After my first blog post I received a lot of excellent feedback from people close to me and in my church. One of the best questions though: “Who is your audience?”
This is a reasonable question.
In a typical Sunday School environment I’d be going through a lesson every three weeks, mixed in with the teaching style of multiple other teachers. If you’re reading this newsletter, I have no idea what else you may be reading or hearing.
My intended audience is anyone who is curious about the Bible. Anyone who has questions. Anyone looking for logical exploration and historical discussion where nothing is off limits.
What does the Bible say about my audience?
One of the most powerful passages for me, as a teacher, is from the apostle Paul whose letters make up the bulk of the New Testament and form the basis for how the church is supposed to operate.
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
- 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (NIV)
As a teacher, I read this passage to mean that Paul believes we are called to reach the people who we can relate to the most.
Who can relate to me?
I grew up in church and then walked away at 15. The reason I walked away is because I didn’t have a good experience in my youth group. As a teenager, who as all teenagers was never wrong, I focused my departure on the youth group itself. In hindsight, it was really me.
I wasn’t a popular kid in high school. I had a pot belly, big glasses and braces. I expected the kids in youth group to not pick on me the same way that some kids in school did…but of course that didn’t happen. I expected “church kids” to be better. In reality, there were only a couple of people who ever actually gave me a hard time. Because they were a couple of the more popular kids in the group, I projected their attitude onto the rest who were actually very nice. It took me years to admit that.
During those years, I became an agnostic and briefly an angry atheist. I made all of the arguments. I believed them too.
I was wrong.
Professionally, I’ve been a software developer for over 20 years. My field is full of extremely logical people because we all live in logic problems all day long.
Logically, I thought those arguments were sound but they were only sound based on the picture of Christianity that I had in my head. It was formed by my own biases. It was formed from a Bible verse here, a Bible verse there, an inflammatory story on the internet before I realized almost every story on the internet is inflammatory. Does somebody identify themselves as a Christian but then do something you don’t think they’re supposed to do? Might as well throw it all out the window right?
The picture painted on the internet of Christians by non-Christians seems to be largely framed by people who are very angry, claiming what “Christians” believe, want, or my personal favorite…are conspiring to do to America.
I’ve got news for everybody. Christians can’t even agree on what Christians believe. There are many different protestant denominations with differing views on how the Bible should be interpreted, which practices are most important to follow and which aspects of routine and ceremony we should be following. This doesn’t even account for independent churches.
Even among specific denominations, there’s not a clear agreement. The Southern Baptist Convention is a collection of different church constitutions. You’ll experience big differences between those same Baptist churches.
Questions are GOOD!
Asking questions is critical! The Bible and the Christian faith itself has not survived as long as it has due to an inability to withstand questions. Lots of them. Questions mean that you are curious, interested, and want to know more.
If we ask questions that make you wonder about something you have heard that calls it into question…that is a good thing. Because if we explore and find that thing is supported, you’ll never wonder about it again. Deeper understanding will only reinforce you.
What if it’s not though? Well, that’s a good question. Maybe we shouldn’t repeat that thing? Maybe we should try to find out where it came from, what it was trying to say and how we can communicate it more effectively in a Biblically sound manner?
Questions are how we learn.
How are we supposed to read the Bible?
The first time I read the Bible I was curious and I wanted to get through it. I ended up using one of those One Year Bible reading plans that breaks each day into some Old Testament, some New Testament, some Psalms and some Proverbs. Took me three years to get through the one year plan, but eventually I got there.
I realized there were major themes reiterated over and over. Themes that aren’t often mentioned. Idolatry is one of the biggest themes in the entire Old Testament. It’s discussed in book after book. I realized there were things that we talk about constantly which are barely discussed at all. After reading in totality, I felt like I understood things much better.
And then later I joined a men’s Bible study group where we covered the entire Bible and realized that I only knew a fraction of what I thought I knew. You will quite literally see Jesus foretold in many books of the Old Testament and I had no idea how to look for Him. Some people believe that we must see Jesus in every book of the Bible, but again…I do not see support for that. That view creates much of the debate around Song of Solomon, because you have to work extremely hard to try to see Jesus there.
I don’t know if there is a right way to read it. What I do know is that reading it with an open mind and an open heart is one of the most important things I’ve done in my life. Jesus did the rest.
From a standpoint of pure logical reasoning, I understand that absolute positions are dangerous to the point of being nearly indefensible. If even a single contrary example can be pointed out, the position doesn’t stand. In my experience so far, most absolute positions come from man made expressions rather than the Bible itself.
We’ll talk about that.
The Meat is in the Middle
The Bible consists of 66 different books by 40 different authors, yet people spend more time on two of them than almost any others: Genesis and Revelation. The beginning and the end.
The rest of the Bible covers Jewish history, the prophecies that foretold Jesus, lessons in life and human behavior which have changed very little in thousands of years, opposing religious leaders who manipulate it for their goals, Jesus life, death and resurrection, as well as the aftermath which saw the establishment of the church, how it’s intended to operate and the traps that we are all vulnerable to falling into if we aren’t careful and much more.
When people focus so much of their energies on arguing about Genesis and Revelation, who I call “bookenders”, they miss out everything else. Don’t worry, we will talk about them as well but neither will be a primary focus of this blog…because neither are the primary focus of the Bible. Jesus is.
No Perfect People
One of the hardest lessons I had to learn is that we are not expected to get a set of rules to follow and then BOOM! You’re a Christian.
This is a journey. Churches are not full of perfect people. They are filled with sinners in need of a Savior. Every single one.
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
- Isaiah 64:6 (NIV)
Paul reiterates this in detail in Romans.
This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
- Romans 3:22-24 (NIV)
No matter what you have done in your life, the choices that you have made, or the deeds you have performed we are all equal before God. We are all redeemed by faith in Jesus alone, which is given freely.
“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
- Acts 15:19-21 (NIV)
Paul’s expression that we should not make it difficult for those who are turning to God is one of the more critical verses for all teachers. Keep it simple. Focus on what’s important and feed the interest that will help to learn more.
Jesus tells us the two most important commandments himself. They form the basis for all others and are the litmus test for what constitutes Christian behavior. They are also very straightforward.
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
- Matthew 22:34-40 (NIV)
The Bible for the Curious
If you have a spark of curiosity about the Bible, my only goal is the feed the fire. Open the door in your heart a little wider and let Jesus Christ do the rest.
I will close this out with a prayer that my pastor growing up used in every single service.
May the words of our mouths and the meditations in our hearts be pleasing and acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord, my Strength and our Redeemer.
- Psalm 19:14 (slightly paraphrased)