A series overviewing the Bible. The first installment was 1 The Story of the Bible. The second installment started with Creation.
Alienation from God
Although Jews and Christians believe that God created a world that is good, Christians do not believe that the world is currently as it could or should be. Throughout the centuries, most Christians have looked to Genesis 3 as the explanation for why the world is separated from God, although some might prefer to say that it is more an expression of our current alienation from God.
Genesis 2 starts by giving us another perspective on God's creation of life, one that focuses especially on the creation of humanity. God creates a man first, "Adam," a word that is related to the word for earth. God in fact makes Adam from the ground. God takes the ground and breathes spirit into it, and Adam becomes a living being (Gen. 2:7). [1]
Then God creates the other animals, but he creates them in male-female pairs. Surely Adam begins to realize that there are pairs for all the other animals, but that he does not have a female like the other creatures. So God puts him into a sleep and creates a female from him, "Eve." She is to be at his side as a partner with him in the world. [2]
Chapter 3 then tells the story of humanity's alienation from God. God puts Adam and Eve in a garden, the Garden of Eden, and assigns them the task of taking care of it (Gen. 2:15). There are two very special trees there. One, the tree of life, would enable Adam and Eve to live forever.
The other is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God tells them not to eat from this tree. It represents a choice that Adam and Eve have. Will they serve God as God, as the most important being, as the absolute and final authority over everything? Or will they rebel and foolishly try to be little gods on their own?
In the end, they eat from the tree, seduced by a snake in the garden. [3] As a result, they are banished from the garden. And as they have turned from God, God explains to them the consequences of their rebellion (Gen. 3:14-19). Men will have to work hard to get the land to yield its fruit. Women will have painful childbirth and will find themselves subordinate to their husbands. Snakes will go on their bellies and will find in humans a mortal enemy. Most significantly of all, Adam and Eve cannot eat from the tree of life and thus face death as their fate.
Certainly the people of Israel, for whom Genesis was first written, could identify with this description of the human situation. In the New Testament, a writer named Paul would amply the story into an explanation of our fundamental human condition. After Adam and Eve, a power called "Sin" came over the world. Our weak human flesh does not stand a chance against this power. Even if I would want to do good, "I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do" (Rom. 7:19).
Like Adam and Eve, in our default human state, none of us can help but do wrong, to "sin." "All have sinned," Paul says, and we have fallen short of what God had intended us to be (Rom. 3:23). We all now inevitably do wrong like Adam and Eve did (Rom. 5:12).
But Paul's message in the New Testament--and the fundamental message of Christianity--is that we do not have to be stuck in this situation. If Adam and Eve were the ultimate cause of the human problem, Christ is the ultimate solution. We do not have to face death as our final destiny. Nor do we have to remain powerless in the face of evil. We do not have to remain alienated from God. There is hope!
[1] This story thus shows us how ancient Israelites looked at a person. We are all "dust," as ministers sometimes say at funerals: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen. 3:19 in the King James Version). The breath inside us is "spirit." And with both body and spirit, we are alive, we are a living "soul," where in Hebrew "soul" means a whole living being (including animal beings).
[2] The word "helper" here in Genesis 2:18 does not imply inferiority. God is said to be a helper to us in Psalm 54:4.
[3] Jews and Christians would later come to understand this snake to be Satan, the supreme evil being in the world.
Showing posts with label story of the Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label story of the Bible. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Monday, January 18, 2016
Creation and Eternity 1
I started an overview of the Bible a little over a week ago. Here was the first installment called "The Story of the Bible." The second installment is on Creation and Eternity.
___________________
The very first verse of the Bible in the very first book of the Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1, NIV). Christians and Jews alike have long understood this verse to say that God created the world out of nothing. At one moment, nothing existed, not even space itself. Then God made the space, matter, and energy of the universe. [1]
If God created the world out of nothing, then there is nothing in the universe that he does not only know thoroughly but there is nothing over which he does not have power. After all, he not only cooked it; he created the ingredients. Indeed, he designed the ingredients. Christians do not believe that God is just another being. He is the Being. He existed without the universe, but the universe would not exist without his existence.
Christians believe that God is everywhere present in this universe he created. We often say that his Holy Spirit is here and everywhere. We believe that he loves what he has created. Nothing about it surprises him.
Genesis 1 is perhaps something like an introduction to the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. These books were first written for Israel, an ancient group of people with whom the Bible says God decided to have a special relationship. His relationship with them paved the way for the relationship Christians now believe God wants to have with everyone in the world.
As these ancient Israelites read Genesis 1, hundreds of years BC ("before Christ"), they would probably have thought of other creation stories they knew. Some features of Genesis 1 would no doubt have been striking to them. For one thing, there is only one God involved in the story. Apart from Israel, almost every other nation worshiped many gods, and their creation stories often involved a war between the gods. [2]
However, in the creation account in Genesis 1, God alone creates the world. He does not have to fight any other deity to get the job done. He is not reluctant to give good gifts to the people he has created. He effortlessly speaks, and it is done.
A second aspect that stands out in Genesis 1 is that God is a God of order. The Israelites might have seen in Genesis 1 a God who brings order out of chaos. [3] God brings light out of darkness (1:3). He provides safe ground out of destructive and chaotic waters (1:9). He takes emptiness and fills it with life everywhere--in the seas, in the air, and on the land.
After each act of creation, God pronounces that everything is good. At some points of history, various thinkers have suggested that the world or matter is evil, that it is the source of humanity's problems. But Christians believe that the world, no matter how twisted it may currently be, does not have to be that way. God did not make it that way.
In Genesis 1, humanity--men and women--are the climax of creation. God makes humanity as the peek of his creative activity, and then he rests. Christians and Jews alike have long understood his resting, his "sabbath" to be a model for us as humans. We need rest. Jews set aside Saturday as a day of rest, following the idea that God rested on the seventh day. Christians have often rested on Sunday, combining the day they celebrate Jesus rising from the dead (the "resurrection") with the sabbath of the Old Testament.
After God creates men and women, he tells them to multiply, to fill the earth (1:28). He also tells them to subdue the earth. He meant for them to do what they needed to do to survive and thrive, not least through farming and raising crops. Of course, God did not mean to destroy the earth.
Christians often see in this command a duty for humanity to take care of God's property. The world remains God's possession. "The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it" (Psalm 24:1). It would be irresponsible for us to trash God's world after he placed it under our care.
[textbox] "What are human beings that you are mindful of them... You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas" (Psalm 8:4, 6-8).
You may wonder about this wonderful picture of the world in Genesis 1. There is still much beauty in the world. Yet would God say that everything in the world today is good? In other words, what happened? For that story, we need to look at the next couple chapters of Genesis.
[1] As science has expanded our sense of how big the universe is, the Christian understanding of the scope of God's creation has expanded as well.
[2] I will follow the typical practice of using a lower case g when referring to the idea of many gods and a capital G when referring to the idea of the one God of Christianity and Judaism.
[3] There is debate over whether they would have heard Genesis 1:1-2 to say something like, "When God began to create heaven and the earth--the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep..." (Tanakh, Jewish Publication Society). In this interpretation, God does not create the world out of nothing but he creates order to the world out of primordial chaos.
___________________
The very first verse of the Bible in the very first book of the Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1, NIV). Christians and Jews alike have long understood this verse to say that God created the world out of nothing. At one moment, nothing existed, not even space itself. Then God made the space, matter, and energy of the universe. [1]
If God created the world out of nothing, then there is nothing in the universe that he does not only know thoroughly but there is nothing over which he does not have power. After all, he not only cooked it; he created the ingredients. Indeed, he designed the ingredients. Christians do not believe that God is just another being. He is the Being. He existed without the universe, but the universe would not exist without his existence.
Christians believe that God is everywhere present in this universe he created. We often say that his Holy Spirit is here and everywhere. We believe that he loves what he has created. Nothing about it surprises him.
Genesis 1 is perhaps something like an introduction to the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. These books were first written for Israel, an ancient group of people with whom the Bible says God decided to have a special relationship. His relationship with them paved the way for the relationship Christians now believe God wants to have with everyone in the world.
As these ancient Israelites read Genesis 1, hundreds of years BC ("before Christ"), they would probably have thought of other creation stories they knew. Some features of Genesis 1 would no doubt have been striking to them. For one thing, there is only one God involved in the story. Apart from Israel, almost every other nation worshiped many gods, and their creation stories often involved a war between the gods. [2]
However, in the creation account in Genesis 1, God alone creates the world. He does not have to fight any other deity to get the job done. He is not reluctant to give good gifts to the people he has created. He effortlessly speaks, and it is done.
A second aspect that stands out in Genesis 1 is that God is a God of order. The Israelites might have seen in Genesis 1 a God who brings order out of chaos. [3] God brings light out of darkness (1:3). He provides safe ground out of destructive and chaotic waters (1:9). He takes emptiness and fills it with life everywhere--in the seas, in the air, and on the land.
After each act of creation, God pronounces that everything is good. At some points of history, various thinkers have suggested that the world or matter is evil, that it is the source of humanity's problems. But Christians believe that the world, no matter how twisted it may currently be, does not have to be that way. God did not make it that way.
In Genesis 1, humanity--men and women--are the climax of creation. God makes humanity as the peek of his creative activity, and then he rests. Christians and Jews alike have long understood his resting, his "sabbath" to be a model for us as humans. We need rest. Jews set aside Saturday as a day of rest, following the idea that God rested on the seventh day. Christians have often rested on Sunday, combining the day they celebrate Jesus rising from the dead (the "resurrection") with the sabbath of the Old Testament.
After God creates men and women, he tells them to multiply, to fill the earth (1:28). He also tells them to subdue the earth. He meant for them to do what they needed to do to survive and thrive, not least through farming and raising crops. Of course, God did not mean to destroy the earth.
Christians often see in this command a duty for humanity to take care of God's property. The world remains God's possession. "The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it" (Psalm 24:1). It would be irresponsible for us to trash God's world after he placed it under our care.
[textbox] "What are human beings that you are mindful of them... You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas" (Psalm 8:4, 6-8).
You may wonder about this wonderful picture of the world in Genesis 1. There is still much beauty in the world. Yet would God say that everything in the world today is good? In other words, what happened? For that story, we need to look at the next couple chapters of Genesis.
[1] As science has expanded our sense of how big the universe is, the Christian understanding of the scope of God's creation has expanded as well.
[2] I will follow the typical practice of using a lower case g when referring to the idea of many gods and a capital G when referring to the idea of the one God of Christianity and Judaism.
[3] There is debate over whether they would have heard Genesis 1:1-2 to say something like, "When God began to create heaven and the earth--the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep..." (Tanakh, Jewish Publication Society). In this interpretation, God does not create the world out of nothing but he creates order to the world out of primordial chaos.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
The Bible within the Story 3
Introduction
The Story within the Bible
The Bible within the Story
It seems that we are naturally wired to see the story within the Bible. It is much harder for us to see the books of the Bible in the story "outside" the Bible, that is, the story of history in which the books of Bible themselves were written. For example, in the story within the Bible, Jesus comes before an early Christian named Paul. But in history, the writings of Paul were written before the writings about Jesus (the four Gospels).
This is hard for us to see. The books of the Bible were not written in the order in which they appear in our Bibles.
There is a tendency, it seems, to think that a book of the Bible was written during the time it pictures, even that it was written by its main character. Was Job the first book of the Old Testament written, because Job may have lived around the time of Abraham? Was Jonah written by Jonah at the time of Jonah?
But I could write a book about Job or Jonah. The time that a book talks about is not necessarily the time when it was written. And it seems very doubtful, at least at first glance, that the main characters of the books of the Bible wrote the books that tell their story. Jonah is about Jonah. Joshua is about Joshua. They are talked about in the third person--"Jonah did this, Jonah did that." It is not a natural conclusion at all to think that Jonah wrote this book about him. Indeed, the book of Jonah--even as it ends--seems quite critical of this prophet.
We simply do not have enough information to know the exact order or the exact circumstances in which all the books of the Bible were written. But it almost certainly would make a difference in the way we read them. The circumstances and context in which something is written makes a difference as to what its connotations were. If we do not know them, then their original meaning is less certain.
A close look at the books of the Bible shows that they can give slightly different perspectives on the same events and issues. A close look at Paul's letters, for example, shows that he modified his arguments and instructions to suit the needs of specific churches. From a Christian perspective, God worked through dozens of biblical authors to address the needs of his people at different times and places. He worked through the personalities and writing styles of each author. So the Greek of each Gospel writer is different from each other, and all of them are different in style than Paul.
These comments do not contradict the Christian idea that God inspired the books of the Bible. Indeed, it suggests that God was concerned about the needs of individual people and groups. God did not give us a vague Bible that is so general that it is of little specific good. He gave us books that spoke to people where they were at in their time of need.
This sense of the books of the Bible in history leads us to realize that the Bible gives us a smorgasbord of potential help. Some of the books may be more directly helpful at some times and places than at others. When our circumstances are like the circumstances of some cross-section of the biblical texts, God will leap across history from those texts to work in us in our time of need.
So while there is a tendency to flatten out the story within the Bible, there is a more advanced understanding of the Bible that begins to see each book as a moment of revelation in history. God did not inspire one person to write one book for all time on one occasion. God inspired dozens of authors over a thousand years to write dozens of books to address dozens of occasions. It makes a difference when it comes down to the nitty gritty of understanding the Bible. And how we understand what it meant then will often have an effect on what we believe God is saying to us now.
I also believe that God can speak directly to you through the words of the Bible in ways that the original authors and audiences of the Bible would not have understood. To be sure, there are dangers to opening the door to "words from the Lord." God will not tell you to murder someone or to have an affair on your spouse.
But the New Testament suggests that, since Jesus died and rose from the dead, God's "Holy Spirit" is more powerfully active in our lives than he ever was before Jesus. [1] One characteristic of this time in history, according to the New Testament, is that God's Spirit is working strongly in every person who believes the good news that Jesus is king. One characteristic of this time is that God sometimes speaks to us, even as individuals.
The Bible is perhaps the main way that God speaks to us today, from a Christian perspective!
The chapters that follow will continue to explore both the story within the Bible and the story of the Bible itself. I invite you not only to know the story, but to join the story. When you read the Bible as "Scripture," as your Bible, you do not just read it for knowledge. You read it to be changed by God. Christians read the Bible not only to know God, but more importantly, to be known by God.
[1] The Holy Spirit is God as he often speaks to us and works in us to change and guide us.
The Story within the Bible
The Bible within the Story
It seems that we are naturally wired to see the story within the Bible. It is much harder for us to see the books of the Bible in the story "outside" the Bible, that is, the story of history in which the books of Bible themselves were written. For example, in the story within the Bible, Jesus comes before an early Christian named Paul. But in history, the writings of Paul were written before the writings about Jesus (the four Gospels).
This is hard for us to see. The books of the Bible were not written in the order in which they appear in our Bibles.
There is a tendency, it seems, to think that a book of the Bible was written during the time it pictures, even that it was written by its main character. Was Job the first book of the Old Testament written, because Job may have lived around the time of Abraham? Was Jonah written by Jonah at the time of Jonah?
But I could write a book about Job or Jonah. The time that a book talks about is not necessarily the time when it was written. And it seems very doubtful, at least at first glance, that the main characters of the books of the Bible wrote the books that tell their story. Jonah is about Jonah. Joshua is about Joshua. They are talked about in the third person--"Jonah did this, Jonah did that." It is not a natural conclusion at all to think that Jonah wrote this book about him. Indeed, the book of Jonah--even as it ends--seems quite critical of this prophet.
We simply do not have enough information to know the exact order or the exact circumstances in which all the books of the Bible were written. But it almost certainly would make a difference in the way we read them. The circumstances and context in which something is written makes a difference as to what its connotations were. If we do not know them, then their original meaning is less certain.
A close look at the books of the Bible shows that they can give slightly different perspectives on the same events and issues. A close look at Paul's letters, for example, shows that he modified his arguments and instructions to suit the needs of specific churches. From a Christian perspective, God worked through dozens of biblical authors to address the needs of his people at different times and places. He worked through the personalities and writing styles of each author. So the Greek of each Gospel writer is different from each other, and all of them are different in style than Paul.
These comments do not contradict the Christian idea that God inspired the books of the Bible. Indeed, it suggests that God was concerned about the needs of individual people and groups. God did not give us a vague Bible that is so general that it is of little specific good. He gave us books that spoke to people where they were at in their time of need.
This sense of the books of the Bible in history leads us to realize that the Bible gives us a smorgasbord of potential help. Some of the books may be more directly helpful at some times and places than at others. When our circumstances are like the circumstances of some cross-section of the biblical texts, God will leap across history from those texts to work in us in our time of need.
So while there is a tendency to flatten out the story within the Bible, there is a more advanced understanding of the Bible that begins to see each book as a moment of revelation in history. God did not inspire one person to write one book for all time on one occasion. God inspired dozens of authors over a thousand years to write dozens of books to address dozens of occasions. It makes a difference when it comes down to the nitty gritty of understanding the Bible. And how we understand what it meant then will often have an effect on what we believe God is saying to us now.
I also believe that God can speak directly to you through the words of the Bible in ways that the original authors and audiences of the Bible would not have understood. To be sure, there are dangers to opening the door to "words from the Lord." God will not tell you to murder someone or to have an affair on your spouse.
But the New Testament suggests that, since Jesus died and rose from the dead, God's "Holy Spirit" is more powerfully active in our lives than he ever was before Jesus. [1] One characteristic of this time in history, according to the New Testament, is that God's Spirit is working strongly in every person who believes the good news that Jesus is king. One characteristic of this time is that God sometimes speaks to us, even as individuals.
The Bible is perhaps the main way that God speaks to us today, from a Christian perspective!
The chapters that follow will continue to explore both the story within the Bible and the story of the Bible itself. I invite you not only to know the story, but to join the story. When you read the Bible as "Scripture," as your Bible, you do not just read it for knowledge. You read it to be changed by God. Christians read the Bible not only to know God, but more importantly, to be known by God.
[1] The Holy Spirit is God as he often speaks to us and works in us to change and guide us.
Friday, January 08, 2016
The Story Within the Bible 2
Introduction
The Story within the Bible
There is a story "inside" the Bible, so to speak. Different people and groups put that story together in slightly different ways. But it is a story that starts in a way even before the first verse of Genesis (the first book) and one that continues a long time after the last verse of Revelation (the last book).
This story is the story of God, in the first place. Christians believe that God has always existed and will continue to exist forever. In fact, Christians believe that God is the only "necessary" being--he is the only thing that exists that must exist. Everything else could come and go. Everything else could in theory be destroyed. But God is existence. Nothing can destroy him.
The story "inside" the Bible is the story Christians hear when they read the Bible. It is a story not only about God but especially about God's relationship with humanity. The story of humanity started in the plans of God but hit the ground running with God's creation of humanity and the world in Genesis 1. Although the story continues forever, the Bible leaves off in Revelation 22 with a world restored to what God wanted it to be, a perfect world where God and humanity live in perfect fellowship forever.
You might think of the Old Testament and the New Testament as part one and part two of the story. The first part of the story focuses on God's relationship with one particular group within humanity, a people called Israelites. They are the ancestors of Jews today. Think of it as a test case. God reaches out to one of the peoples of the earth in order to "pilot" salvation.
Salvation is, well, saving something. In the Christian understanding of the Bible's story, humanity is not currently where it should be. God created humanity to have a strong connection and relationship with him. [1] But humanity as a whole currently does not have that strong connection. Christians read the story of Adam and Eve in the second and third chapters of the Bible (Genesis 2-3) to indicate that we currently find ourselves alienated from God in our default state. [2]
In the analysis of the story within the Bible, a thinker named N. T. Wright sees the first three of a five act drama. [3] The first is the creation of the world. The second is the "Fall," when Adam and Eve alienate us all from God. The third is then the story of God walking with Israel in the pages of the Old Testament. God gives them a law that showed us not only what right and wrong basically looks like (the Ten Commandments) but that also shows us how God meets specific people with their particular needs.
In Wright's analysis, the New Testament then clues us in on the rest of the story. "Act 4" is Jesus, where God actually becomes a human being and models the perfect human life for us. The "act" while he is on earth ends with his horrific death by being nailed to a cross, his "crucifixion" by the Romans, who were in control of all the land around the Mediterranean Sea at the time. With Jesus' death, God showed us that he loves us, that he identifies with our pain and suffering, and he satisfied the order of things (more on that to come).
But Jesus' death was not the end of him. God raises him from the dead and enthrones him as the king of the universe. He will come again, in the final act, and he will finalize salvation and the restoration of the world. In particular, those who die before he returns will rise from the dead just like he did. In fact, he has made it possible.
The final act is then the current age, the age in which God walks with humanity through what we call the "Church," the collection of all those who have confessed that Jesus is king. God has made his presence and power known to all those who trust in him, a down payment of the final and full restoration of humanity that is still to come.
That is the story within the Bible. It is the story of God's walk with humanity, starting with creation, persisting through our alienation from God, but that will end in the restoration and completion of everything. Christians believe that the world will once more enjoy a strong connection and relationship with God again. Right will prevail, and injustice will come to an end.
[1] Traditionally, we refer to God as a "he," although God doesn't literally have any sexual organs. In a world where most leaders and kings were men, it is understandable that God primarily revealed himself in male terms, although female images are used of God in the Bible as well (e.g., Hos. 11:3-4).
[2] Jews do not read the story in quite that way. It makes a difference whether you read the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament or whether you just read the "Jewish Scriptures" on their own.
[3] N. T. Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2011).
The Story within the Bible
There is a story "inside" the Bible, so to speak. Different people and groups put that story together in slightly different ways. But it is a story that starts in a way even before the first verse of Genesis (the first book) and one that continues a long time after the last verse of Revelation (the last book).
This story is the story of God, in the first place. Christians believe that God has always existed and will continue to exist forever. In fact, Christians believe that God is the only "necessary" being--he is the only thing that exists that must exist. Everything else could come and go. Everything else could in theory be destroyed. But God is existence. Nothing can destroy him.
The story "inside" the Bible is the story Christians hear when they read the Bible. It is a story not only about God but especially about God's relationship with humanity. The story of humanity started in the plans of God but hit the ground running with God's creation of humanity and the world in Genesis 1. Although the story continues forever, the Bible leaves off in Revelation 22 with a world restored to what God wanted it to be, a perfect world where God and humanity live in perfect fellowship forever.
You might think of the Old Testament and the New Testament as part one and part two of the story. The first part of the story focuses on God's relationship with one particular group within humanity, a people called Israelites. They are the ancestors of Jews today. Think of it as a test case. God reaches out to one of the peoples of the earth in order to "pilot" salvation.
Salvation is, well, saving something. In the Christian understanding of the Bible's story, humanity is not currently where it should be. God created humanity to have a strong connection and relationship with him. [1] But humanity as a whole currently does not have that strong connection. Christians read the story of Adam and Eve in the second and third chapters of the Bible (Genesis 2-3) to indicate that we currently find ourselves alienated from God in our default state. [2]
In the analysis of the story within the Bible, a thinker named N. T. Wright sees the first three of a five act drama. [3] The first is the creation of the world. The second is the "Fall," when Adam and Eve alienate us all from God. The third is then the story of God walking with Israel in the pages of the Old Testament. God gives them a law that showed us not only what right and wrong basically looks like (the Ten Commandments) but that also shows us how God meets specific people with their particular needs.
In Wright's analysis, the New Testament then clues us in on the rest of the story. "Act 4" is Jesus, where God actually becomes a human being and models the perfect human life for us. The "act" while he is on earth ends with his horrific death by being nailed to a cross, his "crucifixion" by the Romans, who were in control of all the land around the Mediterranean Sea at the time. With Jesus' death, God showed us that he loves us, that he identifies with our pain and suffering, and he satisfied the order of things (more on that to come).
But Jesus' death was not the end of him. God raises him from the dead and enthrones him as the king of the universe. He will come again, in the final act, and he will finalize salvation and the restoration of the world. In particular, those who die before he returns will rise from the dead just like he did. In fact, he has made it possible.
The final act is then the current age, the age in which God walks with humanity through what we call the "Church," the collection of all those who have confessed that Jesus is king. God has made his presence and power known to all those who trust in him, a down payment of the final and full restoration of humanity that is still to come.
That is the story within the Bible. It is the story of God's walk with humanity, starting with creation, persisting through our alienation from God, but that will end in the restoration and completion of everything. Christians believe that the world will once more enjoy a strong connection and relationship with God again. Right will prevail, and injustice will come to an end.
[1] Traditionally, we refer to God as a "he," although God doesn't literally have any sexual organs. In a world where most leaders and kings were men, it is understandable that God primarily revealed himself in male terms, although female images are used of God in the Bible as well (e.g., Hos. 11:3-4).
[2] Jews do not read the story in quite that way. It makes a difference whether you read the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament or whether you just read the "Jewish Scriptures" on their own.
[3] N. T. Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2011).
Thursday, January 07, 2016
The Story of the Christian Bible 1
Introduction
Most of us have seen a Bible. Some of us have several of them in our homes. You can find them in most book stores. You even find them sometimes in hotel rooms.
The Bible has been the most influential book in human history. By far more copies have been made and sold of it than any other book. There are over six billion copies currently in print and, in the electronic age, there are still millions of regular searches and downloads of it. For over 1500 years it has served as the most important book of Western culture in particular, the book that most shaped the minds of Europeans and Americans in this recent period of history when these nations were rising to power.
In the United States, people's understanding of the Bible can play a significant role in politics. Some of the strongest voices in American politics are individuals who associate their views with the Bible. This fact makes the content of the Bible of interest even to those who do not consider themselves Christians. What is this book that plays such a significant role in some people's view of the world?
For those who would identify themselves as Christians, there is also a moment of truth here. Do you really understand this book you claim is so important to you? What if some of us really like the idea of the Bible but really don't know much about what is actually in it? What if some are more ready to fight for the "Bible" than actually to read it? Could it be that some of what some people think is the Bible is really just their own subculture, views they grew up with.
By the same token, some people who think they do not like the Bible actually may not like the attitudes and views of some people who claim to be representing the Bible. Would it not be fascinating if some of those attitudes and views turned out to be misrepresentations? It is at least worth a look to see.
The Bible is actually not a single book but a collection of dozens of books that have been collected into a library of sorts. In fact, the Bible is actually two Bibles. The first part of the Christian Bible is called the "Old Testament," and it was the Bible of Jews before the second part was even written. Even today, Jews who are not Christians consider the first part of the Bible alone to be their Bible.
These books were written over as much as a thousand years. They were written in three different languages, before the English language even existed. They were written in some quite different circumstances. At some points, we get peeks into a world that was quite different from the world we know today.
Yet many people believe that God speaks to them regularly through these books, as if there is no distance between now and then at all. Every Sunday, millions of people come together and hear the words of this book read. Many would say that God uses this book to give them hope and purpose for their lives. Many would say that God uses this book to help them when they face grief or suffering.
* On the one hand, we want to catch a glimpse of what these books were really about to begin with. We owe them that respect. We also want to see how these books have formed two world religions--Judaism and Christianity. If you are a Christian, we hope you will find this journey through these books refreshing and inspiring. These are your books! If you are not a Christian, we hope you will find this book as fascinating and intriguing a book as we believe it is.
Most of us have seen a Bible. Some of us have several of them in our homes. You can find them in most book stores. You even find them sometimes in hotel rooms.
The Bible has been the most influential book in human history. By far more copies have been made and sold of it than any other book. There are over six billion copies currently in print and, in the electronic age, there are still millions of regular searches and downloads of it. For over 1500 years it has served as the most important book of Western culture in particular, the book that most shaped the minds of Europeans and Americans in this recent period of history when these nations were rising to power.
In the United States, people's understanding of the Bible can play a significant role in politics. Some of the strongest voices in American politics are individuals who associate their views with the Bible. This fact makes the content of the Bible of interest even to those who do not consider themselves Christians. What is this book that plays such a significant role in some people's view of the world?
For those who would identify themselves as Christians, there is also a moment of truth here. Do you really understand this book you claim is so important to you? What if some of us really like the idea of the Bible but really don't know much about what is actually in it? What if some are more ready to fight for the "Bible" than actually to read it? Could it be that some of what some people think is the Bible is really just their own subculture, views they grew up with.
By the same token, some people who think they do not like the Bible actually may not like the attitudes and views of some people who claim to be representing the Bible. Would it not be fascinating if some of those attitudes and views turned out to be misrepresentations? It is at least worth a look to see.
The Bible is actually not a single book but a collection of dozens of books that have been collected into a library of sorts. In fact, the Bible is actually two Bibles. The first part of the Christian Bible is called the "Old Testament," and it was the Bible of Jews before the second part was even written. Even today, Jews who are not Christians consider the first part of the Bible alone to be their Bible.
These books were written over as much as a thousand years. They were written in three different languages, before the English language even existed. They were written in some quite different circumstances. At some points, we get peeks into a world that was quite different from the world we know today.
Yet many people believe that God speaks to them regularly through these books, as if there is no distance between now and then at all. Every Sunday, millions of people come together and hear the words of this book read. Many would say that God uses this book to give them hope and purpose for their lives. Many would say that God uses this book to help them when they face grief or suffering.
* On the one hand, we want to catch a glimpse of what these books were really about to begin with. We owe them that respect. We also want to see how these books have formed two world religions--Judaism and Christianity. If you are a Christian, we hope you will find this journey through these books refreshing and inspiring. These are your books! If you are not a Christian, we hope you will find this book as fascinating and intriguing a book as we believe it is.
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