“Scripture And” or “Scripture Alone”? Part 2

In my last blog I threw out the idea that the Bible is all-sufficient for Christians. I followed up with an argument against extra-biblical books. I am sure many watched the baby riding the shimmering arc of bathwater with a shake of the head.

Not so fast my faithful reader, allow me a caveat to that lengthy argument. No, not a formal recantation; a caveat. I stand by all I said, but some clarification will not go amiss. There is no honest dispute in favor of Christians wasting money on hell/heaven visitation books. Buy a Bible and a meal for a homeless person instead, it might even cost less.

But I realize that some may take my meaning as: don’t read anything but the Bible. It would mean you misread what I made clear, but it is possible. Is it wrong to do that? No of course not.

I was still very young in the faith when I made that decision. As a young Christian I felt the Spirit draw me to the scriptures; I lost my hunger for any other writing. I tried to read other books. I recall Brad Warne—my pastor at the time—giving me more than one John Maxwell book. I admit now, I never got through them.

One of the first scriptures God impressed on me was John 14:26;

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (ESV)

It was at a time when I was reading eight chapters of Bible per day and despairing at my retention ability. This scripture gave me hope and strengthened my faith. When trusting on my own memory, I found myself fumbling and bumbling when questions arose. And when I trusted what the scripture said? I started remembering the right thing at the right time.

Yet, I did not have all the answers to all the questions. Why not? The Bible promises to be an exhaustive source for the Christian life and godliness. But it is not exhaustive for life in general.

In my last post I mentioned the Widow and her two copper coins. The rich gave of their riches, and their giving meant little to them, meaning it meant little to Jesus. But the poor widow not only gave out of her poverty she gave everything she had. It does not teach about standards of giving but rather about giving itself. David said to Aurona: “I will not give to God that which costs me nothing”. The widow goes even further: “I will not give to God that which does not cost me everything”.

But what does God require as a sacrifice from us? Let’s use scripture as a guide:

Hebrews 6:1-2 (NIV)

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Can you give a definitive answer on repentance from spiritually deadly acts? How about faith in God, or the relevance of Jewish rites for gentile believers, or the laying on of hands?

What’s that? You are still having difficulty discerning truth from fiction in the "Left Behind" series? You are not alone (just google “end times”).

The Corinthians had also not moved beyond the spiritual babe stage. They received a stern rebuke for it.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

The problem in Corinth is even less elementary than that with the Hebrews. It involved the jealousy and dissension among the followers of famous preachers. And the preachers in question? Paul and Apollos. That's right, they were rebuked for their factions to sound apostles. So, issues of theology are mild milk for spiritual babies. And of course babies should easily be able to avoid the cult of super-pastors.

Think about that for a moment.

Consider that this was written to a society where most of the congregation would be illiterate and uneducated. They did not have a completed bible. What they had was definitely not available to everyone. They possibly had a few circulated or copied New Testament letters—their only completed source for years would be the Jewish Tanakh (Old Testament).

What then would be the expectation on those who have a completed Bible; in many different translations. Those who have study notes, commentaries, reference works, historical works and the like spanning two millennia—available to all who can read or listen?

The answer, at the very least, must be: the same. We must move beyond the elementary. I doubt relying only on what the pastor says on Sunday and your minimalist Bible reading will suffice.

For our milk, our elementary teachings of Christ, the Bible is clear beyond a shadow of doubt. Most translators agree: The English says the same as the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic texts when it comes to issues like Salvation by Faith, the Deity of Christ and Eternal Judgement.

Even disputes of a more specific nature are quite clear in scripture—needing no more than a thorough reading thereof to prove. Issues like homosexuality, women in ministry, headship of Adam, and the correlation between faith and works are clear and concise in scripture despite arguments to the contrary.

Yet, the Bible charges us to be ready to give a defense… and this may require a more comprehensive apologetic than knowing only what the Bible says.

What if a skeptic points out contradictions in scripture? They may not be actual contradictions, but if you didn’t know about them, I doubt you know the correct answer. It may be prudent to understand both how the skeptic views the text and how Christian or Jewish theologians have answered these views.

The actions of especially the Old Testament patriarchs can seem dodgy, weak or downright evil in the light of the morals we have today. Yet, if we make careful study of the middle eastern cultures of the time, their actions paint a different picture.

This was an issue just last year. I heard a sermon series attacking the “heroes of the old testament” for their wickedness, completely ignoring the culture of the time and the lack of a given law. It traded biblical and extra-biblical study for mere shock factor.

We are not the only ones noticing these supposed "problems" with the Word of God. Non-Christians have more anti-bible junk shoveled their way than ever before. Indeed, while the social media culture has been sucking the life out of Christians, the opposite has been true for the devout atheist. Therefore, we need to be ready for as many likely conversations as we can.

But where do we begin?

Well, what is the most prevalent false religion in your region? What cults are operating near you? You need to read, not only Christian books about them, but also get your hands on their own literature.

What questions do the young people in your church have? Does your area, like the KZN South Coast where I grew up spiritually, have a lack of strong father figures? Are there a lot of “Christian” charlatans?

It wouldn't help filling yourself with knowledge you'll never use. Find out the needs of those you are most frequently in contact with. Find the problems, engage yourself with some reading, and take some notes.

You may also want to think about some doctrines of the Christian faith that is very dear to you and read what Christian theologians have said about it. God has privileged us with a smorgasbord of writings, old and new, and we are twiddling our thumbs on WhatsApp, WeChat, Snapchat, Facebook and the like.

Those are distractions, designed to snip information into tiny bits that no one takes seriously, except those who do, and their opinions are not worth taking seriously.

Today, when information is cheap, we need to make it dear. When words are weightless, we must load every syllable with the weight of truth. When everything is so very relevant, we need to be wholly reverent. And when no one has answers we need to be ready to provide them.

In conclusion: we must read Bible, and we need to read a lot more of it than we do. But we also have the resources to understand the important things of our faith so much better.

So, am I now saying we should also read other books? Yes. The books relevant to effective evangelism, clearer understanding of doctrine, or clarity on scripture. But the stuff-and-fluff that is Christianity’s attempt to make Oprah's best reads? They have no place on the bookshelf of a Christian who cannot bring himself to read three chapters of Bible per day.