Christianity Today has posted a brief article entitled Obscene Bible comments reflect failure of church. The article speaks of a particular Bible placed on display in Glasgow inviting those who have been marginalized by faulty interpretations of the Bible to “write your way back into it.”
Of course, giving a postmodern a pen and asking him to adjust the Bible to his liking is akin to giving a thief a thousand dollars and telling him to deliver what he doesn’t want to the local orphanage. We ought not be surprised at the decision he makes. The visitors took the pen and wrote in the Bible, “I don’t want a fascist God,” among other phrases that I will not repeat.
As surprising as this may be to some, even more surprising is the reaction of Eddie Arthur, the Executive Director of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Taking an opportunity to respond to the actions of those who defaced the word of God, Arthur says, “Sadly, it is a failure of the wider Christian church to adequately live and demonstrate the message of God’s reconciliation which is the issue.”
Arthur’s error is in misplacing the blame. Is the reason people deface the word of God really the fault of believers, or is it simply evidence that people without the Lord Jesus Christ feel no need to reverence the Bible beyond some historical document that is now irrelevant to culture? Authur’s problem is that ultimately, he pandered to the whims of postmodern culture. The Bible was defaced because there are people without Christ, and people without Christ have no regard for the revelation of Christ. The implication is that the people of Christ should be offended when people desecrate His word. Jesus fully expected to be desecrated, and even told us He would be, and we in turn.
Arthur’s statement reveals a mentality of “if we do it right, they will like us.” The idea that “if the church can join hands with the culture then the culture will accept us” is naive in regard to culture and ignorant in regard to Scripture. Postmodern Christianity is simply an invitation for those who feel marginalized to write their own scripture. We ought not be surprised when culture rejects the word of God. We should be surprised when Christians ignore the word of God.
I can’t argue with anything you said here. Anytime we change Scripture to fit our personal desires, it is bad.
What baffles me is how this is surprising to anyone. We conservatives in the SBC have been doing it for years. If post-modern believers are guilty of tossing out parts of the Bible, conservatives have been adding to it for a much longer period of time. And for the life of me, I can’t tell which is worse. Both give a distorted view of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
Jason,
Both adding to and taking away from Scripture are destructive. I am not too sure we can say one is more dangerous than the other, just that at different times, one has been more prevalent than the other.
Brother John,
Good article. I think Eddie is simply trying to gain more revenue and exposure for Wycliffe by asserting such a message of fear and blame. But your right,…we have a better and surer message and should be careful how that we tell it and teach it.
Blessings,
Chris
John,
Very good insights. The NT does not substantiate Arthur’s pessimistic view of believers nor his optimistic view of unbelievers (1 Cor 2:8-16; Eph 4:17-20; 5:3-12). After reading Arthur and others it seems that the only ones who need to repent are committed local church members. While we need daily repentance, let’s face it, we are the only ones in the culture even talking about it. “God commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30-31). Keep up the good work.
Chris,
I have no doubt that you have pinpointed the reasoning for the statement, at least prima facia. However, as you allude, unbiblical statements are not justified by good marketing skills.
Dr. Mills,
It is a shame that many have abandoned the concept of repentance for the sake of tolerance and/or relevance. Thank you for your kind words.