False, But True!

Every once-in-a-while you hear one of those statements that are at least misinformed, and without a factual basis, but nonetheless, inadvertently express a profound truth. I heard one of these just last night on the TV news.

The setting was St. Joseph Cathedral in Sioux Falls. Local Catholics were being interviewed about their feelings regarding Pope Francis’ recent pronouncements regarding the Catholic church being more open to formerly disenfranchised persons. One young man made the statement to the effect that the Bible had been written “two-thousand years ago” and did not really apply to our day. He went on to say that most people pick and choose which parts they want to follow anyway (please understand that this is a paraphrase of his remarks as I understood them).

This young man was obviously uninformed regarding the Bible. Reading between the lines I suspect that he also regards that it has no authority over his life, except to the extent that he is willing to agree with certain parts of its content that he would be willing to pick and choose. I’m sure he would be even more unwilling to accept its authority (and divine authorship) if he were to realize that most of it is well over two thousand years old, with only the New Testament being written a mere two millennia ago.  After all, the Bible starts off with the words: “In the beginning, God . . .” This is the false aspect of his statement.

Sadly, the true part of what he said is that part about how most of us pick and choose the parts we want to follow. The reason that there are myriads of Christian denominations is owed in part to this fact. As far as so-called Bible-believing evangelicals are concerned, this is at least as true among them  as it is in the other denominations.

In our defense, the Bible is a big, multi-faceted book that very few Christians spend any time at all reading. Most are content to be spoon-fed  a few verses in church each Sunday (or at least each of the very few Sundays that we attend), and few are familiar with the whole content of the Bible. We learn the parts that we hear, or that we chance to randomly read that touch our hearts, all the while not realizing that there is so much more that God has for us.

Anyone who is familiar with me knows that I am a firm believer in, and advocate of daily Bible reading. I believe in not just reading selected excerpts, but reading it book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter, and verse-by-verse. For those of you who have a copy of my book, Going Forth in the Name, there is an excellent 365 day reading plan in one of the appendices. If you don’t have my book, get one (he said, with tongue in cheek). They are available at Amazon.com in hard copy as well as for your Kindle or Nook. If you don’t want to get the book, just start reading a chapter a day in the New Testament. That’s the part about Salvation in Christ, and how the Christian life should be lived, and it will give you a context about how God’s plan culminates, so that you will be able to better understand the Old Testament when you start to read a chapter a day in that as well.

So don’t be one of those who pick and choose what he wants to hear from God. Read the whole Bible. Let the Spirit of God speak to you through it. Let it grab your heart and change you. As the Bible itself says:

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (NLT)

Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.