Diversity in Scripture makes it timeless

The Rev. Marcus McFaul, senior pastor, First Baptist Church, 1330 Kasold Drive:

The Bible has 66 “books.” It is a library, not a single book, with many different recipients. One doesn’t read all the books in a library in the same way, just as you didn’t read every book you opened this summer in the same way. Diverse literary genres fill the Bible, from poetry to song to dreamlike visions to historiography to Gospel to multiple epistles.

Paul’s letters, for example, were part of his ministry in absentia and give us a window to his relationship with those house churches. We are reading their mail – a correspondence between apostle and congregation; a particular people in a particular setting in a particular time. It isn’t wise to collapse the distance between original writer and reader. As Fred Craddock has commented, “Paul wrote no third-class circulars addressed to ‘Occupant, Graeco-Roman World.'”

So Paul wrote letters to congregations, not to the church universal. However, to call a writing “scripture” is to acknowledge that it also has a word for us today. In reading sacred text together we can discern timeless truth which can shape and form our lives as the people of God.

Karl Barth said that reading the Bible is like looking out of a window and seeing everybody on the street shading their eyes with their hands, looking up into the sky toward something which is hidden from us by the roof. They are excited, pointing up, speaking strange new words. Something has captured their hearts. Our hearts, like that of the original reader, can be captured, too.

We saw what happened when the living word of God captured Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Albert Schweitzer followed the parables of Jesus to Lambarene, where there in Africa he set up a medical clinic. He left his comfortable European life as a physician. He left his organ and his Bach. He left his theological textbooks and teaching position and followed Jesus to the poor in Africa. I hear that God’s word still finds newfound recipients.

– Send e-mail to Marcus McFaul at office@firstbaptist.lawrence.ks.us.

The Bible was written for the benefit of all

Rob Martin, pastor, Vineyard Church (meets at South Park Recreation Center, 1141 Mass.):

Simply, it was written for both. Different sections or books of the Bible were written by an individual to a group of people. These ancient writings have a context from the times they were written. So it is reasonable to believe that because of these time-dependent contexts, the writings apply only to those from that time.

As Christians, we believe the Bible was written as the voice of God, through the hand of man(kind). God’s inspiration to the writers continues to tell the story of God’s relationship with us, his creation.

The uniqueness of the Bible is that, although written by specific individuals to specific people, it is a living word written to all. To understand what it means today, we need to understand what it meant then. By reading and seeking what it meant then, we can go on to understand what it means for our context today.

If we read the Bible just for today without understanding the context, we may seriously misinterpret what it means and create a legalism that is not from God. Many abuses have occurred because of a very strict reading of the Bible. At the same time, many misunderstandings also occur from interpreting the Bible too loosely. We sometimes interpret the Bible to say things for our lifestyle that are not aligned with the intent of God’s voice. The Bible has a gyroscopic quality that will bring balance if the whole of it is considered.

As we read the Bible, we ought to read it with two thoughts in mind – what it meant in the time it was written and what it means to us today. I would recommend reading “How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth” by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, an excellent book on literary genres within the Bible.

– Send e-mail to Rob Martin at robmartin@lawrencevineyard.org.