In class last Thursday, I gave a few options for "reading" the bible. In short, we asked the question "what is this ancient text?".
Option 1.“The Bible is a rule-book. It is the constitution of the church. It is the law that governs the body of Christ. Just as the United States Constitution governs the democracy of this country so the Bible governs the protocol, and form of the restored New Testament Church.”
Option 2.“The Bible is a collection of divine timeless principles. If you know the right tools, possess the right theology, you can mine the Bible for many timeless truths. You want to know about self-esteem, turn to the back and find related topics. You want to know about money, planning, family life—it’s all in there, mine the pages for the golden nuggets of truth you seek and whola…you’ll strike gold.”
Option 3.But what if Scripture was truly adored as the unfolding story of God at work in the totality of Creation? What if Scripture is the holy story, with God as the main actor, working at every turn and twist to redeem a Creation he called good from the beginning?
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Interact with the previous three options. Good/bad, strengths and weaknesses. Share experiences from growing up in the various churches you represent, etc.
JG
Please wait one moment . . .
About the Book (The Feast)
About Me
- Josh Graves
- Nashville, TN, United States
- I'm the best friend of Kara, father of Lucas, minister, author (The Feast), life-long Piston fan . . . I am the Preaching and Teaching Minister for the Otter Creek Church (Nashville) and I am working on a doctorate degree (second year) at Columbia Seminary studying the relationship of postmodernism and Christianity.
Some of Josh's Published Work (essays, books, articles, reviews)
Links
- Barbara Brown Taylor
- Brian D. McLaren
- Bronx Fellowship of Christ
- Chris Lindsey
- Columbia Seminary
- Donald Miller
- Doug Sanders
- Dry Bones--Denver
- Duke Chapel
- Focus: HOPE
- Greg Boyd
- Greg Stevenson
- Greg Taylor
- Jason Steckel
- Jesus Creed
- Jinja Mission Team
- John Mark Hicks
- John York
- Jonathan Storment
- Josh Ross
- Kara Graves (My wife and best friend)
- Kibo Group
- Larry James Urban Daily
- Lauren Winner
- Lee Camp
- Luke Norsworthy
- Mark and Lori Manry
- Mark Love (Missional Church)
- Mike Cope
- My Twitter Page
- New Wineskins Magazine
- Otter Creek Church
- Patrick Mead
- Randy Speck
- Rochester Church
- Rochester College
- Rubel Shelly
- Sean Palmer
- Stockman Family
- The One Campaign
- TOKENS (Lee Camp and the Arts)
- Wade Hodges
- Walter Surdacki
- Will Willimon
5 comments:
I couldn't agree more with what Josh has said about the Bible. I believe it is a holy story. Thinking of it that way has encouraged me to delve deeper in the word. It is disappointing to me that so many Christians will devour other stories so fast and yet they avoid the Bible. But, if they could look at the Bible as an unfolding drama of which we are living the sequel, they may be more passionate about Bible reading. We are living a life story, one that God wants to write. We all need to give God the pen of our lives so He may weave an amazing tale. ~Courtney Jenko
I feel with what little experience I have with the bible, that it seems like it is more of a holy story then anything else. I really have not had much enlightment on the bible before this class, however from what little bit I have read, I would say that it is showing you a story more then telling you a way to live. I had never picked up the bible and read it before this class, however, the more I read it, the more intrested I become with it. I am glad this school/class has given me the opportunity to open my eyes to the bible...
J. Muhme
I too agree with option #3. Reducing the Bible to being a set of rules is dangerous, as we're left to interpret them. I think churches that focus more on rules do more harm than good, they scare away some people and give them a bad view of christianity. I can agree with option #2 somewhat because the Bible is full of good principles. Clearly it's going to lead you on the right path to make good decisions. If you reduce the Bible to just being good principles though, you leave out Jesus, and his death for our sins. I agree with the view that the Bible is God's love story to humanity, not just rules and standards.
I like to think the Bible consists of all three! Rules, Story book, Manual of life. Imagine how challenging it would be to have faith; if the Lord did not bless us with the Bible? Trader I agree with your posting, is there a right answer?
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