Hi friends. Happy Wednesday! As I have begun the journey of making my faith my own, a core tenant of exploration for me has become “figuring out how to handle the Bible.” Now, I studied the Bible for 4 years in college. I took almost every New Testament class offered, including Greek. To this day, I still read through the Bible in it’s entirety almost every year. I hold the value of Scripture highly in my own life; I don’t want you to doubt that! But as I’ve been asking questions and trying to make sense of the discrepancies I feel between the Big C Church of America and the Jesus my heart loves intimately, so much of what I’m pointed to is Scripture. Which makes all of my education and experience collide into one big jumble: how are we, as Christ followers living 2000+ years after his life, supposed to interpret the Scriptures? In school, we learned a ton about context. Which books of the Bible have definite authors, and which we are making a good guess on. IS Luke’s Theophilus an actual person, or a hypothetical, general “friend of God”, meaning anyone who happens to pick up the letter? We learned the chronological sequence of events, looked at discrepancies in the Gospels, and wrestled with the difficult passages of both the old and new testaments. We dug deep, and I am better for it.
I really like Rob Bell! I'll have to check out "What is the Bible? How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything"
I've been reading a lot of books but I admit that they are more universalist in nature...but I'll happily share the Christian ones that I love: "Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi" by Richard Rohr and "Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations" by Matthew Fox.
"We dug deep, and I am better for it." Keep digging deep, with the Holy Spirit as your guide. I read the Bible accompanied by the Bible Recap last year and loved it.
What to Do with The Bible?
I really like Rob Bell! I'll have to check out "What is the Bible? How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything"
I've been reading a lot of books but I admit that they are more universalist in nature...but I'll happily share the Christian ones that I love: "Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi" by Richard Rohr and "Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations" by Matthew Fox.
"We dug deep, and I am better for it." Keep digging deep, with the Holy Spirit as your guide. I read the Bible accompanied by the Bible Recap last year and loved it.
Keep struggling and keep seeking wisdom. Thanks for letting me listen in.