up hope that Jesus was anything more than another dead prophet in a long line of dead prophets. But notice what happens. The stranger on the road with them shines some new light on the Word of God for them.

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Luke 24:25-27 NIV

Notice this was not new revelation. We’re not talking about a new scripture introduced to the canon for these disciples. These were texts that these disciples likely had memorized, but no doubt had heard and studied at length. Yet somehow there was still some shadowy veil covering these texts for these disciples. It took a lifetime of Temple and Synagogue Bible studies, three years of Jesus’ ministry, a horrendous Passover experience, and a conversation with someone they didn’t recognize to shine light on these familiar texts in order for them to see the truth. In fact, they didn’t even realize who this man teaching them was until he broke bread with them (Lk. 24:30-32).

If this is what it took to shine new light on old texts for disciples that walked with Jesus, is it possible that we might have missed something too?

Luke also tells us of the ministry of Paul (another example of someone who found new light in old texts and began to walk a different path). Paul’s routine on his missionary journeys is to first go into synagogues and teach about Jesus using the Scriptures (the Old Testament in case you were wondering…more Gospel sermons coming from the first 75% of your Bible.)

Paul always went into these areas and found people who knew the Scriptures, and then proceeded to shine new light on the texts in hopes of leading them to believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

Acts 17:11-12 NIV

Do you notice what made these Berean Jews “more noble”? They didn’t instantly reject anything that challenged their beliefs! Instead they studied their Bible! If Paul had said something that was incorrect, they would have found it. They didn’t feel the need to instantly dismiss Paul’s words as false when they challenged their belief. Instead, they compared this new light from Paul with the Scriptures they had read many times before and discovered a new revelation from the same old text.

If these faithful Jews who had poured over these Scriptures far more than you and I could find new light in an old text, is it possible that we might have missed something too?

You and I do not have a complete understanding of the Word of God. We never will! Scripture reveals to us the ways and mind of God, and yet reminds us that these ways and mind are simply unfathomable for you and I (Isa. 55:9).

Throughout our lives we must continue to read and study God’s Word because we will inevitably find new light in old texts ourselves. Something will leap off the page that we have never noticed before.

And when we discover that new light we must learn to walk in it.

Don’t cling to the old paths. Walk in the light, and embrace the Word of God.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1 John 1:7 NIV

Daily Psalms – Psalm 82

by Matthew Stidham, posted in Divine Council, Psalms

Daily Psalm Reading – Psalm 81-85

Psalm 82 is a short psalm, but one that is debated as to its exact meaning. I’ll provide two summary explanations, the first as we traditionally view this psalm, and the second how the original readers would have likely understood this psalm. I intend later to do a more in depth analysis of this psalm and its implications on how we read the Bible, but today will serve simply to get us thinking.

The traditional reading of Psalm 82 goes something like this:

  • V. 1 states that God is present when his people gather together (“divine assembly”), and that he passes judgement upon false gods or idols (v. 1).
  • Vv. 2-4 scold the assembly for not pursuing justice in the world.
  • Verse 5 talks about the foolishness of idolatry…afterall, didn’t Paul tell us that idols aren’t anything anyway, sort of like what we read here?
  • V. 6-7 show that humans and false gods, or those who claim to be divine, will die like anyone else.
  • V. 8 calls for God to bring his judgement and acknowledges that God is over all nations, not idols.

There are variations to this view of Psalm 82, but this pretty much gives the gist of what is going on with this view. And I will say that nothing stated above is Scripturally inaccurate. God is the God of all…no idols or false gods compare. Our God will judge all. Israel failed time and again to bring about justice in the ways they dealt with others. Nothing said above is Scripturally inaccurate. What may be inaccurate is what we are missing by reading this psalm out of context with the worldview of ancient Israel, and the rest of Scripture.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of the “Divine Council,” then this next section may really stretch your wineskins. I’m going to recommend a book up front, Unseen Realm by Dr. Michael Heiser, and you would also benefit from listening to a series of podcasts by The Bible Project called the God Series. There’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 hours worth of audio study and reflection on this concept. Again much more could, should, and has been said about this psalm in light of the Divine Council view. For now, I’m just cracking the door to a whole other way of seeing the Scriptures through the eyes of the ancients.

We need to lay a bit of understanding about this passage first. The Hebrew word elohim is a class of spiritual being. When you see “God” or “gods” in the text, it’s the same Hebrew word. This is a view of one elohim passing judgement upon other elohim. “God” is not a name, it’s a class of spiritual being. We tend to capitalize the “g” in God when we are referring to the God of the Bible, Yahweh (often notated in your bible as LORD).

The Divine Council helped Yahweh rule the nations. Yahweh is the God of Israel, but there was also a god of Babylon, a god of Canaan, etc. In other words, the nations and ruling bodies on earth have a spiritual elohim behind them. Read Genesis 6 with these eyes and see what you think. Again, this deserves much more than I am going to give here, but here is a brief summary of the Divine Council view of Psalm 82.

  • V. 1 shows our God (the divine name appears nowhere in this psalm), the supreme God among all gods (heavenly beings who have authority to rule portions of the earth). He pronounces judgement against their actions.
  • Vv. 2-4 recounts all of the failings that these governing gods have done. They haven’t promoted what the supreme God has commanded. The very things that Yahweh stands for in the Scriptures are being opposed by these gods.
  • V. 5 shows those who are oppressed and neglected by the gods have no direction…nobody to care for them. This lack of divine leadership has shaken the very foundations of the earth.
  • Vv. 6-7 show the Most High’s sentence against these guilty gods. They are all offspring of the Most High (Jesus being the only unique (begotten) Son – Jn. 3:16), yet they will die just like any other ruler. The same consequences for the rebellion of mankind now will fall upon the rebellion of the guilty in the Divine Council.
  • V. 8 is a call for our God, the supreme God, to bring this jugement to pass and rule over all nations.

The first response to the Divine Council reading of Scripture seems to be confusion about our God. “I thought there was only one God?” And Scripture contains verses like this:

Give thanks to the God of gods.
His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 136:2 CSB

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—AS THERE ARE MANY “GODS” and many “lords”— YET FOR US THERE IS ONE GOD, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him.

1 Corinthians 8:5-6 CSB – emphasis added

Even Scripture acknowledges there are other elohim/gods. But to us, there is only one God…or in other words, we only follow one elohim. The Elohim of elohim. We follow Yahweh alone.

So if you’ve stuck with me this far, I want to hear your take on this. Are you familiar with the concept of the Divine Council? Have you read Heiser’s book? What do you think of this understanding of Psalm 82, as well as Genesis 6? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

But whatever your take is, I hope this will at least get you to spend some time in God’s WOrd. Blessings to you today!

The Elephant In The Room

by Matthew Stidham, posted in How to Read the Bible, Women of Scripture

There’s an old story of three blind men who are led to different parts of an elephant. One feels the tail and thinks it’s a paint brush. One feels the leg and thinks it’s a tree. One feels the ear and thinks it is a large leaf. By the information that each person had they made their best judgement. But when they got together and compared information they realized that none of them had the full picture. Then they worked together to find the head which clearly revealed that there was an elephant in the room.

This Sunday we will be exploring 4 difficult texts that address women serving in the church (1 Corinthians 11 & 14, 1 Timothy 2 & 5). Much confusion and hurt has come from attempts to apply these texts in the history of the church. What is ok to do? What is not ok to do? And often we judge people who come to a different understanding that we do. Many times I’ve heard disagreements over Scripture summarized by someone saying, “They just don’t follow the plain reading of Scripture.” But do any of us really do that?

I think the bigger issue is not the texts themselves, but how we read those texts. All of us come to Scripture with existing biases. I read Scripture through the eyes of a white, middle class, married father of three, living in rural West Texas. That is my perspective. Someone who is middle eastern, impoverished, single, living in Europe will naturally see things differently than I do simply because of their background and surroundings. They view the world differently than I do, and that’s a good thing!

Proverbs reminds us that there is wisdom in having “many advisors” when seeking to make decisions. If I am looking at something alone, I only see things from my point of view. But if I talk about it with others who have differing views I can begin to see more of the picture.

Some have suggested that addressing controversial texts does no good. “It means what it says and says what it means, and that settles it!” But it doesn’t settle things, does it? The greatest clarity of Scripture I have ever found has come when discussing the text with people who have differing views. Though I may not agree with everything they see, I always walk away with a greater understanding of their view, my view, and most importantly the text. Just this week a new detail stood out to me in 1 Timothy 2 because I was talking with someone about the text. I’ve been reading 1 Timothy several times a week for nearly a year, and I noticed something I had never considered before because I was willing to sit down and discuss the text with someone.

I have no doubt that Sunday morning God is going to do powerful things for us, and through us as we study his word together. I also believe that all of us will see things that we haven’t seen in these texts before. My prayer is that we all listen to the voices of “many advisors,” reexamine our view in light of others, but most importantly we consider what the Scripture actually says, and grow in the grace and wisdom of the Lord. And when we do this cooperatively in community, maybe then we will better identify the elephant in the room.

See you Sunday!

What is the Best Way to Read the Bible?

by Matthew Stidham, posted in Church History, How to Read the Bible

Last week we looked at examples from the New Testament of people coming together in community to study the Scriptures. We also looked at the first few centuries after the New Testament to see the council at Nicea surrounding the deity of Christ. Christians came together around the Scriptures in order to clarify beliefs and put an end to false teaching. This council resulted in what we commonly call The Nicene Creed.

This community study of the Scriptures happened on many other occasions as well. As the years passed, again the Church saw need of solidifying doctrine amongst all believers. The decision was made to collect the writings held highly by the community and combine them into an authoritative collection. There was some debate concerning some of the writings we have today in our New Testament, and some differences still exist today (does your Bible contain the Apocrypha?) But when the Church came together in community, the most trusted writings were compiled to solidify the documents of our faith – the New Testament.

We are so used to having our sacred writings in one book. Can you imagine going through life and having to search from city to city to find a copy of John’s Gospel? The fact that you own a Bible, or have access to a Bible online, or in app form is because 1600 years ago the Church, the Body of Christ, came together in community in order to compile (not create) the writings we know and love.

Today, we must take the same approach toward interpreting Scripture. Renowned theologian, seminary professor, and author Scot McKnight has a suggestion for how we are to read and interpret Scripture today in his book, The Blue Parakeet. In this quote, he speaks of the “Great Tradition,” that is the understanding of the historical Christian community.

“I suggest we learn to read the Bible with the Great Tradition. We dare not ignore what God has said to the church through the ages (as the return and retrieval folks often do), nor dare we fossilize past interpretations into traditionalism. Instead, we need to go back to the Bible so we can move forward through the church and speak God’s Word in our days in our ways. We need to go back without getting stuck (the return problem), and we need to move forward without fossilizing our ideas (traditionalism). We want to walk between these two approaches. It’s not easy, but I contend that the best of the evangelical approaches to the Bible and the best way of living the Bible today is to walk between these approaches.”

Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet

The history of the church shows that Scripture has been best interpreted in community. When believers come together and wrestle with the Scriptures to find truth, error is avoided, God is honored, and Scripture is upheld and interpreted in a relevant way. As history and the New Testament has shown us, it is the best way.

2 Rules for Reading Scripture

by Matthew Stidham, posted in How to Read the Bible

Last week we looked at the human component in Scripture. All Scripture is from God, but it comes through the mind and hand of humans, sometimes humans writing in community as we noted last week in many of Paul’s writings. This makes the Bible more special in my eyes, that God was willing to partner with humans in getting his word to the world, just as he partners with us today in doing the same thing (See Matthew 28:19). Today we’ll unpack the last part of Bobby Valentine’s quote: “God’s word addressed them in that situation and may not be God’s directive for all time and all places.”

There are two rules for reading Scripture: Context, and Context. Because of the historical nature of revelation we must pay close attention to the historical occasion of the text.  Why was it said or written in the first place? For instance, Ezekiel records many times of coming calamities upon Israel and Jerusalem “from the north.” This does not mean that Americans should be arming our border with Canada and preparing for war. This is a ridiculous example, I admit, but there are some who take equally specific texts meant for a specific people group in a specific time and place and try to apply it to everyone today. We must honor the context of the statements in order to accurately derive their meaning.

Let’s take a look for a moment and look at another example.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13 NKJV

I’ve seen this verse applied to people trying to make a difficult decision, athletes wanting to win a game, couch potatoes that want to work up to running a marathon, churches hoping to begin a new ministry, people hoping to buy a new car or find a new house, and the list goes on and on. This verse is poorly translated in the KJV/NKJV (the word “Christ” doesn’t even appear in the Greek text), and its meaning is poorly applied to our lives because we don’t understand the context of Paul’s statement.

Paul has been arrested for preaching about Christ, but he doesn’t view this as a bad thing. In fact, Paul believes this is good because believers now see their faith in Christ is worth even going to prison over, and therefore they are spreading the Gospel message more intensely (Phil. 1:12-18). Fast forward a few chapters. Paul exhorts the church to rejoice always, no matter your circumstances…even if you are in chains for the Gospel (4:4). They should focus on Godly ways rather than worrying about the things of this world (4:5-9). Paul acknowledges that for a while the church was unable to support him, or provide for his needs (after all, he is in prison so he doesn’t have much – 4:10) Then Paul writes:

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:11-13 NIV

Paul is saying he doesn’t need money or possessions in order to preach the Gospel. God gives him strength, and that is enough. Want to apply this to your life? You should go preach the Gospel and God will give you the ability in whatever situation you find yourself to do just that. And no, that doesn’t include winning your softball game.

The Human Component of Scripture

by Matthew Stidham, posted in How to Read the Bible

Last week we began to look at the “inspiration” of Scripture (see 2 Tim. 3:16). I mentioned the biggest problem we face when trying to understand God’s inspiration of Scripture is we try to remove the human element from Scripture. We forget that the people writing these texts had a hand in their creation as well. They were not strictly taking dictation.

Bobby Valentine puts it this way:

“The Bible is inspired of God’s Holy Spirit through the words of human beings in specific historical circumstances. Thus it is literally the word of God and the word of humans. Thus the text was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and not Spanish, English or Southern. God’s word addressed them in that situation and may not be God’s directive for all time and all places.”

I left you with three examples of differences between Scriptures that refer to the same events. All of these are narrative events (meaning a story is being told). Did you look them up? If not do so now:

Did you notice the differences? They are all human elements that have been changed. Let’s look at the first. The writings of Samuel and Kings cover the exact same time frame as Chronicles, but their intent is different. The writing of Samuel is more of a prophetic warning, or explanation of why the people wound up in exile. Chronicles attempts to reestablish the image of Israel after the exile. Two different purposes, and the writers included two different sets of details. All true, but different purposes.

Both Luke and John tell us about Peter going to the empty tomb. John includes this “other disciple” beating Peter to the tomb. That’s the way John refers to himself throughout his Gospel. Why did John include this and Luke didn’t? Because it was John himself who beat Peter in a footrace to the tomb!

Mark and Luke tell us of the bleeding condition of the woman healed by touching Jesus’ robe. Mark tells us that she had suffered greatly at the hands of physicians. Luke, who was himself a physician, apparently didn’t feel we needed that bit of the story.

Can you see the human element of these texts? Can you see how God gave latitude to the authors? This makes the Bible more special in my eyes, that God was willing to partner with humans in getting his word to the world, just as he partners with us today in doing the same thing (See Matthew 28:19).

In the meantime, look at how Paul did not write his letters alone, but in partnering with others: Rom. 16:22, 1 Cor. 1:1, 2 Cor. 1:1, Gal. 1:1-2, Phil. 1:1, Col. 1:1, 1 Thess. 1:1, 2 Thess. 1:1, etc.

Next week we’ll unpack the last part of Bobby’s quote, specifically how God’s word may apply to specific times and places, verses all times and all places.

Common Myths Surrounding the Inspiration of Scripture

by Matthew Stidham, posted in How to Read the Bible

In these articles we have been discussing the ways many read the Bible incorrectly. I’m not talking about doctrinal interpretation, I’m talking about the very way we approach the book. I would encourage you to look at these past articles if you haven’t already:

Today, we are looking at the “inspiration” of Scripture. Paul wrote a letter to one of his coworkers named Timothy in which he gives this charge:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God  may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 NIV

What exactly did Paul mean by “God-breathed?” I grew up thinking that this process was much like the way we use voice-to-text with our cell phones today. Ask Siri to send a text message, you speak, and the person on the other end gets your words. Siri doesn’t shape your words, Siri doesn’t give the gist of your words, it is every word exactly as you speak it. This is how I viewed the process of the Holy Spirit inspiring the words of Scripture. The Spirit whispered in the ear of Paul, Peter, Luke, Matthew, and the others, and they wrote down every word in the exact order the Spirit spoke them. I guess you could summarize this process as “strict dictation.”

If this is so, why does Paul write differently than Peter? Why does Matthew write differently than John? Why does Luke include a story that Mark does not? Isn’t the same Holy Spirit behind the writing? Isn’t the same Holy Spirit dictating word for word to each writer? Why then are they different?

And therein lies the problem. We often try to remove the human element from Scripture, forgetting that the people writing these texts had a hand in their creation as well. They were not strictly taking dictation.

Bobby Valentine puts it this way:

“The Bible is inspired of God’s Holy Spirit through the words of human beings in specific historical circumstances. Thus it is literally the word of God and the word of humans. Thus the text was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and not Spanish, English or Southern. God’s word addressed them in that situation and may not be God’s directive for all time and all places.”

Bobby Valentine

We’ll unpack the last part of Bobby’s quote next week, and explore the context of these inspired writings next week. But if you want to see examples of this, look at the following passages…all true, but you can see the human element of the author at play:

Ask yourself: What are the differences in these passages, and why?

How To Know You’re Interpreting The Bible Correctly.

by Matthew Stidham, posted in How to Read the Bible

For the last five weeks we’ve been discussing reading the Bible as story. We’ve discussed Scot McKnight’s description of Scripture where he suggests that there are three “chapters,” or clearly defined sections to the Bible’s overarching story: theocracy (Gen. 1-1 Sam. 8), monarchy (1 Sam. 8 – Mal. 4), and Christocracy (Matthew 1-Rev. 20). It’s important to realize that God’s ultimate goal is to return us back to a theocracy through the redemptive work of Christ, and the final judgement of all people. Seriously, go read the last two chapters of Revelation and you’ll see an image of how God intended our existence to be in the beginning in the Garden.

Today we talk about the concept of Biblical interpretation. In my church heritage there has been a very big emphasis placed on the “plain reading of the Bible.” In other words, “…we don’t interpret the Bible, we simply do what it plainly says.” Lovely idea, but terribly inaccurate. Whether you like it or not, and whether you realize it or not, the Bible is interpreted by everyone.

Don’t believe me? When was the last time your church put an adulterer to death? (Lev. 20:10) Is your clothing made out of a blend of different materials? (Lev. 19:19) Did you greet everyone at worship with a holy kiss? (commanded 4 times in the NT, Rom. 16:16, 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12, 1 Thess. 5:26) Did all the men in your assembly lift their hands during every prayer? (1 Tim. 2:8)

If you didn’t do these things, even though a “plain reading” of Scripture clearly shows you should, then you are interpreting Scripture. And you should interpret Scripture! The only question is, “Am I interpreting Scripture properly?”

Bobby Valentine gives us the following suggestions for doing just that:

“Christian hermeneutics will always begin as a response to the God of all grace who has done great things. Christian interpretation will be rooted in the soul that is seeking to reflect God’s glorious image back into the created world around us. Christian biblical interpretation will begin in prayer and will be understood as ‘an act of worship.’ Thus, interpretation that does not begin in prayer and worship and result in the Spirit flowing through us to a vandalized world means we have a right to question if it is a valid hermeneutic or Christian interpretation. Prayer, Worship and reflecting God’s image: these are the beginning points and the ends/goals of interpretation.”

Bobby Valentine

Again the question isn’t if we interpret the Bible. The question is how we interpret. McKnight put sit this way:

“God speaks to us for a reason – I call this ‘missional’ listening. In brief, God tells his story so we can enter into a relationship with him, listen to him, and live out his Word in our day and in our way.”

Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet, 2nd Ed., pg. 113

If our interpretation of Scripture doesn’t affect our daily lives, it’s worthless. If our interpretation brings us into a place where we better reflect the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29 – remember we’re living in a Christocracy), then we can be confident in our approach to the Scriptures.

So, how is your interpretation of Scripture reflecting the image of Christ to others in your life?