Tainted Perfection

When I consider the big picture of the universe and science I see...

• majesty and awe-inspiring beauty and coherence and intricacy from the macro to the micro
• ample scientific and intuitive evidence (for me) of an extra-universe creator/designer
• Lots of particulars evidencing imperfections and natural processes

When I consider the big picture of human beings I see...

• a majestic and remarkable phenomenon, biologically, socially, intellectually, etc. "God-like" to some extent. A stamp of the "divine."
• a remarkable likeness to the animal kingdom. A stamp of the "natural."
• pervasive dysfunction. Something has gone wrong.

When I consider the big picture of the 66 books known as the bible I see...

• grandeur, majesty, truth, revelation, a coherent story. "Inspired," if you will.
• particulars evidencing contradictions, inaccuracies, cultural influences, human fingerprints

As an evangelical, I was allowed to believe that human beings were tainted perfection; I was allowed to believe in a universe that revealed God, but was marred; but when it came to the bible I was to see it as perfect and without taint, and to see it otherwise would obviate its ability to reveal meaningful truth about God.

Is it not possible to believe that the universe can reveal to us a lot about God without needing to be a perfect revelation? Is it not possible to believe that the bible can teach us a lot about God without needing to be a perfect revelation?

Oh, but once you give up the 100% verbal inspiration of the bible, and its necessary follow-on of inerrancy... you open the flood gates to liberalism, you start down the slippery slope toward atheism.

That may be true. But do we hang on to a belief that is not true in order to protect ourselves from falsehood?

This is a revolution going on in my own life right now. I have either believed unquestionably in the bible, or I have jettisoned it completely. I seem to be pulled in the third way lately... the bible "contains" truth.

This is at once liberating, exciting, challenging, and scary. It's a lot easier to just say it's all true, and then ignore or try to resolve the "apparent contradictions" and "apparent scientific inaccuracies." But in some ways I feel like I'm liberating God from the box he's been shoved into. I'm free to explore and discover who he really is!

This is where evangelicals will say it all goes wrong... because once you lose the bible as inerrant truth, you end up believing anything, or nothing.

That's a valid point. When people abandon the inerrancy of the scripture, they do tend to come up with some pretty whacky stuff! On the other hand, people who believe in the inerrancy of scripture have come up with lots of whacky stuff too.

The metaphor of forensics just came to me. For the most part, people described in the bible lived out their relationship to God existentially. The scriptures are the forensic evidence left over. An attempt to record God's dealing with man. Forensic evidence is often tainted. And it can be easily misinterpreted. But you can generally use it to help point you to truth. The truth is there. It is "perfect." The evidence you bring may not be perfect, even when it substantiates the truth. Some evidence is found to be unreliable, and needs to be chucked. Some evidence is incontrovertible. Is it possible that the bible is a huge collection of forensic evidence? Some incontrovertible, some imperfect but helpful, and some just not true? How does one determine?

The creation of the "canon," of course, was a human attempt to do just that... separate the reliable evidence from the unreliable. There's nothing wrong with that process, right? And to my knowledge, God never told us, "These are the 66 books that are to be believed; reject the rest." It was a human process. Some books made it, others didn't, and some were on the fringe. Each group tries to identify that which is reliable from that which isn't. And so, if you ask Jews, Catholics, protestants, Muslims, Mormons, Christian Scientists, etc., which books belong within the circle, they would all give you different lists. Heck, even Luther wanted to exclude the book of James! My point is that it is an inherently human process (although each group claims, of course, that it was a process superintended by God). Once the process is completed, you can admit that books outside the circle contain truth, or substantiate what the books inside the circle claim; however, you can't admit that the books inside the circle contain any error. This leads to a transition of belief about these books... Accepting what they say becomes a "matter of faith," no longer subject to intellectual scrutiny. What's up with that?? By accepting them on faith, what you are in effect doing is trusting a previous generation's intellectual scrutiny. And they may have never originally intended to mean that by including them within the circle they were affirming that everything within them was 100% true... but it is almost inevitably what happens with subsequent generations.

Sorting out the wheat from the chaff... It would be safe to say that the literary, textual, philosophical, and scientific criticism of the bible over the last few centuries has been an attempt to do just that. When you take off the inspired/inerrant goggles and examine the bible fairly, like you would any other book... it's pretty messy. Tainted perfection.

"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." (2 Corinthians 4)

Paul was certainly not referring to the scriptures in this passage, but I like the picture. The picture of us, being jars of clay, imperfect, human, cracked... but through whom the light of God shows through. Can we not view the scriptures that way? Like jars of clay? But through whom the glory of God shines through??

The question that remains, however, is not "Is all the evidence that has been brought to the table 100% reliable and inerrant?", but rather, "When you give proper weight and credit to each piece of evidence submitted, what truth does it point to?" To me, this is a much more fruitful question and process.

Let's stop deifying the bible!!

But in my tradition, to give up inerrancy is to give up God. So it's a scary proposition for me. I want to believe. (I identify with Mulder.) But I no longer want to idoloize the bible. It is grand, majestic, without equal. But it is tainted. As are we. Can't we just admit that?? I think the focus on inerrancy has caused way more heat than light; it clouds the issues. Maybe inerrancy was a doctrine cooked up by the devil to distract us??

I love truth. And since I was little, I've wanted nothing more than to know God, and the truth about God. (Whoops, I just slipped and typed dog by mistake. I'm not inerrant.) And, as I mentioned before, on this pursuit of truth, the truth about God, I have either accepted the bible carte blanche, or I have likewise set it aside carte blanche. And this time it's the middle way. I CAN'T set it aside. There's something real there. But neither can I accept it unquestioningly anymore. It's friggin' messy.

The biggest intellectual challenge I have with setting aside inerrancy is the bible's statements about itself. For example, when someone says, "I believe that Jesus was a great moral teacher," and you respond, "Yes, but he CLAIMED to be God. Was he wrong about that??", it is somewhat similar to me saying that the Scriptures contain very important truth about God, and someone responding, "But it CLAIMS to be Truth/the Word of God. Is it wrong about that??" It's a complicated problem, to be sure. You might say that once you dismiss inerrancy then what the bibles claims about itself becomes irrelevant; it's just circular reasoning. You might also say that in validating itself as the Word of God, it isn't necessarily making the case for inerrancy. However, you have to explain the following:

• The gospels (including Jesus) and epistles refer to many events in the OT as literal, factual events... creation, adam, the flood, cain and abel, abraham/isaac/jacob, the exodus, sinai, david, etc. etc.
• The NT says that Paul wrote that all scripture (referring to the old testament) is inspired by God and useful for, etc.
• The NT says that Peter mentioned Paul's letters alongside of "other scriptures."
• The gospels record Jesus rebuffing satan using scriptural quotations.
• The gospels record Jesus saying "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (Matthew 5:18)
• The gospels record that Jesus often taught from the law, prophets, and writings... before and after his crucifixion/resurrection. It never mentions him saying, "Don't believe this part."
• The Old Testament is replete with praise for the law, word of God, etc. (See Psalm 119). This would seem to be speaking primarily of the Pentateuch, or more specifically the covenant at Sinai. (This DOES seem to be an example of "idolizing the bible," in a sense.)

These are not easy data to explain. It does cause me to lose sleep. However, when forced to choose between the challenges of inerrancy and the challenges just mentioned, I choose the latter. The claim to inerrancy is such a grand claim that it demands equally grand proof; and I just don't think it's there. In fact, it only takes ONE disproof to take down the whole edifice. ONE.

I think it's possible to have a "high" view of scripture, without subscribing to inerrancy. And I suppose that is what I have been advocating for in this post... a high view of scripture. It is wonderful, life-giving, revealing, imperfect. It is like us. It is like the creation. The image of the divine all over it, with many natural/human fingerprints.

As an aside, those who take a low view of scripture will often say that Jesus was the only true, real, accurate expression of the divine "word." They then for certain need to have a low view of what the Scripture teaches about Jesus, for it paints him as one who had a high view of scripture!

So, I am being challenged to pursue God, the God of the bible, without the presupposition of inerrancy. It's tough. I would liken it to a devout Catholic who finally admits that the pope is not infallible. Can he continue to believe in the God taught about by the Catholic Church when he doesn't believe what the church teaches about itself? It's a dilemma. However, I believe he can come to the place where he says, "The church contains truth about God, but it is not 100% infallible in all things at all times." Likewise, I, must walk a more mature path.

The other thing I think I'm being called to is parallel tracks. In the past, when I have seriously studied theology, I have set aside my "personal" walk with God. I have always found it difficult to have a one-on-one "walk with God," when I am in the midst of authentically scrutinizing my beliefs. I mean, how do you talk to God, when you are questioning whether he is even there, or what he's about?? However, how can you claim to be pursuing the truth about God, when you have effectively banished him from your life? So, this time, I am seeking the both/and way... academically and intellectually pursuing truth about God, and devotionally seeking connection with God. It's a challenge!

In case you have not been steeped in inerrancy teaching, here is a summary of the doctrine, taken from the "Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy." (http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago1.html)

A Short Statement

[on biblical inerrancy]

1. God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God's witness to Himself.

2. Holy Scripture, being God's own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it affirms: obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God's pledge, in all that it promises.

3. The Holy Spirit, Scripture's divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.

4. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God's acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives.

5. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible's own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.

PS - Every time I write "inerrancy," blogger gives it a squiggly red underline, not recognizing the word. Damn liberals!

Wikipedia links

Bibliolatry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliolatry

Inerrancy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_inerrancy

Canon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon