Wrestling

The conversation started out something like this. “Do you think the Bible is God’s word?” My reply was something like, “Yes, of course I do.” That reply was followed up with another question – “So you think whatever is in the Bible is really the word of God?” By now I’m beginning to think my questioner had an agenda of sorts, but I decided to answer the question any way. Hoping that I could give a one word answer and end the conversation, I simply said, “Yes.”

He wouldn’t give up so easily, and the conversation quickly included a litany of “so you believe . . .” statements that reflect a reading of the Bible as it might be seen through the lens of mid-twentieth century culture rather than an attempt to read the Bible through the lens of its own historical setting. The list of “things” I would need to agree to in order for him to believe that I believed that the Bible is the word of God was overwhelming!

This kind of conversation reminds me of why I detest labels. Had our conversation continued to the point where I would have suggested that we need to read Scripture through the lens of its writers and readers and not our own cultural settings, he would have dismissed me as one of these “liberals” who “water down” the gospel. Unfortunately, it is equally easy for me to dismiss him as one of those hopeless “fundamentalists” who abuse the gospel – maybe, to create a new term, “water up” the gospel!

I remember reading – actually have read it several times since I’ve used it as a classroom assignment – Myron Taylor’s “A Theology of the Word of God,” available in his autobiography, Preacher of the Gospel. The lecture was given at Emmanuel Christian Seminary, back in 1998. His opening sentence is remarkable: “The habit of referring to the Bible as the Word of God has disguised the fact that the expression has a multiplicity of uses in scripture.” (page 37)

Taylor then talks about what he calls “the eternal word,” “the historic word,” “the spoken word,” “the written word,” “the word of proclamation,” and “the indwelling word.” The last sentence of Taylor’s lecture is worth repeating as well, “the richness of the biblical concept of the Word of God deserves our careful and thoughtful attention.” (page 47)

So to my recent questioner, “yes, of course I believe the Bible is the Word of God, but it isn’t quite as simple as you might think!” As I heard William Willimon once say, “the Bible is a thick book.” Indeed it is, and Taylor is right – it deserves a whole lot of thinking on our part. To that I would add, “for the rest of our lives.”

One of the reasons I never think that “I’m going to work” is because I’ve spent my entire adult life employed as one call to “wrestle” with this thing we call “the Word of God.” I haven’t become rich when it comes to retirement accounts, but I have lived a decent life, rich in ways that actually matter. And in that “wrestling,” sometimes I’ve walked away with a limp.