God Never Said The Bible Is The 4th Member Of The Trinity

"The Bible says ..."

"The Bible clearly says ..."

"Clearly you haven't read what the Bible clearly says ..."

"It says right here in Ephesians ..."

"But in Leviticus God clearly says that homosexuality is detestable ..."

"In the Bible GOD SAID ..."

Sigh.

For many people (and about 5 years ago I was one of those 'many people') the Bible has been elevated to the 4th member of the Trinity.

AND.

Sometimes the Bible is moved ...

PAST the 3rd (the Holy Spirit).

PAST the 2nd (the Son).

PAST the 1st (the Father).

... And enthroned at the very top.  

Why?

Because although we can't SEE the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit with our EYES.

Well ...

We can SEE the Bible, READ the Bible, CONTEMPLATE the words of the Bible, STUDY the Bible, get an EDUCATION in the Bible, DEBATE the Bible, and literally put the Bible in our pockets, on our phones, and embed it in our brains by memorizing its words.  

On top of that, we've attached words to the Bible like 'inerrant' and 'infallible' and have hoisted it upon our shoulders as the 'Word of God'.

OR.

As the great band 'Burlap to Cashmere' once said, the B I B L E stands for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

In other words, it's God's rule book or law book that tells us what to think, what to believe, and how to live so that when we close our eyes in this life for the last time we end up in a place of eternal bliss as opposed to eternal damnation.

That's a lot of pressure to put on a book, though ... right?  I mean, sometimes we treat the Bible like Jesus himself wrote it on his Mac over the course of a year and a thousand cups of coffee in his local Starbucks.  We treat it like it's ...

ONE book.

Written by ONE person.

... When in reality it's a COLLECTION of MANY texts that spans the course of THOUSANDS of years and was written by (likely) well over 100 different people (maybe more).  These people lived in various places in the Middle East in various times of history and wrote down what they did for various reasons and wrote their words to various groups of people.

Paul wrote from prison.

Mark wrote to a small group of Jewish Christians who were on the verge of being destroyed by Nero.

Some of Paul's Epistles weren't written by Paul at all.

John wrote from Patmos to challenge the Roman Empire.

One of the writers of Genesis wrote one of the creation stories from Exile in Babylon.

The Psalms ... where do we even begin with who wrote which one?

And so sometimes when we layer words like ‘inerrancy’ and ‘infallibility’ and phrases like ‘Word of God’ onto the Bible ... sometimes I think we force it carry a burden or responsibility that it's not equipped to carry. Sometimes I think we forget that perhaps the Bible isn't built or wired or whatever to carry the responsibility we heap upon it's back.

Tonight I walked into my daughter's room and it looked like a CAT 5 Hurricane blew through there. Seriously, the only thing that was intact from her 1 hour nap time that turned into her 1 hour solo play time were the hinges on the door and even those were suspect. 

My first thought? "Yo, Jordan. You gotta get in here clean this up."

BUT.

She's 3, and although a 3 year old is more than capable of making that mess as her growing mind takes her from one toy to the next and then to the next and the next and the next as she puts together stories in her mind and uses her imagination, that same brain is not equipped to put all of those toys back again.

And so I did it - it would have been unfair for me to heap that huge burden on the shoulders of someone who isn't capable of carrying it.

The Bible shouldn't have to carry the weight of responsibility that we want it to carry because we would rather follow the black and white words on a page and declare it "GOD" than put in the extra effort of trying to follow the true God that we can't see. 

On top of that, the Bible never calls itself the Word of God. Not even once. It never says that it's inerrant and it never says that it's without mistakes or errors. 

SURE.

2 Timothy 3:16, I know, says that "all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness."

BUT ...

Does "God breathed" mean it's perfect? Or the "Words of God"?

Doesn't Genesis also say that God breathed into Adam? And you? And me? Are we perfect too? Are we the "Words of God" as well?

And what does "all Scripture" mean? When 2 Timothy was written the Gospels weren't written yet, Revelation wasn't written yet, and some of Paul's letters weren't written yet. So if "all Scripture" refers to the "Protestant Bible" then how can the words of 2 Timothy refer to books or letters that weren't even written yet? And what about all the books in the Catholic Bible? Or the Eastern Orthodox Bible? Lots of their books aren’t even in the Protestant Bible … are they “all Scripture” too? Are they the “Words of God” or just Genesis - Revelation in the Protestant Bible?

The reality is that the Bible never refers to itself as the Word of God, but in John 1 it does refer to Christ as the Word of God when the Gospel writer says that "in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

Christ.

The Word.

The Logos.

Was with God.

Was God.

Is with God.

Is God.

Sometimes I think we like to refer to the Bible as the Word of God because it's much easier to obey the black and white words on a page that are very often debatable and misrepresented than it is to obey the undeniable still, small voice inside that comes from the true Word of God - the Logos, the Breath of the Universe, the Spirit, the Divine, the Holy Energy of Love, the Christ that blazes through all things. 

Why am I telling you this? Because the Bible has been hijacked by the Church. It's been hijacked by the Church and chiseled down into a narrow and static document that fits inside a neat box of systematic theologies and doctrines that you've been told you need to believe and sign your life away to so that you'll be on God's good side, welcomed by the Church, and one day ushered into heaven. 

That's a lie.

The Bible is an expansive text that refuses to be chiseled down, tied down, and chained to a long list of man-made rules and theologies and doctrines. As the Rabbi's used to say, it's a beautiful collection of texts that best resembles a diamond in that every time you ...

Twist it.

Turn it.

Move it.

... So that the light hits it this way and that way, you see something different that you never ever saw before. It's a collection of texts that spans the course of thousands of years that is no doubt inspired by God to withstand the test of time as it shows generation after generation after generation how earlier generations have sought to think about and understand God, the climax of which came in the person of Jesus Christ who showed the faithful once and for all WHO God is, WHAT God looks like, WHERE God is moving, WHERE God is calling us to, HOW God acts, and WHY God cares so damn much you, me, and everyone else who has ever step foot on this planet. 

Don't let anyone force you to force the Bible to carry a burden it's not meant to carry. Be brave. It's easy to open up a book and obey the words we see on the surface, that doesn’t take much courage; but it takes much more courage to listen to the still, small voice of the Christ inside of you and walk the path of radical love that Jesus paved before us even when that path might stand in some sort of contradiction to something you read in the Bible.

Be brave.

Be courageous. 

Let the Bible point you to Christ.

And then listen to Christ. 

Because the Bible isn't the Word of God, Christ is. 



Peace.