Why the Bible?

Why is Anchor so obsessed with the Bible??  We are committed to teaching and preaching from the Bible because it is God's revelation of himself to mankind.  It is the book he wrote to us.  But people wrote it, didn't they?  Yes, as the Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1:21: "...men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

 

The Bible Claims to be the Word of God...  One thing we must observe at the outset, the biblical writers claimed to be writing the words of God (see for example: 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Revelation 1; 22:18-19).  This makes sense, given the mission of the church: to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the world (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).  That revolves around the proclamation of God's words.

 

But Do You Take it Literally?  It is a common misconception that the Bible is not to be taken literally, that somehow its beauty and truth are diminished by reading it this way.  It's not clear when this notion emerged, but it is far too simplistic to say that we read the Bible literally or figuratively.

Granted, literal interpretation has been overdrawn by some people and inspired some crazy notions, like snake-handling during church service, but we should not dispense with literal interpretation because of poor applications of it.

So do we take the Bible literally?  Yes, when the genre calls for a literal interpretation.

 

The Bible and Genre...  The Bible is constituted of many different types of literature or genres, such as poetry, proverbs, narrative, rhetoric, epic, personal letter, apocalyptic, etc.  The Bible also contains many figures of speech, such as metaphors, allegories, symbolism, sarcasm, parody, etc., and we must take these literary forms into consideration when interpreting a particular passage.

For example, when Paul the Apostle uses allegory in Galatians 4:24ff, we don't interpret it literally.  When Isaiah 40:31 says that those who wait for the Lord "...shall mount up with wings as eagles," it doesn't mean we'll sprout wings and fly.  We need to take the genre and the figure of speech into consideration and apply it in appropriately.

We speak like this in everyday life.  When someone says that he was "knocked off his feet" by something he heard, we don't find it difficult to understand that he is using figurative language to illustrate the power of the message he heard.  Likewise, when a young person is excited about their new iPhone and exclaims that it is "sick," they don't mean it's not working (even though an older person might be tempted to interpret it that way), they mean it rocks.  I mean, they mean it is cool.  That is, it's great.  You must consider the context of their speech and the figurative language they are using--because we use figurative language all the time.

Then again, the Bible often speaks in a straightforward manner.  In John 14:6, for example, Jesus says: "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."  In John 3:16 Jesus says: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life."  When the Bible records the death of Jesus, or the resurrection, or the individual's need to place faith in Jesus, or the importance of prayer, or the hope of the second coming of Jesus, etc., it usually means just what it says: Jesus died and rose again, we need to believe in him for salvation, Christians should pray, and Jesus is coming again.

So when we come across passages such as John 1:9, where John the Baptist calls Jesus "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world," we can see that he does not mean that Jesus is an actual lamb, but he does mean that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross provides for redemption from sin.  Someone wisely said about Bible interpretation: "When the literal sense makes good sense, seek no other sense."  This is how we want to be taken when we speak or write.  Same with the biblical authors.

 

The Power of the Word of God...  The Bible calls Christians to be diligent to study the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15), because the Bible is God's ordained means of equpping us for the Christian life (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

The Bible is therefore a means to an end: to know God and be changed by his power through that relationship.  2 Peter 1:3 says that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of God.  That notion compels us to study the Bible, to learn as much about him as we can.  The word of God is able to transform our thoughts and lives (Psalm 119:9, 11).  The Word of God is "at work" in those who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13).  The Gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). 

That is why most of our sermons focus on verse-by-verse interpretation.  This way, pastors can take the church through the books of the Bible so everyone can see how we came up with our interpretations and applications.  We can learn it together, see the broader context of a verse or passage, and follow the biblical writer's train of thought from beginning to end, just like we do when we receive a letter or email or text or Facebook post or tweet or whatever from a friend.

That is why we are freaks for the Bible.