Threat to the Bible

For my final Canon and Community class we had to give a short presentation on something we saw as a threat to the Bible or our view of the Bible or something along those lines.  The presentations were very interesting.  There was a diversity of styles and topics discussed.  Our professor will be posting all of them online for us to view.  I'm looking forward to reading them more in depth.  Almost everyone said something that surprised me or struck me in some way.  The following is the text of what I presented.

The number one threat to the Bible is... bears. The Tahoe Daily Tribune reported shortly before Thanksgiving last year a 700 lb bear made a $70,000 path of destruction through a small town in western Nevada which included a local church. The bear destroyed a door to get into the fellowship hall of the church and consumed 22 jars of peanut butter and several containers of frozen orange juice and frozen dinner rolls. This food and much more was waiting to be packed into boxes to be distributed to the needy in their community. Residents of the town had been trying to catch the bear since it broke into more than 40 garages the summer before. One man managed to shoot the bear in the head with a .44 magnum, but the bullet ricocheted off.

A story like this might be part of the inspiration why Bryan Fischer, a spokesperson for the conservative Christian, pro-life, pro-family organization American Family Association and former chaplain to the Idaho State Senate, suggested last month that “grizzlies have to go.” He argued that the existence of such animals attacking humans proves they are a part of the curse of the Fall. To deal with this curse we should “shoot these man-eaters on sight.”

Now obviously, I'm being facetious. In fact, as I've thought about this assignment for some time, I've realized I'm not sure that I believe there is any threat to the Bible. We all come from traditions and theological persuasions that we care deeply about and identify passionately with. Sometimes, our passionate connection to these identities clouds our ability to see the greater picture that's going on around us and before us.

The fact of the matter is that canons have been around throughout all of Christian history. Christian communities have continued to use things on the side of what became the Bible, as well as to ignore things within the Bible. Such things happened during the time of Christ and the apostles. It happened before Constantine. It happened after Constantine. It happened during and after the Reformation. It happens today, and it will happen in post-Christendom as well.

The Bible has managed to make liberal Christians conservative and conservative Christians liberal. It has turned unbelievers into believers and believers into unbelievers. The Church in every form that it has taken throughout time and today continues this same trend. Despite our foibles God has proven himself faithful throughout the ages. The church continues to exist, and continues to be a transformative presence in the world. All along the way, we have had our canons, our canons within the canon and our canons outside of the canon. Every step of this journey we have interpreted our canons to help us continue to be true to God and to each other. Also, these canons have interpreted us in the sense of the Holy Spirit convicting us.

Often I think the things that we perceive as threatening our particular Christian identities and theological persuasions are things that God is using with great effect elsewhere in His plan. And this is really what is being threatened. It is not the Bible being threatened, it is us. If we are honest with ourselves, God is far more creative than our identities and persuasions will allow us to admit. No, I don't think the Bible is threatened. The way things are are how they've always been in some way or another. That fact alone shows that the Bible and the Church have come through a lot and will make it through to the end whatever that may be. These polemics we find ourselves surrounded by and taking part in are evidence of a lack of faith we have in the greater picture. Paradoxically, it seems that this very behavior is what keeps the Church sharp. It keeps us diverse and on task with what God has gifted and called our particular cliques to do.

Constantine, King James, complementarians, egalitarians, liberals, and fundamentalists may be enemies of ours, but they have also helped to create us, sharpen us and focus us. If there is any real threat it is only how worked up we may allow ourselves to become. We should fight our fights but we should also remember to step back and breathe. As the good book says, “For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”