Back to the Bible (Pt. 1)--Trustworthy, not Inerrant

I grew up being taught that the Bible was the "holy, inspired, inerrant Word of God."  This made me want to read the Bible to obtain righteousness.  I wanted to know more than others, and I wanted to demonstrate that I knew more than others.  I probably even wanted to "save" others.  I wanted to be an "insider" with God.  However, reading the Bible as the "holy, inspired, inerrant Word of God" didn't cause me to love others.  Instead, it fueled my innate self-righteousness and caused me to believe that God was lucky to have me on his team.

Somehow, inexplicably, I read the Bible to say that God was damning the "outsiders"--the Philistines, the Amalekites, and the other "ites"--even though Jesus, God Himself, teaches us to "love our enemies."  If the Bible is "inerrant," then God was telling the Jews to kill the "outsiders."  The logic of this to the Jews was that, if they didn't kill the others, then the Jews would become like the others.  The logic to modern-day Christians is that God was exercising his divine justice through his chosen people--the Jews.

Love your enemies (Jesus).  Kill your enemies (God of the OT).  Is this somehow correct?

When I saw the Bible as speaking with a forked-tongue, I didn't love it.  Loving the truth, I couldn't deal with the inconsistencies in the Bible that I had been taught was the "holy, inspired, inerrant Word of God."  I read other books about Jesus (many, many, many other books about Jesus--Jesus is captivating), but the Bible had lost its appeal.  As God dealt with my self-righteousness, the book that had cultivated my self-righteousness lost its luster.

Recently, one of my favorite pastors described the Bible as "trustworthy."  This I can believe.  Seeing the Bible as "inerrant" was a huge problem for me.  But "trustworthy"--that I can wrap my need for truth around.  We have a new Sunday School teacher for whom the OT is his friend.  He brings it alive--dispatching with the rote, uninspired teachings of my upbringing and, instead, bringing the Word to life with a sense of wonder.  This I want to hear.  So, now I can go "back to the Bible" and hopefully read it correctly.

Our SS teacher explained that, after the Jews killed the "outsiders," the Jews then became exactly like the "outsiders."  To my way of thinking, then, there was no point in killing the "outsiders."  The Jews were sufficiently sinful in and of themselves, even without the supposedly corrupting influence of "outsiders."  So, maybe the God of the OT wasn't telling the Jews to kill the "outsiders" in order to maintain their purity?  (Indeed, this is the very thing that ISIS--murder your enemies to maintain your purity.)  Maybe the Jews wanted to kill the "outsiders" anyway and were just using God as a justification?  Maybe the Prophets weren't just upset with the Jews because they were immoral, but rather because they didn't love their fellow man.  Maybe Jesus came to correct the incorrect views of the OT Jews and of modern-day Christians.

Our SS teacher also taught that there are four groups of people that God was greatly concerned about and, accordingly, the Prophets were concerned about--the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the sojourners.  These were the folks outside the Jewish religious order, outside the mainstream of society, outside the love of God--according to the insiders.

If God wanted the Jews to be concerned about the "outsiders," is not God even more concerned about them? If the "outsiders" are special to God, you could read the OT to say that redemption lies with the "poor, the widows, the orphans, and the sojourners."  But this isn't what the Jews believed.  They believed that redemption lay within the Jewish religious order, just as we Christians believe today.

So, as for me, I'm going with the Bible as being "trustworthy," not inerrant.  I'm going with God as the friend of sinners (not their judge), the lover of His enemies (not their murderer), and the deliverer of all--even the self-righteous like me.  For, indeed, this is my only hope!

GNR--Take 2--my heroes Bryan and Emily

To get the background for this post, you may want to read my other GNR post.

When reading "A Mess of Help" by David Zahl, and his gracious treatment of Axl, I began weeping.  God has been so gracious to me.  He has rescued me from binge alcoholism, partying, and worse yet self-righteousness.  I will still have these tendencies until I die, but God has given me a tremendous respite from them.  Back when I saw GNR twice--1987 and 1992, I was a full-blown alcoholic and self-righteous prick.  Most people knew about the drinking and partying, but I disguised the self-righteousness pretty well.  

Having grown up in the Bible Belt, I understood that Christianity was all about my performance.  So, if I was performing good at church--attending multiple times per week, teaching SS, and helping my wife to become a Southern Baptist Stepford wife, then it was okay to "party hearty."  

As I read David's gracious treatment of Axl, I also began weeping for a friend--Bryan Bonds who attended the first GNR concert with me.  Bryan has ALS.  Bryan is one of the strongest Christians I know, as is his wife Emily.  They have faced Bryan's disease with courage that can only be found in a deep-seated appreciation for the love that God has bestowed upon his created beings--his sons and daughters.

I don't know why Bryan has ALS.  I don't know why children starve and die from Aids in Africa.  However, I do know that the only god out there who has demonstrated His heartbreak over human suffering is Jesus.  Jesus demonstrated solidarity with mankind by living in this difficult world and then entering into death in the most painful way known at that time.

Emily told me that Bryan still talks about the 1987 GNR concert which we attended.  So do I.  It was outdoors at the Birmingham Race Track, and it was raining cats and dogs.  We were knee-deep in mud, and Axl was having problems with his voice.  Even with the discomfort and the breaks in the show for Axl to treat his voice, when GNR played, it was like magic.  Their music wiped away, temporarily, any tears, fears, discomforts, or problems that we had.

The camaraderie that we experienced at that show is something that we will get to experience in heaven.  In heaven, all of our relationships will be direct and not affected by sin--such as alcoholism or self-righteousness.  For Jesus, the friend of sinners, will reign supreme.  He will wipe away every tear.  There will be no more fears, discomforts, or problems.  And "the grass will be green and the girls will be pretty."  Even me, a 54 year old, overweight balding lawyer will be pretty.  

"A Mess of Help" and GNR (Is "Paradise City" a guilty pleasure or picture of heaven?)

"Take me down to Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty;

Oh won't you please take me home."  (Guns n' Roses--1987)

A rock anthem for the ages, or it should have been.  With GNR making such a sudden and complete exodus from the rock scene in 1992, they somehow lost the respect of music critics and even fans--even a fan like me.

From other's accounts, it sounds like the band self-destructed after their 1992 world tour.  Axl's self-destructive tendency was perfectionism.  This contributed to the band's breakup and kept him from putting out another album until 2008.

Folks at work still give me grief for liking GNR twenty years later--even the younger folks at work know that I was a GNR fan.  The Bible says that our thoughts are directed by our hearts.  So, I guess my heart was pretty attracted to and infatuated with GNR.

The band's sudden breakup and terminus caused even me to look down on them.  How could they not get it together to make their amazing music again?  If they couldn't control themselves, then maybe their music wasn't that great after all.  This is where I wound up--disenchanted and feeling like a rube for ever having liked GNR.

Then, I read "Mess of Help" by David Zahl.  David applies grace to band after band--from the Beatles to GNR.  The grace that David Zahl heaps upon Axl is not to be believed.

David explains that Axl was raised in a very fundamentalist Christian home to which Axl responded with rebellion.  He and his band mates wrote their first album "Appetite for Destruction" while all five were living in a one room apartment in LA.  David notes that they gave song-writing credit to all five of the band members--which is rarely if ever done.  They were living in a state of thankfulness for one another--a state in which each was humble about his own role in the band.

Than, after the remarkable success of Appetite--the largest selling debut album of all time--they were faced with the law of performance--"how're you going to top that?'  Living under this burden, it took them several years to put out "Use Your Illusion 1 and 2."  (By the way, I bought this album when it went on sale at midnight and went home and listened to it right away.)  UYI has multiple types of music--from hard-edged rock to ballads to even rap-like songs.  UYI was loved by the fans, but panned by the critics.

After their world tour to support UYI, they broke up.  Axl wanted to control everything, and other band members thought he was getting away from their roots.

David points out that Axl's desire for control over the band in his pursuit of perfection was probably derived from the control which was modeled to him in his family growing up.  Sin begets sin.  God doesn't curse future generations-- we do.  So, the band's breakup is now more easily understood.  David gives grace to Axl.  Rather than condemning Axl as the media and fans like me have done, David explains where Axl's actions came from.

David ends his article with a crescendo of grace.  David says that Axl wears a large cross whenever he performs.  Of course, David points out, this could merely be a fashion statement.  But David doesn't think so.  For you see, Axl has a collection of antique crosses.  Axl seems to understand that, in the midst of the "mess" of this world, all he has and all he needs is God's grace.

If God is as gracious to us, as David Zahl is to Axl, then heaven is probably going to be more like Paradise City than the monastery or the clouds or the golden streets promoted by American evangelicals.  There will be rock guitars rather than angel's harps.  The grass will be green, and the girls will be pretty.  Indeed, we'll all be beautiful--reflected in the glow of Jesus' love.