The latest thing in naked power grabs disguised as religious movements is called The Conservative Bible Project, launched by Conservapedia, a web site whose title page proudly proclaims The Truth Shall Set You Free. My uncle used to tell me that when the salesman said, “let me tell you the truth,” you should get a tight hold of your wallet. It seems to be the intent of this project to provide “a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias.” I must have missed the day at seminary where they covered the corrupting liberal bias of the Bible.
I’m keen to see how that will be accomplished. I wonder what method they will use to unearth the lost conservative ideas behind such seemingly liberal sayings as:
• The laborer deserves to be paid.
• Whoever is not against us is for us.
• Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
• One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
• Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s …
• Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
• Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.
• If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also …
• Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor …
Those are just some of the sayings of Jesus from the Gospels. Lord help them if they try to read Isaiah.
All ludicrousness aside, behind this farce lies an interesting and important question. Since the Protestant Reformation, the supreme authority of what the Bible says has been taken as a article of faith for the church. What has never been answered completely is, what does the Bible say?
There is an assumption, of course, vital to fundamentalists everywhere, that the Bible is perfectly coherent and without guile or subtlety, that it speaks for itself and, as such, is the right and final authority for faith and life. Which must be why fundamentalist preachers spend so much time telling me what the Bible says. And even that works fairly well, until I find out that the Bible in fact tells me something else than what the preacher told me it said, hence requiring some momentous effort like the Conservative Bible Project to come along and save us all from these terrors.
Or we could just listen to the man who saved the Bible from the Dark Ages.
Luther taught us that the authority of the Bible comes not by its words, but from the giver of the Word, from the God of Scripture himself. He reminds us, as if we need to be reminded, that “God and the Scripture of God are two things, no less than the Creator and the creature are two things.” (Bondage of the Will) If he were with us today, I think he would find our obsession with the words of the Bible sinful and idolatrous, though neither new nor original. The Bible has become a modern Golden Calf, over which we cavort and screech every time we find its words in agreement with our own internal spiritual bias.
Luther once said that, left to our own devices, mankind would always seek to remake God in his own image. Or, at least in this case, to remake his Bible. The sense of distrust and despair, the fear that the words of the Bible could or should be written in any particular human viewpoint, is breathtaking. To reduce faith to the margins of human words is to grind it to dust and mix it in water and drink it. Which was what Moses did with the Golden Calf. This is the inspired Word of God, the Holy Spirit resides and reigns over it and speaks truth through it and calls and enlightens us by it. It does not need our help.
It does not deserve our scorn.
Maybe the greatest sin of all is the conceit which imagines to know the true but hidden intent, to see that which has been kept from the whole world until now. It is the greatest power move of all, tried and true, in which hearts have been broken, families and communities rent asunder, and much blood shed. It is the founding principle of radical elements of every great religion – Christian, Jewish, Islamic. Unable to submit to the Word, let us rewrite the texts themselves, and unlock the great secret and reveal that we were right the whole time.
As if there was any secret to what the Bible says.
There is, in fact, only one principal interpretive key, which cannot be cheaply labeled as either conservative or liberal. It is the cross of Jesus Christ, the power and the promise of a God who sacrifices his own best and most beloved for our salvation, who calls us to conform our lives that to this first and best example of self-giving love.
To know Christ, and, as Paul reminds us, to know “nothing … except him crucified,” is to be the master of Scriptures and the possessor of its every secret meaning. Even as God found the very human figure of Christ sufficient for the salvation of the whole creation, let us, by our faith, turn these pages and know that all we need has always been there.
I’m keen to see how that will be accomplished. I wonder what method they will use to unearth the lost conservative ideas behind such seemingly liberal sayings as:
• The laborer deserves to be paid.
• Whoever is not against us is for us.
• Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
• One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
• Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s …
• Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
• Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.
• If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also …
• Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor …
Those are just some of the sayings of Jesus from the Gospels. Lord help them if they try to read Isaiah.
All ludicrousness aside, behind this farce lies an interesting and important question. Since the Protestant Reformation, the supreme authority of what the Bible says has been taken as a article of faith for the church. What has never been answered completely is, what does the Bible say?
There is an assumption, of course, vital to fundamentalists everywhere, that the Bible is perfectly coherent and without guile or subtlety, that it speaks for itself and, as such, is the right and final authority for faith and life. Which must be why fundamentalist preachers spend so much time telling me what the Bible says. And even that works fairly well, until I find out that the Bible in fact tells me something else than what the preacher told me it said, hence requiring some momentous effort like the Conservative Bible Project to come along and save us all from these terrors.
Or we could just listen to the man who saved the Bible from the Dark Ages.
Luther taught us that the authority of the Bible comes not by its words, but from the giver of the Word, from the God of Scripture himself. He reminds us, as if we need to be reminded, that “God and the Scripture of God are two things, no less than the Creator and the creature are two things.” (Bondage of the Will) If he were with us today, I think he would find our obsession with the words of the Bible sinful and idolatrous, though neither new nor original. The Bible has become a modern Golden Calf, over which we cavort and screech every time we find its words in agreement with our own internal spiritual bias.
Luther once said that, left to our own devices, mankind would always seek to remake God in his own image. Or, at least in this case, to remake his Bible. The sense of distrust and despair, the fear that the words of the Bible could or should be written in any particular human viewpoint, is breathtaking. To reduce faith to the margins of human words is to grind it to dust and mix it in water and drink it. Which was what Moses did with the Golden Calf. This is the inspired Word of God, the Holy Spirit resides and reigns over it and speaks truth through it and calls and enlightens us by it. It does not need our help.
It does not deserve our scorn.
Maybe the greatest sin of all is the conceit which imagines to know the true but hidden intent, to see that which has been kept from the whole world until now. It is the greatest power move of all, tried and true, in which hearts have been broken, families and communities rent asunder, and much blood shed. It is the founding principle of radical elements of every great religion – Christian, Jewish, Islamic. Unable to submit to the Word, let us rewrite the texts themselves, and unlock the great secret and reveal that we were right the whole time.
As if there was any secret to what the Bible says.
There is, in fact, only one principal interpretive key, which cannot be cheaply labeled as either conservative or liberal. It is the cross of Jesus Christ, the power and the promise of a God who sacrifices his own best and most beloved for our salvation, who calls us to conform our lives that to this first and best example of self-giving love.
To know Christ, and, as Paul reminds us, to know “nothing … except him crucified,” is to be the master of Scriptures and the possessor of its every secret meaning. Even as God found the very human figure of Christ sufficient for the salvation of the whole creation, let us, by our faith, turn these pages and know that all we need has always been there.
What's a good Lutheran to do, Glen, when she finds herself doubting this most basic tenet of the Christian faith, "nothing...except Him crucified?" Although I continue to pray to my universal God, in whom I must believe, I can no longer align my beliefs with any particular religious faith. I'm struggling to understand what led me to question the validity of any organized religion, my own in particular. Where can someone like me worship and enjoy the fellowship of others? Truth be told, if a new congregation of like-believers were to form, I would find myself disillusioned as soon as an attempt were made to formalize our beliefs! Thank God for your essays, which resonate within me in spite of my doubt. Please pray for me as I seek spiritual direction and focus.
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