The Bible is a means of divine self-disclosure. The traditional theological phrase for this is “the Bible is the revelation of God.” In the Bible, as the foundation of the Christian cultural-linguistic world, Christians find the disclosure of God—not because the Bible...
Frequently when they attacked me for being involved in politics, I used to say, I wish I knew which Bible they were reading! Because the Bible I read was quite clear: God revealed God to the children of Israel, not in a sanctuary, but by carrying out a political...
It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him. We must not use the Bible as a sort of encyclopedia out of which texts can be taken for use as weapons.
I have come to regard with some suspicion those who claim that the Bible never troubles them. I can only assume this means they haven’t actually read it.
Christianity, we might say, is driving around with a loaded gun in its glove compartment, and that loaded gun is its violent image of God. It’s driving around with a license to kill, and that license is its Bible, read uncritically. Along with its loaded gun and...
Jesus forgave a thief dangling on a cross, knowing full well the thief had converted out of plain fear. That thief would never study the Bible, never attend synagogue or church, and never make amends to those he had wronged. He simply said, “Jesus, remember me,” and...
It may sound easy to “allow the Spirit to guide us” while reading the Bible…but in a culture of consumerized Christianity it is also easy to stumble over preconceived notions about the Bible cluttering the path. Chief among such market-driven notions is that the Bible...
Anger is not a sin. The Bible tells us to “be angry, but to sin not.” This is a clear admonishment to face our anger and learn to express it in non-sinful ways.