YOU MEAN THEY'RE SERIOUS ABOUT THAT FALL OF MAN STUFF?

The Good Book: Violent and ambivalent, the Bible is a deeply problematic read. Iain Macwhirter, 4/11/04, Sunday Herald)

IT’S the biggest bestseller in history; the most important book in the English language; the moral foundation of 2000 years of Western civilisation. It is central to the understanding of literature from William Shakespeare’s plays to Bob Dylan’s lyrics. It is becoming essential to the understanding of the new world order and the project of American neo conservatism. So why had I never read the Bible before?

Well, like most, I thought I already had. I was exposed to Bible stories at school: Moses in the basket; the walls of Jericho; David and Goliath. As for the Gospels, I thought I had a fair working knowledge of New Testament morality: turning the other cheek, loving your enemies. But I was wrong. I didn’t know the half, or even the quarter, of it. After reading the Bible from cover to cover, I remain unconverted. In fact, I feel more alienated from religion than ever.

The Bible had been a closed book in my family. There were plenty of them around as I grew up – forbidding black tomes with ominous crosses, but they were never opened. My grandfather had been a Kirk elder, until he was thrown out of the Church for being a pacifist in the first world war. As a result, my father became an irreconcilable atheist.

I grew up regarding religion not with contempt, but complete indifference. I’d occasionally attend Christian events, but the language of psalms and hymns seemed utterly alien. Only when my children started performing in school passion plays was I reminded that, even in secular state schools, indoctrination continues.

However, I was always conscious that both my parents, who remained active in socialist and peace movements throughout their lives, clearly lived by essentially Christian moral precepts. They were genuine pacifists, appalled by injustice and the abuse of power – and actually did something about it. But it was also clear that many of the powerful against whom they fought the good fight, like militaristic US Republicans, also claimed to be Christians. How could one book have so many different meanings?

The problem with the Bible is that it is very rare for people to have read it. They read extracts or theological commentaries, but rarely the text itself. I decided that if I was going to come to terms with this book, I wasn’t going to read about it – I was going to read the book itself.

Unflinching, brutal and harrowing: … The bible stands accused. A church leader takes up the defence, but his views may surprise the faithful (John Miller, 4/11/04, Sunday Herald)

The Bible isn’t like a recipe book for moral conduct. And clearly it isn’t an anthology of uplifting tales like a bumper edition of Francis Gay. So what is it, and why is it so important to believers? The reason is this: it is a book that consistently presents human history as the realm in which God is at work. Even the dark stories cited by Macwhirter, the ones in which the biblical scholars say God is not fully understood, not fully revealed, present that dimension. It’s that central issue which is vital to believers, namely the conviction that we are not haphazard collections of atoms in a universe without reason or purpose. On the contrary, the universe is in the hands of God. The harrowing human tale of hatred and destruction is one we know very well.

Ten years ago there was a genocide in Rwanda. This weekend new chapters are being written. It is the same tale to which those early Hebrew accounts give witness. The Bible does not offer an escape from that, but it asserts that God’s will is that we find a new way. That’s what Christians believe. Their faith does not depend on the book. Their faith depends on God, revealed in Jesus Christ. But because the book carries the evidence of Jesus, Christians call the book sacred.

One of Iain Macwhirter’s discoveries in his journey through the Hebrew scriptures was that Isaac the Israelite patriarch and Ishmael, the ancestor of the Prophet Mohammad who established Islam, are brothers, both children of Abraham. Judaism and Christianity and Islam thus share Abraham as their common ancestor in faith. President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who each affirm that they have a live Christian faith, have been insistent that their war on terror is not a crusade against Islam. There are currently many initiatives from religious leaders to strengthen to common bond between the three Abrahamic faiths.

Summing up his observations on the Bible, Macwhirter argues that “the Good News is massively outweighed by the bad”. This assessment closely mirrors another difficulty people face when offered thoughts about God. In a world where there is so much cruelty and innocent suffering, how is it possible to believe in a God of love? Believers have to come to terms with those judgements. But I think of a man who will go to church today. He spent many years in prison for trying to kill someone. He is now a devoted family man, with patience and time for others. He cannot explain his new life in any way other than that Jesus made his life new. He will be in church to pray for others he knows and for his friends and family and for the troubled world. Such events will happen in countless places today.

Easter is the Christian celebration of the resurrection of the crucified Christ from the dead. That resurrection was not logical, nor predictable, nor indeed to the early disciples was it even credible. Macwhirter, by expressing his frank horror at what he has discovered in the Bible, has provided an authentic setting for the surprise which Easter celebrates – the victory of faith and hope and love.

One of the classic mistakes that atheists make is to think that folk turn to the Bible for cheap comfort. It's a mistake because there's none there. It's terrifying precisely because it tells us who we are, what we're like, and what is commanded of us, though we're obviously incapable of delivering. The Bible humbles men, deservedly; it does not exalt them.

MORE:
The Spirit of the Risen One (Eberhard Arnold, Writings Selected)

It is the soul’s instinct of self-preservation which holds us back from complete honesty about our own moral condition. Without the strength of the Gospel, unrestrained insight into our own helplessness and depravity would lead us to despair, for it is just when we attempt to apply the strictest self-discipline and the firmest moral code that we are faced with the absolute impossibility of justifying ourselves in the eyes of God. The Gospel wants the truth about our condition to come completely out into the open. At the same time, it offers us the possibility of a clear and joyful conscience - a merciful God in the midst of deepest self-recognition. What we are unable to do by our own efforts, God has done: He sent us his Son.

Faith in this fact cannot be shaken by anything. Even though all men speak against us, even though they accuse and condemn us, we believers in God and in Christ still cannot be discouraged. However hard the times, however low the ebb of moral and religious power, this one fact remains: God gave his own Son for us. And even if we cannot find other people who in their actual lives reflect God’s nature, still Jesus remains - the redemption for every person.

This historical fact must become the spiritual experience of the present. It means that God, in giving us Jesus, gave us everything. Perfect love became flesh, and this means his love will become life and reality everywhere. Once we grasp this we can no longer despair of God’s love, or question his intervention on our behalf.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 11, 2004 8:38 AM