What The Bible Is & What It's Not

Surprisingly (to me at least), many Christians exalt the Bible above its true nature. Some will claim it is inerrant; some will claim it is perfect; some will even claim it has co-equality with God. In holding these views they often believe their devotion to scripture is giving them a superior understanding. I think they have it backwards - in treating the Bible in this way they are missing out on some of the things that can be distilled from the power of scripture. That is to say, ironically, in this situation, more is less.

 

We'll save why they think as they do for another time, but suffice to say, I think there is only one reasonable way to view the Bible - that although the Bible is 'God-breathed' it is nevertheless an object of creation, not to be treated as perfect or inerrant, and certainly not to be worshipped or given primacy over, or equality with, God.

Looking at what the Bible is for a contemporary person, this leads us naturally to two questions:

1) Does the Bible contain enough content that, by itself, makes it sufficient for understanding one's sin and the need for salvation? In other words, can one find the path to Christianity with the Bible alone?

2) Does the Bible contain the maximum written content that can most comprehensively explicate the Christian faith?

The answer to the first question seems to be an unequivocal yes (see 2 Timothy 3:16, for example). That is to say, the Bible is sufficient to lead someone to understand the Christian faith and the need to act upon that understanding. But to the second question, the answer is clearly no - otherwise no conversations, commentary, Christian literature or personal prose would add anything to the process of Christian thinking, learning and understanding.

Clearly practicalities dictate that everything can't be contained in one book, and also that cultures change, minds evolve, perspectives alter, and values are augmented. Thus I think the best way to see the Bible is as a blueprint that contains all the necessary content for understanding one's sin and the need for salvation (and how to act upon that understanding), but also as a driving force that underpins and enriches all the other things necessary for our journey (conversations, commentary, Christian literature, personal prose, and so on). It is the point at which the eternal and the temporal interlock through the Incarnation, where, along with the Holy Spirit, scripture is the surrounding power that conveys this interlocking.

So the Bible is not maximally informative, nor can it ever be written at the optimum time in any one period in history - as it would inevitably be constrained by the limitations of the people that conveyed it at the time. Hence it seems to me that to make a sub-universe out of the Bible, and call it 'perfect' or 'flawless' or 'inerrant', is to miss the true power of it. To do so is rather like saying that a recipe is literally delicious or that it can literally feed the homeless. No, it only shows its power when seen as a created artefact that, as St Paul says, is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. In exalting it any higher one ends up limiting it by failing to invest in it enough of the human ingredients that bring to bear the flavour and nourishment that the recipe is constructed to produce.

The Bible works under the principle that 'less is more', in that potentially additional phrases would diminish the quality of scripture (see Revelation 22:18). But we are also told that it works under the principle that the removal of any part of it would also diminish scripture (see Revelation 22:19)*. So there is clear scriptural indication that the books of the Bible that we have amount to an optimum vehicle for our Christian development. But on top of this, we find that the majority of our Christian journey primes us to seek, learn, develop and grow under the maxim that 'more is more'. That is to say, our full personal development in Christ is inextricably linked to our being able to try to maximise our love, grace, kindness, wisdom, fruitful knowledge, humility, and overall spiritual excellence - consistent with what the book of Philippians describes, ‘imitating Christ’ and ‘pressing on towards the goal to which God has called us’.

Given the foregoing, it’s clear that the Bible is only going to be a constituent part of that - at least when juxtaposed alongside all the other extra-Biblical resources we have such as other people, other writings, and the rich variety of daily experiences, on top of the mobilisation of knowledge, imagination and culturally nuanced psychology that enable us to tap into the scriptural power of meaning in the first place.

Because of this - and what I'm going to say next often shocks people - it is actually not difficult to conceive of at least the possibility that such a thing as the best of all possible Christian handbooks (for whichever post-Biblical generation, or maybe even for any generation) would look like something different to the Bible if it were ever written. But once we see scripture for what it really is - a created object subjected (like Christ Himself) to the grumblings of earthly life and the flawed nature of human beings, scripture can more easily be seen as an optimal vehicle for learning about our salvation, but yet at the same time only an element of the contents of a full life for each of us on our Christian walk with God. 

Whenever the Bible was created, and whichever era it spanned, it would inevitably be constrained by the limitations of the people that conveyed it at the time - which rather does show that the only way to get the most out of scripture is to use it as the map for our journey.

My wife and I recently went on holiday to the North of England and saw some of the most beautiful lakes, mountains and waterfalls in Britain. It was truly wonderful to see so much of God's natural world left unsullied by human interference - but we still required a map to find our way around the different places. The reason the map works is because it is a representation of the territory we wished to explore. With the Bible we find we have a map, but of a different kind - because in analogical terms, if the Bible is the map, the territory we are trying to explore more of is God Himself. To make a god (small 'g') out of the Bible is rather like confusing a map of The Lake District with the real experience of those beautiful lakes, mountains and waterfalls.  It's a temptation that should be resisted.

 

* I think it's true that John was certainly speaking specifically about Revelation here - but I think our forefathers were guided by the Spirit to set it as an application to the whole of scripture (there are echoes of it in Deuteronomy 4:2 for example). Jesus echoes some of this too with His warnings about false teachings.