The most important book for Christians is the Bible. It is important for us to read it, study it, and reflect upon its teachings.
But what happens when we find it confusing or even disturbing?
I remember when I cam back to faith in my early 20s after a childhood of not really taking it seriously. I had moved from a liberal church to a very conservative church.
I was told that the only way to read Genesis 1-2 was through a young earth creationist lens. I had to understand creation as happening in six twenty-four days, approximately six thousand years ago. I really struggled with that but I was told that was the only legitimate interpretation.
That is not my current struggle and I have come to a satisfactory interpretation of those passages. But there are plenty of passages that I still struggle with.
But isn’t this like the serpent in the Garden of Eden saying, “Did God really say…?”
Not really. In that case, there was one clear commandment: Do not eat from that one tree. The Bible is not really even a book, it is a library of books and letters written over a long period of time in three languages, reflecting different cultures.
There is a tendency, especially among some Christian apologists, to make the Bible a nice, neat book with no loose ends. Everything fits in a system and every question can be answered.
I can see the attraction of that view. Uncertainty can be uncomfortable. But I don’t think it is very realistic and many of the explanations are stretching both the text and logic.
That is not to say that we should throw our hands up and give up on trying to understand the Bible. In fact, I’m saying the opposite.
The Bible is worth wrestling with and we should not give up just because we hit a roadblock. I think the main themes of the Bible are fairly straight forward. But we are going to face some tough passages and it is okay if we never get a satisfactory issue.
Not that we shouldn’t try but our faith shouldn’t hang on whether we can answer every question. We should do our best to interpret the Bible, we should listen to other interpretations, be open to changing our interpretations, and be prepared to sometimes never get the answers we are looking for.
