We can all see what the Bible says. But what does it mean?
How do you interpret the Bible?
Here’s how I decide what it means. Between audio, print, and screen, I’ve been through the entire Bible hundreds of times, and this is what guides me:
I believe we need to start here: If some rogue asteroid plowed into our planet tomorrow and wiped all humanity out of existence, would God die too?
Nope.
No, He would not. God is not a human construct, a figment of our collective imagination, an imaginary friend.
God is who He is. In order to exist, God doesn’t need me; I need Him.
This is why I don’t have a problem with God being supernatural. I don’t have a problem with Him creating the heavens and the earth. I don’t have a problem with the Red Sea parting, Jesus rising from the dead, the axhead floating, a fish swallowing a wayward prophet. I don’t read these stories as the gullibility of an ancient and ignorant people. Rather I see these acts as all part of a working day for a supernatural God.
When I go to interpret the Bible, I don’t try to strip it of the supernatural. I don’t try to tame it or tame Him. I don’t try to get God under my control so He no longer has the power to threaten me.
I let God be God. Or at least I aim to do that.
I believe God is good. So when I read something in the Bible that bewilders me, I don’t immediately try to gut it of all meaning. I ponder it. I ask myself: What is it that I don’t understand here about the goodness of God?
I am fallible. Our culture is fallible. Our collective values are subject to error. But God is not. Through that lens I see God having the right to judge people and nations, to intervene any way He chooses.
That doesn’t mean I always “get it” or like it. On the contrary, I often can’t explain it. But at the end of the day, I need to let God be God.
I believe the Bible is the foundational way in which God talks with us. It’s not the only way, but it’s generally the most reliable way.
As a result, I take the Bible at face value. I believe it says what it means and it means what it says. I aim to let its message mold me rather than trying to mold its meaning to fit my politics, my theology, my biases, my ideas.
Over the last couple hundred years, many people have been persuaded that interpreting the Bible “literally” is a sign of stunted intellectual growth, of ignorance, of a lack of sophistication.
Meh.
How do we interpret any other message from someone we trust? Hmm?
I trust its message. I believe it to be honest, reliable, straight forward.
Yes, I understand that the Bible sometimes speaks in metaphor, in parable, in symbolism. But those instances are pretty clearly delineated to even a casual reader.
And yes, I understand that the Bible sometimes has a message or a command that applied to a specific person or people group at a specific time for a specific reason—and that message or command no longer applies to us today. But again, if you’re paying attention, those things are—as a rule—easy to identify.
Finally, I believe the Bible is God’s message. It’s meaning cannot be fully unlocked without bringing God into the process of understanding. When we approach God’s word and God Himself with humility, with a teachable heart, and with a desire to honor Him, I believe He will show us what we need to understand of its meaning.
Have a super weekend!
Dwight
