One of the most common questions Christians ask is this: “What is God’s will for my life?” And that question is followed often by a corollary: “What does God want me to do about this specific situation?” Which often leads to a third question: “What does the Bible say about this issue I’m facing?”
These were the questions posed to me last week by a lovely couple seeking relationship advice. The couple met, ironically, in a Bible study group at another church where they were seeking to learn more about God and how to be “closer to God.” Now they have some questions that they don’t see represented in the Bible. But like so many Christians, they suspect they just haven’t searched the Bible hard enough and don’t know it well enough to find the answers they’re looking for. So they tracked down a professional Christian – me – who presumably knows the Bible more fully and can quote the chapter and verse they seek.
“Biblicism turns the Bible into a Magic 8 Ball.”
What this couple seeks – and what most Christians seek – is to use the Bible like an encyclopedia or, in more modern terms, like a Google search. Enter your query: “What does the Bible say about dating?” and see the answers quickly populate with hyperlinks and references. For many Christians, that’s the expectation of Bible study: learning to turn the pages (whether literally or online) and find the secret messages.
Within evangelical Christianity – the culture of my birth and life – we are taught to begin any quest for knowledge by consulting the Bible. In the most extreme form, some sects within Christianity turn the Bible into a primary textbook for all subjects – learning language, teaching social work, charting world history. But even those of us who look to the Bible primarily as a book of theology rather than anything else are susceptible to a kind of Bible idolatry that is dangerous.
“Biblicism” is the fancy word given to the root of this problem. Its dangers have been addressed by mainstream evangelical and even Reformed writers. Biblicists see the Bible as a flat text with equal authority given to all passages. They also tend to believe there is a Bible verse somewhere to answer every question imaginable.
Biblicism turns the Bible into a Magic 8 Ball. Remember those childhood semi-occultic toys – the black ball you shake up and ask a question and a block inside turns this way and that until an answer is revealed? Biblicists treat the Bible just like that; just keep turning the pages and you’ll find an answer to all life’s questions.
Problem is, the Bible doesn’t assert that power for itself. Nowhere in Scripture is the claim made that answers to all questions may be found here. At this point, you may be ready to pounce with a counterargument, citing 2 Timothy: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (3:16, KJV).
That passage makes a theological claim, not a claim on science or medicine or world history or physics or engineering or banking. It asserts that Scripture – which in this case would be a reference to the Hebrew Scriptures because the New Testament had not been fully written and canonized – is helpful to understand doctrine and to instruct readers in righteousness.
So why, then, do we continue to force the Bible to be something it is not? The answer, I believe, is because in a world of uncertainty, turning to the Bible as a single source of all authority makes us feel better.
Have you ever noticed how often the daily blogs or other devotional materials that get forwarded to you rely on this kind of biblicism? I can think of several pastors and writers who have built their entire reputations on appearing to know the Bible in such depth that they can easily plumb its depths on demand for any and all answers. This approach goes something like this: “You have asked me whether you should get a butterfly tattoo. Let’s see what the Bible says about that.” Or like this: “As economic uncertainty looms around us, let’s start by asking what counsel the Bible has for us on investing today.”
I’m not saying the Bible has no answers at all. What I am saying is that there are many areas of our lives that the Bible says nothing about, nothing at all. If you’re going to make the Bible your first-line research source for all questions great and small, at least have the honesty to admit it when your Magic 8 Ball quest through the black leather-bound volume comes back with “Reply Hazy, Try Again.”
“Why, then, do we continue to force the Bible to be something it is not?”
In modern life, we encounter many things the Bible does not anticipate or speak to in any way, things such as the Internet, space travel, DNA, health insurance, Mexican food. Any attempt to cite chapter and verse on such things is laughable.
But in other areas where Christians assert biblical authority despite none existing, danger lurks. Here is where evangelical biblicism does true harm to everyone who does not appear to be just like “us.”
What the Bible does do – and does claim for itself – is to teach us principles that can be adapted to many circumstances. Remember that old saw about helping the poor: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime? The same is true with the Bible. The healthiest long-term means of spiritual discernment is not to gain an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible but to understand its overall teaching, its arc, its story of God’s relationship with us.
This is the very concept behind children’s Sunday school curriculum. Remember how as a child you memorized key verses? There’s a reason those specific verses were drilled into our heads: They are the keystones to understanding the big picture of the Bible and God’s will for our lives.
For example, Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created …” teaches us that God is the beginning of all things. Or John 3:16, “God so loved the world …” teaches us that God’s desire for us is salvation through Jesus Christ. Or Micah 6:8, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and walk humbly with your God” gives a simple summation of all the Hebrew prophets. And in the same way, when Jesus himself was asked the sum of God’s plan for us, he quoted keystone Scripture: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. And love your neighbor as yourself.”
If you want to know God’s will for your life, start here, and leave your Magic 8 Ball on the shelf.