“A Wonderful, Inspiring, Disturbing, Perplexing Book”

• Adam Hamilton dedicates this book for his first grandchild to come to love the Bible and that, through it, she’ll find the story that defines her. This is important to remember.
• For Adam, each day he reads from them, he encounters God and is reminded of His mission for his life and for the world.
• Hamilton is a pastor in Missouri, who has had long-time shepherdees ask questions like:
  1. Who put the Bible together and why can they be trusted 2,000+ years later?
  2. Did God dictate word-for-word all of the books in the Bible?
  3. Does the Bible contain mistakes?
  4. How did Jesus consider the Bible?
  5. How should we then consider the Bible? Is it “the only way” to God?
  6. Should we believe that the violence depicted in the Old Testament accurately captures God’s true will?
  7. Why does God allow us to suffer so much? Is that how He punishes sin?
  8. What is a true “Biblical view” of women?
  9. What is a true “Biblical view” of homosexuality?
  10. How can I read the Bible honestly and for all that it’s worth?

Some important context first—

• The Bible is not:
  • an “car owner manual” for life
  • a systemic textbook of science or theology
  • an 8-ball that we shake for answers
  • a book of promises that all apply to us
  • Adam suggests that when the Bible is read holding these assumptions the reader at some point will be come confused, misguided or profoundly disappointed
• The Bible did not simply drop out of heaven. It did not result from people picking up a pen and having their hand moved by the Spirit of God. The books that make up the Bible were complicatedly written and edited by people who were addressing the needs of their audience at the time. It is said that these words are inspired by God and that he uses them to speak to us today.
  • God uses these words and had His hand in arranging them, but without the context of how a given book was written, we might miss important things by just reading it literally with the lens we each of us carry 2,000 years after the fact.

So then, what IS the Bible?

Old Testament

• The Old Testament is both the story of Israel and the story of God who chose them to be His people. God loved them as a parent, as a lover, as a deliverer, as someone abandoned, as a just judge. In the end, it’s the story of God restoring the people of Israel, bringing them back from destruction and exile, and promising them a forever king.
• The writings themselves are of inspired humans (and editors) who brought their personal experiences and presuppositions with them. Some of the writings are prose, some wise reflections, some poetry, some figurative, some literal. Some are law codes, court histories, and genealogies.
• These writings often counterbalance each other:
  • For example, early OT books suggest that suffering comes from unfaithfulness to God, but then the book of Job (and then NT books) strongly this notion.

What books made it into the OT, and why?

• Many have a perception that God/the Holy Spirit clearly delineated what should/shouldn’t be in the OT—not necessarily the case. Different denominations—Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox continue to argue and include/disinclude different books in their OT, including Martin Luther himself about Esther.
• To fully appreciate an OT book, author encourages us to consider at three levels:
  1. What did these words mean when the author first wrote them for their audience?
  2. How did Jesus and the early Christ-followers complete the meaning of these words and reinterpret them pre- and post- crucifixion?
  3. What might these now-completed words mean for my life today?

New Testament

• The “Gospel” = Good News for ALL = Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection fully demonstrates God’s triumph over evil, despair, and ultimately death in this world.
• We’re reading someone else’s mail: letters they received that someone else wrote to them, that were saved and copied word-by-word thousands of times for their importance.
  • Who received the letters, by whom, and why is pretty important!
  • One of the most common authors in the NT is Paul, who is historically known as one of the greatest Jewish persecutors of Christians that then became one of its greatest advocates (if it can happen to him, it could happen to anyone). The recipients were typically early groups of Christ-followers who were thriving and also struggling with some of the same things we struggle with:
    • Selecting authority and actually listening to their leadership
    • The actual implications of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection (e.g. Galatians 2:21)
    • Indulging desires that miss the mark of what our Creator intends for us
    • Finding balance between legalism and libertinism
    • Treating victims (and perpetrators) of suffering in their community
    • etc…
    • In addition to being the words of scripture that make up the Bible, Paul’s words are also those of an at times irritated and frustrated apostle lashing out at those who would “correct” his faith
    • Paul even discounts some of the words in his own writings, ascribing some of the words to the Lord (1 Cor. 7:10), and some to the words to only his own (1 Cor. 7:12)
    • Paul’s letters were seen as revolution upon revolution, providing instruction and encouragement to movements he had started
• The assumptions, accepted practices and norms, rejected practices and norms, and family functions were radically different than ours in 2020s (our world has changed dramatically since even the 1950s!)
  • When reading the NT, you’ll find a great deal speaks to you and your life situation directly. It’s amazingly timeless. And there is also room to ask questions about how to apply instructions to our lives that were found in letters to people who lived 2,000+ years ago. It’s okay to question the circumstances and cultural assumptions that led the apostles to write down what they did and if they’d write the same thing to you today.
    • Interpretation is the practice that every reader of the Bible goes through when they piece together the original intention of the writings, their context historically and culturally, and how the words apply to us today.