No Spare Tire: The Wise Old Sage

The Wise Old Sage

In case you haven't read any of the first two posts, I have been pondering over a dream about the Bible being called a spare tire. The first post concluded with the analogy that reading Scripture is like wrestling with it because it can be hard to come to terms with. The second post dove more deeply into that theme, suggesting that the violence of the Old Testament and the failures of humanity operated as a mirror being held up to us that simply reflects the realities of human existence, and we don't like that. Now, though, I'd like to recognize another facet of why we sometimes avoid the Bible; it was written two thousand years ago.

I've seen the criticism in online interactions that we don't need to pay attention to what the Bible says because it's 2000+ years old. I haven't seen Christians say it as much, but at one time in my life, I have felt that way, and I know I'm not alone. Even though people quote 2 Timothy 3:16 to affirm the validity of the Bible, we sometimes worry that Scripture can't speak into our modern-day lives. Those who lived in the 1st-century were ruled by empires and most westernized countries today have some kind of democracy. They also didn't have excellent healthcare and access to fantastic technology like we do. They didn't know the sun was the center of the solar system, and they didn't even know about the force of gravity. 

That's all true, they didn't have those things (except Athens had a form of democracy as long as you were male), and they didn't have electricity. People then knew something wasn't quite right about the world. They knew about the pressure to attain success and the pressure to provide for their families. They had broken relationships. Many were, for the most part, religious. Most had civic obligations. A lot dealt with many vices and even addiction. They lived in fear sometimes that their nation's enemy could swoop in and take away everything they knew and loved about their lives. 

The above topics aren't very different from what we deal with today, and they too are addressed in the pages of the Bible. The temptation to dismiss what the Bible says because of its age is kind of an old idea itself that became popular during the Enlightenment era (around 1685 – 1815). The Roman Catholic Church saw itself as the sole authority on matters of faith and God's creation and would not recognize new ideas or science. There was also religious warfare within Christianity (look up what happened with the Anabaptists). So, thinkers began to reject what the Christian tradition had to say about things like science and reason. The Christian framework for viewing reality became opposed to the rationality that the Enlightenment thinkers promoted. Considering the behavior of the large majority of the Church at that time and the previous 100 years, it's not that surprising. 

The temptation to reject what is old also made its way into early Evangelicalism, which is prominent in the United States. Alexander Campbell, a popular leader in the Restorationist movement, unwisely said, "I have endeavored to read the Scriptures as though no one had read them before me." He seemed not to care much about how others before him taught the Bible. 

Instead of rejecting everything because the ones in charge behaved poorly, what we need to do to help us get in the right mindset to read the Bible, is to reorient how we think about the past and how the past can speak to us today. We do that by understanding the Bible is concerned with our spiritual state and what(who) it takes to save it over and above anything else, like science. Our spiritual life is connected to the one whose image we are made; God's image. Because we are made in God's image, our spiritual life impacts the rest of our life, and it's the Bible that God has chosen to reveal these truths to us. So, the Bible is the terrain on which Christians should map their lives. 

The Bible speaks strangely because it is like a person who has a long memory, is well-traveled, and has seen and understood things in life that not everyone has come across before. We sometimes refer to people like that as sages because they are packed with wisdom and willingness to share it with people eager to listen. This isn't a perfect analogy, and it's not designed to be, but it's meant to help those reluctant to pick up their Bibles. While rethinking and hopefully re-reading, listening to what people in the past have said concerning what the Bible teaches might be helpful. One of the significant passages contained in the Bible is what the author of Hebrews calls the "great cloud of witness (Heb 12:1)." It represents the believers in God/Christ of the past, present, and future. These people are in the spiritual family of God, which makes them part of your family as well; if you've accepted Christ as your savior. So, you must hear what they say because it can significantly benefit your faith. 

I hope you were edified and encouraged by this and the other two posts. The change in attitude about reading the Bible doesn't happen overnight, but I'm confident that a change for the better can happen. Lean into the Holy Spirit for guidance. Trust in the people around you who have a heart for Christ reflected in word and deed because they've been genuinely formed by what the Bible proclaims. You will be blessed by that and, in turn, help bless others. In the next and final post, I will describe what is worse than a spare tire.

Resources:

Christopher A. Hall, Reading Scripture With the Church Fathers (Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL, 1998).