Monday, June 24, 2019
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Reflections on LGBTIQA+ and Gay Christians: With Some Reference to Revoice
What is my sense of homosexuality, or the so called LGBTIQA+ “lifestyle?” My view is rather straightforward: I believe it represents an incurved-upon-the-self sinful orientation that worships the self-possessed desires and wants rather than God and God’s. If homosexuality is what medievally was identified as homo in se incurvatus, then how can Christians meaningfully attempt to reconcile that, before God (coram Deo), with the idea that it represents a viable ‘orientation’ and lifestyle? How can this be anything other than accommodating to a self-styled and self-possessed societal construct that finds its antecedents in and from the kingdom of darkness rather than the Kingdom of the Son of His Love (cf. Col 1.13)? I am really referring to the movement among “conservative” evangelical Christians known as Revoice. Revoice, for some reason, wants to recognize, along with the rest of the broader cultural moment, that somehow homosexuality represents a real identity that ought to be recognized in the name of being true to oneself. Even if Revoice maintains a ‘traditional’ sexual ethic, in regard to “acting out” on their “orientation,” what is the meaningful point behind forming a group known as Revoice? If we were to follow its logic Christians would form similar groups based on their persistent and abiding orientations: whether that be to lie, steal, get angry, or whatever other sinful predispositions we all struggle with. If this is the case, then what’s the actual point of Christians attempting to chart a via media between the ‘left’ and the ‘right’ when it comes to human sexuality? Why not just jump into the mix with the rest of sinners and recognize that we all struggle with a variety of pernicious sins? The sins might very in expression and form, one from the other, but the struggle is real for all of us. It seems like a lot of energy and collective self-loathing, or self-celebrating, as the case might be, could be spent on other more fruitless ventures; like exalting the righteousness and redemption of the risen Christ.
If the goal of things like Revoice is to construct a safe-haven for fellow strugglers with a particular sin, then just brand it that way. But that isn’t the way they brand it: Instead they are seemingly attempting to tap into the cultural moment and celebrate, along with the rest of the broader society, the idea that they just are: Gay! But the Gospel contradicts this sort of thinking, directly! The NT gives us lists of sins, and it doesn’t elevate one over the other; instead it simply lists them together, as affronts to the righteousness of the living God. The NT doesn’t set aside time in the day for celebrating this or that identity, other than being identified in and from and with Jesus Christ. We don’t need to be liberated to name the ‘unseen,’ or to be freed from unspoken taboos; instead we need to be liberated for another reason: viz. to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ as Victor over all else. We aren’t homosexuals. We aren’t liars. We aren’t murderers. We aren’t vagrants. Even if we were. We are Christians, because we are in Christ; we are those who are union with Christ, because Christ is in union with us. This light shed abroad in our hearts, and in the cosmos, overshadows the nooks and crannies we seek to set out for ourselves in the name of recovery and spiritual health. Spiritual health never comes by turning to ourselves; it doesn’t come by settling down with the Law; spiritual health comes as we live and move and have our being, moment by moment, afresh and anew, as we ‘keep in step with the Spirit.’ Revoice pushes people into an identity that is supposed to be mortified, not admitted and lived into. That identity, the one society says should be celebrated and accepted, never stood a chance up against the identity of God in Christ for us. He shook the fabric of the far country with the near country of God’s life for us, such that all other attempts to construct identities in abstraction from His are finally seen for what they are: IDOLATRY.
Yes, this is a rant; but it represents something that has been on my mind lately. Homosexuality, as I read the Bible, is at the very end of God’s patience. It isn’t that He didn’t come to give His life for those who are predisposed to homosexuality, or any other sin; it is that He did! And that He did is the point. There is an in-breaking and Kingdom that has come upon us, and comes upon us in Christ; and it asks us to deny ourselves take up our crosses and follow Jesus. It doesn’t ask us to loiter with our crosses, instead the Gospel calls us to greater ventures: which is what following Jesus entails. Christians aren’t gay anymore than they are liars. Christians might continue to struggle with whatever their particular struggle is, in the arena of sin; but they are first and foremost new creations in the new creation of God who is Jesus Christ. The power isn’t in the cross, it is in the resurrection. The resurrection is the life Christians have been called to live from, not the life that has been put to death. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ. This is not to suggest that we are naïve about our struggles, it is instead to recognize that our struggles are just that. We aren’t supposed to camp down in Babylon, not in this moment. The Redeemer has already come, and as such, there is The Freedom of the Christian.
- Bobby Grow
If the goal of things like Revoice is to construct a safe-haven for fellow strugglers with a particular sin, then just brand it that way. But that isn’t the way they brand it: Instead they are seemingly attempting to tap into the cultural moment and celebrate, along with the rest of the broader society, the idea that they just are: Gay! But the Gospel contradicts this sort of thinking, directly! The NT gives us lists of sins, and it doesn’t elevate one over the other; instead it simply lists them together, as affronts to the righteousness of the living God. The NT doesn’t set aside time in the day for celebrating this or that identity, other than being identified in and from and with Jesus Christ. We don’t need to be liberated to name the ‘unseen,’ or to be freed from unspoken taboos; instead we need to be liberated for another reason: viz. to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ as Victor over all else. We aren’t homosexuals. We aren’t liars. We aren’t murderers. We aren’t vagrants. Even if we were. We are Christians, because we are in Christ; we are those who are union with Christ, because Christ is in union with us. This light shed abroad in our hearts, and in the cosmos, overshadows the nooks and crannies we seek to set out for ourselves in the name of recovery and spiritual health. Spiritual health never comes by turning to ourselves; it doesn’t come by settling down with the Law; spiritual health comes as we live and move and have our being, moment by moment, afresh and anew, as we ‘keep in step with the Spirit.’ Revoice pushes people into an identity that is supposed to be mortified, not admitted and lived into. That identity, the one society says should be celebrated and accepted, never stood a chance up against the identity of God in Christ for us. He shook the fabric of the far country with the near country of God’s life for us, such that all other attempts to construct identities in abstraction from His are finally seen for what they are: IDOLATRY.
Yes, this is a rant; but it represents something that has been on my mind lately. Homosexuality, as I read the Bible, is at the very end of God’s patience. It isn’t that He didn’t come to give His life for those who are predisposed to homosexuality, or any other sin; it is that He did! And that He did is the point. There is an in-breaking and Kingdom that has come upon us, and comes upon us in Christ; and it asks us to deny ourselves take up our crosses and follow Jesus. It doesn’t ask us to loiter with our crosses, instead the Gospel calls us to greater ventures: which is what following Jesus entails. Christians aren’t gay anymore than they are liars. Christians might continue to struggle with whatever their particular struggle is, in the arena of sin; but they are first and foremost new creations in the new creation of God who is Jesus Christ. The power isn’t in the cross, it is in the resurrection. The resurrection is the life Christians have been called to live from, not the life that has been put to death. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ. This is not to suggest that we are naïve about our struggles, it is instead to recognize that our struggles are just that. We aren’t supposed to camp down in Babylon, not in this moment. The Redeemer has already come, and as such, there is The Freedom of the Christian.
- Bobby Grow
Friday, June 21, 2019
Enough Trouble of its Own
By saying that today has enough trouble of its own, Jesus reminds us that all these things we have been trying to avoid have come to us by divine appointment and we are called to be faithful in them. Whatever was true of the past and whatever may come to pass in the future, we have enough to occupy us in the here and now. Yet why would Jesus think that these vivid reminders of our impotence bring any comfort? The reality check that He provides may be alarming at first because it underscores our helplessness and vulnerability, but once we have recovered from the shock, it comes to us as something of a relief. It turns out we have been trying to shoulder a burden we were never meant to carry. What our anxiety about the future really amounts to is a failed attempt to put ourselves in the place of God. We have been trying to control our own destiny.
Our Double Delusion
According to Jesus, we are suffering from a double delusion. First, our anxiety about the future is grounded in a false assumption about who is actually in control. We think we are in control, but we are not. We do not even control the most basic elements of our own life and environment. We can take measures to guard our health, but we cannot add to the length of our days. We can make provision for our future, but we cannot stop moth and rust from corrupting what we possess or guarantee that thieves will not carry it off. Today’s troubles are proof enough that we cannot build a wall strong enough to keep them out.
Second, our fears reflect a secret suspicion that the God who should be in control is actually asleep at the wheel. We are afraid that God is not as attentive to our situation as He should be. Consequently, we attempt to wrest control from God by taking matters into our own hands. We rely on our own strategies more than upon God, depending on the flesh rather than the Spirit. In our eagerness to produce results, we resort to questionable methods. Worse yet, we may adopt methods that fall outside the bounds of what Scripture says is wise or even allowable. In ministry, this kind of anxiety often takes the form of unreflective pragmatism. We focus on results without considering whether the measures we take to achieve them are responsible or biblical. We assume the end justifies the means. Another way in which leaders often react when they fear that God is not attentive is by resorting to manipulation. We rely on our own persuasive techniques to move people to act rather than waiting for the Holy Spirit to convict.
Second, our fears reflect a secret suspicion that the God who should be in control is actually asleep at the wheel. We are afraid that God is not as attentive to our situation as He should be. Consequently, we attempt to wrest control from God by taking matters into our own hands. We rely on our own strategies more than upon God, depending on the flesh rather than the Spirit. In our eagerness to produce results, we resort to questionable methods. Worse yet, we may adopt methods that fall outside the bounds of what Scripture says is wise or even allowable. In ministry, this kind of anxiety often takes the form of unreflective pragmatism. We focus on results without considering whether the measures we take to achieve them are responsible or biblical. We assume the end justifies the means. Another way in which leaders often react when they fear that God is not attentive is by resorting to manipulation. We rely on our own persuasive techniques to move people to act rather than waiting for the Holy Spirit to convict.
Living in the Present Tense
Our hope is in the future, but the present is the field of God’s activity.
Those who practice the present must be intentional about living life in the present tense. We might wonder whether we have the option to do otherwise. We are not time travelers. We cannot visit the past or project ourselves into the future. But while we live in the present, we do not always attend to the present. Our minds are occupied elsewhere. We spend our days living in the present but ranging in our thinking from the past to the future. Meanwhile, the swiftly passing present is squandered. How, then, do we live in the present tense? One of the most important ways we do this is by focusing on the task at hand. We attend to what has been set before us. The task at hand is not glorious. For pastors and leaders, it is the basic work of shepherding. Shepherding involves keeping watch over yourself and the flock God has called you to serve (Acts 20:28).
Jesus characterizes the present as a realm where we must exercise faith when He says that each day has enough trouble of its own (Matt. 6:34). This is both a forceful reminder of our powerlessness and a call to attend to our duty. “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Jesus asks in Matthew 6:27. Has worry ever protected us from such things in the past? Most of our worries are about things over which we have no control. Many of them will never even come to pass. Yet knowing this does not rescue us from anxiety. The power of worry is its ability to play upon our uncertainty.
Those who practice the present must be intentional about living life in the present tense. We might wonder whether we have the option to do otherwise. We are not time travelers. We cannot visit the past or project ourselves into the future. But while we live in the present, we do not always attend to the present. Our minds are occupied elsewhere. We spend our days living in the present but ranging in our thinking from the past to the future. Meanwhile, the swiftly passing present is squandered. How, then, do we live in the present tense? One of the most important ways we do this is by focusing on the task at hand. We attend to what has been set before us. The task at hand is not glorious. For pastors and leaders, it is the basic work of shepherding. Shepherding involves keeping watch over yourself and the flock God has called you to serve (Acts 20:28).
Jesus characterizes the present as a realm where we must exercise faith when He says that each day has enough trouble of its own (Matt. 6:34). This is both a forceful reminder of our powerlessness and a call to attend to our duty. “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Jesus asks in Matthew 6:27. Has worry ever protected us from such things in the past? Most of our worries are about things over which we have no control. Many of them will never even come to pass. Yet knowing this does not rescue us from anxiety. The power of worry is its ability to play upon our uncertainty.
Putting the Past Behind Us
The future is not the only thing that keeps us from living in the present tense. For many, thinking about the past makes us just as anxious as worrying about the future. God redeems our past but He does not change it. God causes all things to work together for the believer’s good (Rom. 8:28). But this doesn’t mean that everything that has happened to us is good. It certainly doesn’t mean that everything we have done is good. For some, it is not a fear of the future but the recollection of the past that is the chief stumbling block in their life. We are living with what Martyn Lloyd-Jones calls “vain” regret. This is the condition of those whose past actions have crippled them in the present. “You cannot look back across your past life without seeing things to regret,” Lloyd-Jones warns. “That is as it should be; but it is just there that the subtlety of this condition comes in and we cross that fine line of distinction that lies between a legitimate regret and a wrong condition of misery and of deception.”
Practicing the Present
Here’s how they describe it:
The present is more than a place where the past comes to rest.
It is more than a staging ground for the future
The present is more than a place where the past comes to rest.
It is more than a staging ground for the future
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
THE TREADMILL OF DESIRE
A vision can be a help when we are setting goals but it can also be a trap. Proverbs 27:20 warns, “Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes.” Ambition, like human desire, seems to be infinitely expandable. Once we have reached our goal, it is immediately replaced with another. At its best, ambition provides the energy we need to improve and accomplish. At its worst, it becomes an endless treadmill that only proves that we will never be satisfied no matter how much success we experience.
While ambition and desire are not automatically incompatible with the Christian life, they only concentrate our attention on what we lack. Th e first and fourth beatitude remind us that this is not necessarily a bad thing (Matt. 5:3, 6). But the Bible also counsels us to pursue contentment, noting that “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6).
The Vision Thing
This is partly a reflection of context out of which vision statements arose. Vision statements did not really originate with the church, despite misguided appeals to the KJV translation of the first half of Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” They come from the world of marketing. Th e mathematician and philosopher Archimedes is said to have declared, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” The lever of the marketer is advertising and its fulcrum is dissatisfaction. Media critic Jean Kilbourne observes, “Advertising creates a world view that is based upon cynicism, dissatisfaction and craving.”
General Motors executive Charles Kettering famously observed that the key to economic prosperity is “the organized creation of dissatisfaction.”
Why Does a God Of Love Kill So Many?
Then the Lord said to Job, “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it.”--Job 40:1 & 2
Why did the God of love kill so many in the Old Testament? The answer is hard to believe, because we have been so indoctrinated by humanism, but the answer is quite simple: He did it for love. How could God’s actions not be consistent with His love? Everything He does is an expression of His character.If there were an option better than the loving act of killing, God would have taken it. I personally have seen people so given over to sin that they were at the point at which death would have been a welcomed relief as an escape from the bondage. Once the heart is revealed and there is no desire for repentance, each day remaining in sin on earth only adds to the judgment to come. Would it not be gracious of a heavenly Father to take this life and stop the sin? Sin is unnatural and makes man miserable. God can stop our misery by having us turn to Him, and He can also stop our misery by taking our earthly life. We must ask ourselves an important question: What is the purpose of life if it is lived in sin? Is a life lived in sin really life? Love, love, love, God is truly love.
When a Believer lives in humanism, the actions of God are missed, mistaken, or misunderstood. Therefore, it is easy to see how so many question the love of God when it comes to some actions He takes that they don’t think (since they are thinking as they are god, humanism) God could or would do something like kill.
- Mike Wells
Why did the God of love kill so many in the Old Testament? The answer is hard to believe, because we have been so indoctrinated by humanism, but the answer is quite simple: He did it for love. How could God’s actions not be consistent with His love? Everything He does is an expression of His character.If there were an option better than the loving act of killing, God would have taken it. I personally have seen people so given over to sin that they were at the point at which death would have been a welcomed relief as an escape from the bondage. Once the heart is revealed and there is no desire for repentance, each day remaining in sin on earth only adds to the judgment to come. Would it not be gracious of a heavenly Father to take this life and stop the sin? Sin is unnatural and makes man miserable. God can stop our misery by having us turn to Him, and He can also stop our misery by taking our earthly life. We must ask ourselves an important question: What is the purpose of life if it is lived in sin? Is a life lived in sin really life? Love, love, love, God is truly love.
When a Believer lives in humanism, the actions of God are missed, mistaken, or misunderstood. Therefore, it is easy to see how so many question the love of God when it comes to some actions He takes that they don’t think (since they are thinking as they are god, humanism) God could or would do something like kill.
- Mike Wells
Monday, June 3, 2019
Transcending
AS YOU TRANSCEND a lifetime of religious indoctrination into pure grace and intimate communion with the Father, you will find yourself living in the joy and freedom you always longed for but never achieved through decades of religious frustration and suppression. You can finally relax and enjoy the abundant life that had always been yours but veiled by effort and striving.
What did you hear?
F WHAT YOU HEARD IN CHURCH YESTERDAY was not Christocentric but was denominational doctrine, church rules, more effort, deeper dedication and don’t steal God’s money, then there is a good chance you heard what Paul called another Jesus and another gospel.
- Don Keathley
- Don Keathley
Take it or Leave it
The first step in walking into the deeper things of the Father involves simplifying your life, slowing down and listening. The constant barrage of mental gymnastics that we live in day in and day out, from television to politics, a kazillion number of things affect our sensitivity and alertness to the spirit. Simplifying your life on every level is imperative if you have decided to walk in those things the Father is speaking into the earth today.
- Don Keathley
- Don Keathley
Many Sons
LET THIS SINK IN DEEP: Sonship has never been about doing the greater works or moving in His authority to bind the nations and kingdoms of this age. The real intent and drive of the Spirit has been to bring many sons into a place of oneness with the Father. It has always been about the “Father’s family”.
- Don Keathley
- Don Keathley
Not Cheap
Because grace is not cheap but totally free, unconditional and given freely to all, it will quickly expose what’s in a persons heart and what has been covered over and suppressed by religious legalism and failed attempts at behavior modification. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance and pure, radical, unmerited grace teaches us to live righteously and holy in this life...Romans 2:4, Titus 2:11-12
- Don Keathley
- Don Keathley
WHAT IF NO ONE HAD A BIBLE?
“So long as we only see the Logos of God as embodied multifariously in symbols in the letter of Holy Scripture, we have not yet achieved spiritual insight into the incorporeal, simple, single and unique Father as He exists in the incorporeal, simple, single and unique Son…We need such knowledge so that, having first penetrated the veils of the sayings which cover the Logos, we may with a naked intellect see—in so far as men can—the pure Logos, as He exists in Himself, clearly showing us the Father in Himself.”
–
ST. MAXIMOS, THE CONFESSOR
Try to imagine it: No Bibles anywhere. No King James. No NIV. Not even a paperback copy of The Message.
What would that be like?
Regardless of how such a thing might happen, try to imagine what it would be like to never have access to the Bible ever again.
I know this might sound scandalous, but in some ways I think our world might actually be a better place if no one had a Bible anymore.
I wonder if maybe we’d start to discover an inner desperation and a hunger for a deeper experience of Jesus if we didn’t depend on a book for everything.
Not only that, if there were no Bibles, we just might start to value listening to one another share testimonies of Jesus. Especially if there was no more need to hear from the resident Bible expert or scholar talk for an hour every weekend.
Imagine sitting around your living room with friends and listening to people share what Jesus was saying or doing in their lives that week. Imagine someone closing their eyes and quoting verses about how nothing can separate us from the love of God, or about how Jesus died for us while we were still enemies of God? Don’t you think this might help us to connect with one another—and with Jesus—more directly?
This is exactly what the early Christian church was like. They did not have copies of Paul’s letters in their possession. They did not have a collection of the Hebrew Scriptures in their homes. A scroll of Isaiah, for example, would have been more expensive than most of those poverty-level Christians could ever afford. As noted New Testament scholar Ben Witherington says:
“A standard roll of papyrus in mid-first century A.D. Egypt cost four drachmae, which is to say it cost about 4-8 days pay (for) an ordinary workman. But let us take for example, the famous Isaiah scroll found at Qumran. A roll thirty feet long took no less than 30 or so hours to fill up. That is—at least three full day’s work for a scribe. A copy of Isaiah then could cost at least 10 denarii (or 2 week’s pay), and that is a low guess. And then you would have exactly ONE book of the OT in your hands. Imagine about 40 more rolls that long and you can imagine an OT on scrolls.
So, the average Christian in the first century did not have access to the scriptures. Yet, somehow, they managed to live radical lives of Christ-like love, sharing all that they had with one another, and even “turned the world upside down,”(Acts 17:6) all without owning a Bible.
How did they do that? How did those primitive Christians know Christ so intimately? How did they face horrific persecutions and survive the worst that the Roman Empire could dish out without even a copy of the Gospel of John in their back pocket?
The answer is: They had the Holy Spirit living inside of them. They had a connection with Jesus, the Risen Lord, that transcended the written word.
Now, to be fair, many of them probably knew a few of the basic teachings of Jesus passed along to them by other Christians. There was a very strong oral tradition in the early Christian community and no doubt many of those illiterate believers had a few of Christ’s teachings hidden in their heart.
But that’s still part of my point: They had a vibrant, thriving relationship with the Prince of Peace. He sustained them. He strengthened them. He walked right beside them every step of the way. It wasn’t the Bible that gave them hope, it was their own personal connection to Christ.
Maybe I’m the only one, but the more I think about this the more convinced I am that we might just be better off without our Bibles today. Maybe without our precious Bibles we might also cling to Jesus the way those earliest Christians did. Maybe without our proof-texts and our study guides we might learn how to rely on the Spirit of God the same way they must have.
Yes, I do realize that we are so blessed to have our Bibles. What I’m talking about is what it would be like to take what we already know the Bible says and moving onward to actually experiencing those words in a deeper way.
I can’t help but wonder what it would be like for us to carry the Word of God around in our hearts every day. What if we had to rely on God’s indwelling Spirit for every breath and every step? What if we only had our memories of scripture to sustain us?
I also wonder, what scriptures we would choose to pass on to our children if we didn’t have a Bible? What verses would we choose to share with them? Perhaps those verses where Jesus says, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” and “Love one another as I have loved you” would top your list. Perhaps you’d want your children to remember certain Parables that Jesus shared, like the Prodigal Son, or the Treasure in the Field or the Sower of Seeds.
But, chances are you probably wouldn’t find it all that crucial to memorize verses where God commanded His people to slaughter every man, woman and child, or where He warned them not to show any compassion while killing infants. You might want to leave behind the verses about how blessed those people are who dash babies against the rocks.
That, to me, would be a very good thing.
If all we had left was Jesus and our memories of scriptures that really touched us and profoundly changed us, that wouldn’t be so bad.
The point of my asking this question is to get us to consider what our faith would be like without depending upon what others wrote 2,000 years ago to share their experiences of Jesus.
Instead, I hope to inspire us to consider that our faith is based on our own experiences of Jesus today.
Let me make it crystal clear: The Bible leads us to Jesus. But what we do with Jesus after that is the most important thing of all.
As we’ve already seen, some people are convinced that we can never know anything about Jesus or God without the Bible.
But the Bible contradicts that, over and over again.
What the Bible tells us is that we can know Jesus, and the Father, directly, personally and immediately at this very moment. So, if you really believe the Bible, then I would encourage you to do what the Bible says: connect with God yourself. Don’t just read about Him—know Him, and listen to Him, and follow Him, and learn to love Him more every day.
Let me assure you of this: if someone took your Bibles away, you would still have Jesus. If every Bible on earth was suddenly destroyed, you and I would still hear His voice. If no one ever read the Bible again, God would still be alive and moving and speaking and revealing Himself through His Spirit, and through His people, and through nature, and art, and music, and circumstances.
However, if your faith would be hopelessly empty without the Bible, then you might have a much bigger problem. Maybe you need to ask yourself if you actually have a relationship with God at all? If your faith depends upon a book, then maybe you’ve only focused on reading and learning information about God, but you’ve not exactly come to know that same God in any real way yet?
If so, then I most certainly recommend setting your Bible aside. Get to know Jesus. Spend time alone with Him. Talk to Him. Listen to His voice. Practice an awareness of His presence. Reading more Bible verses will not help you encounter Him. In fact, it just might postpone any deeper experiences with Jesus you might have.
You’ve read about God. You know information about Jesus. That’s great. But now it’s time to meet Him and to know Him in a deeper way.
Remember: God is not the Bible. The Bible is not God.
Yes, the Bible is a wonderful blessing to us all. We should be very grateful for it. But Jesus transcends and eclipses the Bible in every possible way. He is not bound by a book. He is not constricted into syllables and sentences. He is not captured on a page.
By asking the question: “What if no one had a Bible?” I am inviting you to consider moving on to phase 2 of your life in Christ.
Look up from the page long enough to listen for His still small voice. Close the book long enough to walk with Him today. Maybe even put the Bible back on the shelf just long enough to put what you’ve read about into practice. You can always come back to it later. It’s not going anywhere. But maybe sometimes we need to take off the training wheels and learn to balance ourselves if we really hope to enter the race.
I’ll meet you at the top of the hill.
–
ST. MAXIMOS, THE CONFESSOR
Try to imagine it: No Bibles anywhere. No King James. No NIV. Not even a paperback copy of The Message.
What would that be like?
Regardless of how such a thing might happen, try to imagine what it would be like to never have access to the Bible ever again.
I know this might sound scandalous, but in some ways I think our world might actually be a better place if no one had a Bible anymore.
I wonder if maybe we’d start to discover an inner desperation and a hunger for a deeper experience of Jesus if we didn’t depend on a book for everything.
Not only that, if there were no Bibles, we just might start to value listening to one another share testimonies of Jesus. Especially if there was no more need to hear from the resident Bible expert or scholar talk for an hour every weekend.
Imagine sitting around your living room with friends and listening to people share what Jesus was saying or doing in their lives that week. Imagine someone closing their eyes and quoting verses about how nothing can separate us from the love of God, or about how Jesus died for us while we were still enemies of God? Don’t you think this might help us to connect with one another—and with Jesus—more directly?
This is exactly what the early Christian church was like. They did not have copies of Paul’s letters in their possession. They did not have a collection of the Hebrew Scriptures in their homes. A scroll of Isaiah, for example, would have been more expensive than most of those poverty-level Christians could ever afford. As noted New Testament scholar Ben Witherington says:
“A standard roll of papyrus in mid-first century A.D. Egypt cost four drachmae, which is to say it cost about 4-8 days pay (for) an ordinary workman. But let us take for example, the famous Isaiah scroll found at Qumran. A roll thirty feet long took no less than 30 or so hours to fill up. That is—at least three full day’s work for a scribe. A copy of Isaiah then could cost at least 10 denarii (or 2 week’s pay), and that is a low guess. And then you would have exactly ONE book of the OT in your hands. Imagine about 40 more rolls that long and you can imagine an OT on scrolls.
So, the average Christian in the first century did not have access to the scriptures. Yet, somehow, they managed to live radical lives of Christ-like love, sharing all that they had with one another, and even “turned the world upside down,”(Acts 17:6) all without owning a Bible.
How did they do that? How did those primitive Christians know Christ so intimately? How did they face horrific persecutions and survive the worst that the Roman Empire could dish out without even a copy of the Gospel of John in their back pocket?
The answer is: They had the Holy Spirit living inside of them. They had a connection with Jesus, the Risen Lord, that transcended the written word.
Now, to be fair, many of them probably knew a few of the basic teachings of Jesus passed along to them by other Christians. There was a very strong oral tradition in the early Christian community and no doubt many of those illiterate believers had a few of Christ’s teachings hidden in their heart.
But that’s still part of my point: They had a vibrant, thriving relationship with the Prince of Peace. He sustained them. He strengthened them. He walked right beside them every step of the way. It wasn’t the Bible that gave them hope, it was their own personal connection to Christ.
Maybe I’m the only one, but the more I think about this the more convinced I am that we might just be better off without our Bibles today. Maybe without our precious Bibles we might also cling to Jesus the way those earliest Christians did. Maybe without our proof-texts and our study guides we might learn how to rely on the Spirit of God the same way they must have.
Yes, I do realize that we are so blessed to have our Bibles. What I’m talking about is what it would be like to take what we already know the Bible says and moving onward to actually experiencing those words in a deeper way.
I can’t help but wonder what it would be like for us to carry the Word of God around in our hearts every day. What if we had to rely on God’s indwelling Spirit for every breath and every step? What if we only had our memories of scripture to sustain us?
I also wonder, what scriptures we would choose to pass on to our children if we didn’t have a Bible? What verses would we choose to share with them? Perhaps those verses where Jesus says, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” and “Love one another as I have loved you” would top your list. Perhaps you’d want your children to remember certain Parables that Jesus shared, like the Prodigal Son, or the Treasure in the Field or the Sower of Seeds.
But, chances are you probably wouldn’t find it all that crucial to memorize verses where God commanded His people to slaughter every man, woman and child, or where He warned them not to show any compassion while killing infants. You might want to leave behind the verses about how blessed those people are who dash babies against the rocks.
That, to me, would be a very good thing.
If all we had left was Jesus and our memories of scriptures that really touched us and profoundly changed us, that wouldn’t be so bad.
The point of my asking this question is to get us to consider what our faith would be like without depending upon what others wrote 2,000 years ago to share their experiences of Jesus.
Instead, I hope to inspire us to consider that our faith is based on our own experiences of Jesus today.
Let me make it crystal clear: The Bible leads us to Jesus. But what we do with Jesus after that is the most important thing of all.
As we’ve already seen, some people are convinced that we can never know anything about Jesus or God without the Bible.
But the Bible contradicts that, over and over again.
What the Bible tells us is that we can know Jesus, and the Father, directly, personally and immediately at this very moment. So, if you really believe the Bible, then I would encourage you to do what the Bible says: connect with God yourself. Don’t just read about Him—know Him, and listen to Him, and follow Him, and learn to love Him more every day.
Let me assure you of this: if someone took your Bibles away, you would still have Jesus. If every Bible on earth was suddenly destroyed, you and I would still hear His voice. If no one ever read the Bible again, God would still be alive and moving and speaking and revealing Himself through His Spirit, and through His people, and through nature, and art, and music, and circumstances.
However, if your faith would be hopelessly empty without the Bible, then you might have a much bigger problem. Maybe you need to ask yourself if you actually have a relationship with God at all? If your faith depends upon a book, then maybe you’ve only focused on reading and learning information about God, but you’ve not exactly come to know that same God in any real way yet?
If so, then I most certainly recommend setting your Bible aside. Get to know Jesus. Spend time alone with Him. Talk to Him. Listen to His voice. Practice an awareness of His presence. Reading more Bible verses will not help you encounter Him. In fact, it just might postpone any deeper experiences with Jesus you might have.
You’ve read about God. You know information about Jesus. That’s great. But now it’s time to meet Him and to know Him in a deeper way.
Remember: God is not the Bible. The Bible is not God.
Yes, the Bible is a wonderful blessing to us all. We should be very grateful for it. But Jesus transcends and eclipses the Bible in every possible way. He is not bound by a book. He is not constricted into syllables and sentences. He is not captured on a page.
By asking the question: “What if no one had a Bible?” I am inviting you to consider moving on to phase 2 of your life in Christ.
Look up from the page long enough to listen for His still small voice. Close the book long enough to walk with Him today. Maybe even put the Bible back on the shelf just long enough to put what you’ve read about into practice. You can always come back to it later. It’s not going anywhere. But maybe sometimes we need to take off the training wheels and learn to balance ourselves if we really hope to enter the race.
I’ll meet you at the top of the hill.
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