Sunday, February 26, 2006

Importance of the Bible

The Bible claims to be inspired by God. It claims to be a direct revelation of what God considers to be the most important things for us to know.

It doesn’t tell us everything we’d like to know. It doesn’t even tell us everything we need to know. There is much that we need to know to function in our everyday lives that Bible is silent about. The Bible doesn’t claim to be a
complete repository of all knowledge. It claims to be the final word on what is most important.

But this presents us with some problems. How do we decide exactly what the Bible says?

I addressed this in my previous post. And you may have gotten lost in all the detail. But the one thing I want you to grasp clearly is that understanding and interpreting the Bible is not like solving a math equation.

It requires scholarly tools and spiritual discernment. Unfortunately, there are many “Bible scholars” who do not even believe in a personal God, much less that Jesus is the incarnated Word. So you have to pick your “experts” with some care. There are also many well-intentioned, godly people who routinely misinterpret the Bible. Godliness is not a protection against a lack of information. The "bird" of Bible interpretation needs both wings to fly.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

1 comment:

Don said...

"understanding and interpreting the Bible is not like solving a math equation"

This is very true, but how much I wish it were like solving a math equation, as then I would "have it" and could be done with it. However, besides just teaching us, God wants to change us through meditation on His word.