What do you all Think of this?

[Dave_Johnson]

What do you all think of this? " It is not from the Bible as a book that we are to draw our Ideas of God, but from the living man into whose presence that book brings us, who is alive now, and gives His spirit that they who read about Him may understand wht kind of being He is and why He did as He did, and know Him, in somepossible measure, as He knows imself." George MacDonald

[Username1]

Hi Dave

I think the good George is, as so often in his writings, bang on the money here. There is no doubt that the Bible is full of all sorts of worthwhile and encouraging stuff. But if it doesn’t lead us to Jesus, doesn’t call us to try and be more like Jesus in everything we do, then it - as with religion generally - is ultimately a waste of time.

You do not come to know God through reading the Bible, you only learn *about *God, which isn’t the same thing. And it seems quite clear to me that millions of people throughout history - including, for example, my pal Mark Driscoll (sorry, private joke) - *have *read the Bible, in great detail, without really ever understanding anything of its true message.

For me, the Bible is just the springboard to faith. I love reading it, am steeped in its stories, true and mythic, and its wisdom and teaching. But it is meeting the person of Jesus on its pages that makes the Bible vital for me.

When asked what he thought was the most underrated book in the world, Bob Dylan said the Bible. And when asked what he thought was the most overrated? Yep, you guessed it - the Bible! Fundamentalists and conservatives put far too much faith in the Bible, and not enough in Christ.

Cheers

Johnny

[corpselight]

Hi Dave

I think the good George is, as so often in his writings, bang on the money here. There is no doubt that the Bible is full of all sorts of worthwhile and encouraging stuff. But if it doesn’t lead us to Jesus, doesn’t call us to try and be more like Jesus in everything we do, then it - as with religion generally - is ultimately a waste of time.

You do not come to know God through reading the Bible, you only learn *about *God, which isn’t the same thing. And it seems quite clear to me that millions of people throughout history - including, for example, my pal Mark Driscoll (sorry, private joke) - *have *read the Bible, in great detail, without really ever understanding anything of its true message.

For me, the Bible is just the springboard to faith. I love reading it, am steeped in its stories, true and mythic, and its wisdom and teaching. But it is meeting the person of Jesus on its pages that makes the Bible vital for me.

When asked what he thought was the most underrated book in the world, Bob Dylan said the Bible. And when asked what he thought was the most overrated? Yep, you guessed it - the Bible! Fundamentalists and conservatives put far too much faith in the Bible, and not enough in Christ.

Cheers

Johnny

great post Johnny!

my take on it is to quote Dave Tomlinson quoting Karl Barth (i think it’s him anyway) who says the Bible is “pregnant with revelation”. that doesn’t mean it has to be historically true, or even doctrinally accurate…but it can be used by God as a medium to communicate something of Himself to us. Jesus is the true Word, the Logos (at least to Trinitarians), and so the Bible exists to point the way to Him. it is a sacrament (as Sobornost i believe has said), and thus wonderful and miraculous and full of surprising truths that often question our assumptions, but we must be careful not to make an idol of it.

Dylan’s comment illustrating this is beautiful and succinct.