The Bible (2)

What is the bible?

Most religions feel the need for a holy book, something that contains a body of knowledge and teachings that they can all share. Generally the book contains the essentials of the faith and usually any teachings that come about after the book are though to derive from the teachings in the book.

Views of the bible?

We can view the bible in four different ways:

• As a load of stories made up to try to make people believe in certain things and make them behave in certain ways. Nothing that is in the bible very really happened. (Cynical / Skeptical viewpoint)
• There really was a person called Jesus of Nazareth but we do not know much about him. The stories that are told about this person have been embellished by the early church so we do not know what is true and what is not. It is likely that Jesus was a great teacher but the supernatural bits (miracles and such like) are probably made up. Let us just look at the moral teaching (Humanist / intelligent atheist view)
• The early church made a real effort to preserve the story of Jesus, and so although there are some inaccuracies of details the broad story is true. As Jesus was the divine son of God we can expect that he did such things as the miracles and the rising from the dead. Remember that those who write the New Testament included those who had known Jesus or had first hand knowledge of those who knew Jesus. (Mainstream Christian viewpoint)
• I believe in everything that is in the bible, if it's in there its true. Nothing in the bible is made up, it's all true (fundamentalist viewpoint)

How do Christians use the bible?

Christians regard the bible as the source of their beliefs so they try to base any religious arguments on the foundation of what is said in the bible. Any Christian belief must be derived from what is said in the bible and be consistent with what it says. Most Christian churches use the bible in their services for public reading Many Christians use the bible for private religious reading. Many read a little bit daily. Others turn to the bible in times of distress and pain and gain comfort from it.

What authority does the bible have?

What authority does the New Testament have ? It is the record of certain profound experiences. These experiences include simply being with Jesus in his earthly life and of meeting him after the resurrection. It is the thoughts of those who enjoyed these experiences and /or had contact with those who did. The experiences stand in their own right, but the thoughts of the New Testament writers are limited by the language available to them, and no writer was infallible. Thus the bible should be taken seriously, but not literally. It should stimulate readers to think deeply. Readers should ponder on the text to discover the deeper meaning.

The great difficulty comes in New Testament morality (right and wrong). If we examine the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) we see that Jesus did not set up a code of law but rather a set of principles of good character. The key to these is to "love god and to love your neighbour". Christ hated divorce (Mark 10:2-12) and in an ideal world were people could forgive and treated each other well divorce would be unnecessary - but the ideal world has not arrived so can Christians ban divorce ? and if they allow it are they being true to the Christ they believe in ? Turning New Testament principles into rules is not always easy.