What the Bible is, and is not

When we read the Bible, we must understand what is and what it is not. The Bible is the inspired word of God, given to the human race as a guide to direct us in all matters of faith and practice. It is the revelation of God given to us to tell us things about God, ourselves, and spiritual matters that we have no other way to know. It is in essence a love letter from God to mankind, telling us of His love for us and the great lengths He is willing to go to in order to restore a relationship with Him. A relationship which we turned our backs on. It is our rebellious nature that needs to be fixed in order to be have a right relationship with God.
When the Bible speaks on a subject, it speaks authoritatively and truthfully. We must, however, be careful to accurately dig out the meaning of scripture. How often have cults or misguided spiritual leaders twisted scripture to support their own perspective. If we are to be diligent in our efforts to determine the true meaning of scripture, we must dedicate ourselves to study. By prayerful study and being open to learning from qualified, godly teachers, we will do well in our efforts to learn the true message of the Bible.
Now we must talk about what the Bible is not. For this discussion I must say the Bible is not a science text. The goal of scripture is not to teach us science. When scripture touches on science, it speaks with authority, but we must be careful in how we interpret it. When scripture says 'the sun rises', it does not mean that the Earth is stationary and the sun is revolving around the Earth. That was the teaching of the Church in the middle ages, but we no longer believe that; science has revealed that our planet is not the center of the universe, that it in fact moves around the sun. The world is not flat. When scripture says 'the sun rises', it means from the perspective of the viewer, the sun appears to rise in the sky. Do you now see what I mean about being careful when we interpret scripture. Look at it this way; how many of you would have surgery performed by a doctor whose only knowledge of surgery was learned from the Bible. Or, how many of you would fly in an airplane built by an engineer whose only knowledge of aeronautics was learned from the Bible. Why do we then settle for an interpretation of the physical creation based only on what the Bible says about it? God tells us in Romans 1:19-20, that He reveals Himself in creation. He has also given us the tools to study the creation, the sciences, even if we are imperfect in how we use the sciences. We must be as diligent when we interpret the findings of science as we are when we interpret scripture, and we must sometimes question the motives of some scientists as we must sometimes question the motives of certain religious leaders.

Let's Begin at the Beginning

How do we explain the universe? What do we know about its origin, after all none of us were there at the beginning. Only God can legitimately make that claim. The bible tells us something about the creation of the universe but the creation story has caused confusion for a couple of hundred years now. Up until the time that geology developed into a science, the creation was understood only by the Genesis account, and that was enough. It was hard enough for people to survive day to day, much less contemplate the physical universe. With the development of geology as a science, and the western world moving into a period where formal education was becoming more commonplace, we began to see that Genesis was inadequate to fully explain the physical characteristics of the earth.
It is fairly obvious now, to almost everyone, that the earth at least 'looks' old. I think only in the Church do folks believe the Earth to be young. By young, I mean the calculation that the Earth was created in 4004 BC (Julian calendar), by Bishop James Ussher in 1654. Where do we turn, if we pursue truth we have to make a choice. Do we trust science and discount Genesis as mere myth, something for the uneducated dupes. Or, do we mistrust science and hold to the idea of 'scripture only'. Therein lies the problem. Almost everyone comes down on one side or the other and this chasm between the two ideas seems to wide to bridge.
I would now like to propose an alternate idea. I believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God, without error in its original form. I aslo believe the bible is literally true, but cannot always be taken literally. This is what I mean, some parts or books of the bible are historical, some are prophetic, some are law, some are poetry, etc. The Bible cannot always be interpreted literally. Secondly, the bible does not always say what we think it says. For example, how many people believe there were only three wise men that came to see Christ after His birth. Actually, there would have been a large number of wise men and many servants and guards that came to pay homage to the King of the Jews. Culturally, that is how this would have been done. It would have been a long and difficult trip, there would have bandits along the way, they would have had to obtain food and water, care for a large number of animals, etc. This would have been a major undertaking. But, because the bible only mentions three gifts, many assume this means there were only three wise men. The Bible must be read with at least some understanding of the cultural and historical context in which it was written.
On the other hand, even though we have made great progress in the sciences, science is not the final word of truth. We still have a lot to learn. We are doing pretty good but the march forward continues. So, we cannot say that science has trumped scripture. I stated before that I believe when scripture is rightly understood and science is rightly understood there will be no conflict. I believe the creation is old, the universe on the order of 13 billion years and the Earth on the order of 4-5 billion years. When God created the universe that included time, the physical laws that govern how things work, and God created science. Romans 1:19-20 tells us that God reveals Himself to man through the creation. If we are to understand God better we need to study it, thats why He gave us science. Now we have something to talk about.

Defining Terms

One of the parameters that must be defined for this blog is how I use the words 'God' and 'bible' or 'His Word.' When I make reference to the bible I am referring to the King James Version or one of it's derivatives; New International Version, Revised Standard Version, New Living Translation, etc. The particular version is not as important as the ability to access the text in it's original languages, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. With online sources and software this is easily done. I have a healthy scepticism of 'religion' so I will not be arguing from the perspective of any particular one. I will be reasoning from the bible. When I speak about God, I am speaking about the God of the bible, who He says He is, and how scripture describes His character, attributes, and acts. This must be the criteria used as the foundation for this discussion. There must be some common ground to start with, if we can't agree here then a site that deals with apologetics might be a better place to start.

All Truth is God's Truth

If something is true, it is true whether we know about it, whether we believe it, or whether we care about it. It just is, that is the nature of truth. Truth is external and objective. Now if God is the author of truth, and scripture says He is, then nothing that is true can threaten Him or threaten His word. Well, one might say, what about all the science that contradicts the bible! This one idea has created much division within the church and between the church and the secular world. It is time to confront this division, to begin to heal this artificial rift. I am proposing to use this blog as a dialogue for anyone who is interested in following these ideas of theology and science to see where they meet and how they complete and support one another. I believe when scripture is rightly understood and science is rightly understood there will be no conflict.