Understanding the Bible

The word “faithful to the Bible” does not exist in the Bible. So we are not talking about a “biblical fact”, but about an interpretation. It is a point of view that is expressed through this term. Anyone who spends a little longer in such – mostly evangelical – circles may notice that this term is not limited to the Bible. Rather, it is about certain ideas. One looks at the world, faith, God, other people in a certain way. One thinks that the Bible teaches this way. It is about a certain culture of faith. If you adopt this view, you can stick the label “faithful to the Bible” on yourself and you belong to it. Which means: You belong to this one subculture that adheres to a certain view, which you declare to be “faithful to the Bible”.

This view is problematic for several reasons. The biggest problem is probably this, that the Bible itself does not speak of “faithful to the Bible”. This is not simply a quibble with words, but people in the Bible deal with faith differently. In the Bible, no one is trying to be “faithful to the Bible.” You have a different focus. That’s what we’re talking about here in this post.

Christians today often end up in a “Bible-believing” subculture that interprets the Bible in a certain way and thinks that this is the only correct view. Logically, in such an environment, I hear statements like “I want to believe correctly.” Anyone who simply wants to do the right thing will thrive first in such a biotope. It simplifies the view of faith. The complexity of the world is reduced. The consequences of such assumptions often become clear only after a longer period of time, when one follows the thoughts guilelessly and perhaps uncritically.

This view, and not the Bible, is supposed to express “faithfulness to the Bible.” Accordingly, this concerns opinions about certain topics. You first define what the Bible says and then confuse the human definition with the Bible itself. To put it casually: “God means what I think”.

You define what the Bible says and then confuse the human definition with the Bible itself.

However, this is not the only problem. The word “faithful to the Bible” also has something to do with the view of the Bible itself. Obviously, it is “faithfulness to the Bible” that is rated as particularly important. But what does that mean exactly? The confusion here goes one step deeper. There is not only a confusion of human teaching with the Bible, but also a confusion between the Bible and God Himself. Brief self-understanding: We do and believe what God wants, and God wants exactly what we do. The intervening human interpretation is faded out. Those who say they are faithful to the Bible see themselves on a level with God Himself.

Those who say “faithful to the Bible” usually mean “faithful to the line” and are talking about the internalized teachings of their religious community.

Evangelical Dropouts

This idea of “Bible faithfulness” thrives predominantly in evangelical circles. It often manifests itself in rigid ideas about God and the world. The problem leads to the fact that many people do not want to and can no longer live in this confinement. They say goodbye to the evangelical world and become ex-evangelicals or post-evangelicals. The ex-evangelical becomes a professed unbeliever. Those who call themselves post-evangelical jettison the subculture but want to keep the faith. The post-evangelical tries not to throw out the child of faith with the bathwater of evangelical teachings.

Now there are two ways that people become dropouts:

1. Teaching: You can see the flawed foundation of the teachings
2. Culture: one recognizes the rigid effects of the teachings

One of these things is usually decisive for the exit. I myself first recognized the flawed foundation of the teachings. It was then that I set out to examine the Bible for better answers than I had been offered up to that point. Dropouts from the second group are often repelled by the narrow-mindedness and hostility to life of the teachings and communities. They hold for themselves that you cannot live and believe the way some live it. You look for a different, more lively expression. Teaching and culture are both important. Anyone who takes a serious look at this soon realizes that the two belong together. Sustained reflection on these matters will therefore reflect and take into account both the teaching and the culture that emerges from it.

Dropouts from the second group are often repelled by the narrow-mindedness and hostility to life of the teachings and communities.

Reorientation

Whoever becomes a dropout from evangelical thoughts, but does not want to give up faith, has to come up with a new world view, view of man and view of God. This is a demanding task, comparable in many respects to leaving a cult. I myself first recognized the shortcomings of the teachings and therefore went in search of better answers. That’s where it started for me. For others, it starts in a different place.

The same can be observed on this website. The most hits are on contributions on the topics of hell and all reconciliation. This shows that these contributions meet a need.

For many years I intensively studied questions about, say, heaven and hell, until I was able to answer them with better answers from the Bible. You read correctly: “from the Bible”. A departure from rigid teachings does not mean that one should no longer read the Bible. It was virtually the Bible itself that exposed many a teaching as “absurd”. I realized that the Bible is not rigid. Only human opinions are. Subject after subject signed up. It was and is an exciting journey.

You can think of this journey as concentric rings. The focus can be a clear question about a topic that is important to you. An answer to this can be sought and perhaps found. The next thing you realize is that it’s not just about isolated issues – it’s about a certain way of thinking, a certain attitude toward life and faith. The outer circle concerns the effect of this thinking, that is, the consequences of “heaven and hell,” “no sex before marriage,” “God hates divorce,” and the like.

The clearer it became to me that not only individual teachings had a problem, but that a subculture as a whole had problematic features, the more I could understand why people left these circles. Evangelical circles, just like institutionalized thought or sects, bind people to themselves, to their own religious ideas and interpretations. While this is human and therefore understandable, the expression can be hostile to life and faith. This usually has nothing to do with God or the Bible, but rather only with ideas about God and the Bible.

A reorientation is needed. Those who get out are often shaken up. A spirit of optimism requires the courage to rethink.

Faithful to the Bible – is there another way?

The typical free-evangelical thought, which I had the privilege to get to know over many decades, has positioned itself via the term “faithful to the Bible”. All the teachings and ideas fit in there. Faithful to the Bible was something of an umbrella term for the smorgasbord of ideas that were cultivated in the congregations. One wanted to be close to God, and through these internalized ideas this should be possible, according to the convictions.

Downright frightening here is the idea that one is “only so biblically on the way”. Anyone with a more nuanced or different understanding is quickly lumped into the “liberal” category, which amounted to a clear rejection. Typical black and white thinking. But once you have internalized this, it is not easy to get out. This would mean that one would then belong to the dreaded “liberals” who “do not take the Bible seriously”.

So either one was faithful to the Bible, or more precisely faithful to the line, or one belonged in the group of unbelievers, at best misguided Christians, for whom one should pray that they come to repentance.

The tension created from such ideas is cruel. It soon becomes clear that people in the communities were not taught to grow, but rather to be dependent. What was preached as “freedom in Christ” was often bondage in the rigid ideas of the community. An unholy combination of gospel and rigid worldview took place. This is a powerful knot that is difficult to untangle.

So either one was faithful to the Bible, or more precisely faithful to the line, or one belonged in the group of unbelievers, at best misguided Christians, for whom one should pray that they come to repentance.

However, those who are setting out on the path to a new freedom may wonder how to better interact with the Bible. I was aware of how much richness I had received from the Bible. I also became aware of how supposed biblical faithfulness had set my thinking on a wrong track. This had to be corrected.

Although I had never shied away from the confrontation, it was a great task to put my understanding, my horizon of faith, my approach to the Bible on a healthier footing. It’s a process. I consider myself to be far from having completed this process.

Central to this development was and is the question of how I may believe and how I may view the Bible in this context? I have since learned that I need to let go of some old patterns. I was able to fill the vacuum that was created. The Bible is a testimony to me and feeds my trust in God, more than ever before – but differently, no longer rigidly. The gospel of grace is the foundation. I didn’t throw away anything essential, but I realigned a lot of things. One could speak of a “recalibration”.

I am aware today that the term “faithful to the Bible” speaks of a subculture rather than the Bible. I let go of the subculture and replaced it with new things. Along with this, I have also redefined this term “faithful to the Bible.” Like this: Spirit is more important than letter. I recognize the Bible as faithful in its own statement. The Bible is a testimony. It was given so that I would learn from it. It is God’s Word, but that is not the same as the idea that every letter has a divine quality. Indeed, the divine quality does not come from the letters alone, but from the Spirit that blows through the pages (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Crucial is this: The Bible feeds my faith in God. This outlines the relationship between the two. For it is not the other way around, such as that it is God who feeds my faith in the Bible. I have given up this confusion between God and the Bible. The reality is very simple: the Bible leads to Christ and Christ leads to God. Then I suddenly stand much closer to the testimony and understanding of the Bible writers, as I can trace it in the Bible. This kind of Bible faithfulness leads into relationship and freedom from Christ. I am learning to think faith in a new way.