The Great Bible Fraud

This week, I came across a group of people offering passers-by a free booklet entitled. ‘What the Bible Really Teaches’.  I was hit with a mixture of anger, sorrow and irritation.  The individuals looked perfectly pleasant and, as far as I could tell, had no idea that they were engaging in spiritual fraud. Harsh words, I know, but I believe justified.

In claiming that the Bible teaches anything and that they were able to discern what that teaching is, the group of evangelists were unjustifiably crediting both themselves and the Bible with accomplishments and qualities that do not exist.

In the first instance, it ought to be blatantly obvious that there are myriads of interpretations of the Bible; for any group to believe that they have got it entirely right is stunningly arrogant and narrow-minded. Of course, everyone is entitled to argue the rightness of their interpretation and the wrongness of everyone else’s, but can we really take seriously such a grandiose claim?  It would be merely ridiculous if not for the fact that many vulnerable people constantly fall prey to such absolute claims and end up in bondage to others, afraid to question whatever orthodoxy is being peddled in case they fall foul of whatever version of God is being promoted.

Even more pernicious than a group claiming to have all the truth is the idea that the Bible teaches anything.  The Bible is not a person.  If we say that the Bible ‘teaches’ we enter the realms of idolatry (or for those who don’t believe in God, the realms of fanciful fundamentalism).  If God exists, as I believe God does, and if God has revealed God-self in and through some of the experiences of the ancient Israelites, culminating in the great self-revelation in Jesus, it is God who teaches us, not the Bible.

This is not simply splitting hairs.  It seems to be part of human nature to want both to take short-cuts to achieving what we most desire while, if at all possible, wielding as much power and influence over others as we can.  I believe that the Bible contains invaluable truths and that we can learn invaluable lessons from God as we read it, but it is not something out of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings; it has no ‘magic’ or ‘power’ in itself. With genuine respect to my atheist and agnostic friends, I believe that all truth is God’s truth and that God desires us to seek and to discover the truth; it does not come pre-packed on a plate or in a tome and it is certainly not restricted to the pages of a booklet (or the utterances of preachers) claiming to know ‘What the Bible Really Teaches’