Even for unbelievers, the Bible has some good things to say: Love your neighbor. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The Good Samaritan. But in the minds of thoughtful agnostics and atheists, the Bible has three serious problems that can’t be overlooked. First, Christians say the Bible is inerrant, but it’s apparently full of contradictions. Second, Christians act like God Himself wrote the Bible, but it was obviously written by men with their own agendas. Third, while the Bible offers some helpful ideas, most of the good stuff (like the Golden Rule) is also found in other holy books, and there’s also a lot of bad stuff – violence, sexism, etc. – that’s impossible to ignore.
Many people can’t understand why Christians worship a book that promotes a God who exclusively loves devout believers, threatens eternal hell for bad behavior, condones slavery, condemns gays, is anti-drinking and sex-negative. They wonder why we can’t just learn from Jesus without tethering ourselves to all those antiquated moral codes.
Can the Bible be trusted as an answer to life’s questions and a solution to our problems? Most people under 40 emphatically say no. They’ve heard too many Christians misusing scripture to serve their own agendas. Their experiences are valid, and Christians better listen up.
It’s also important to remember that hateful Christians who falsely represent the Bible don’t falsify the Bible. They discredit themselves, not the scriptures. It’s the Jar Jar Binks principle ™ : his appearance didn’t make Star Wars a worthless franchise. It’s unfortunate, and it never should have happened, but it doesn’t change the brilliance of the original source material.
The Bible is messy and perfect. I can’t deny some of the apparent discrepancies, and I know they can be confusing, but these issues are easily explained and extraordinarily minor. You’d actually expect more disparities considering the Bible is comprised of 66 different books, written over 1,000 years by at least 40 authors.
You can interpret the Bible’s trustworthiness in one of three ways. The religious fanatic will say, “God wrote the Bible, and I know that’s true because the Bible says so.” This kind of bias-confirming circular logic drives skeptics insane.
The cynic says, “Men with their own agendas wrote the Bible, and I know that’s true because my intellect says so.” This level of elitism is astounding. The cynic trusts his own intellect more than a thousand years of powerful literature, history, poetry, and stories that have changed the world and inspired countless songs, the world’s greatest works of art, the best hospitals and universities in history, and the pursuit of a more just society where all men are created equal. I’m sure you’re pretty smart, but your singular mind is not more trustworthy than the Bible.
The third way to examine the Bible’s trustworthiness is to read it as a story about God and His intentions for creation. The word story is key here, because stories are how people make sense of things. That’s the one thing that has never changed about human beings. We’ve changed the way we live, what we eat, how we organize civilizations, how we get married, how we raise children, and how we choose our leaders. But 20,000 years ago we told stories to make sense of things, and the same is true today.
Without stories, we have no meaning. When Christians say the Bible is holy, we don’t mean we’ll be offended if you burn it or you’re not allowed to question it; we mean the 66 books, 40 authors, and 9 literary genres spanning over a thousand years tell the Master Narrative about God and His intentions for the world He created. It’s an epic account of an all-powerful God who’s willing to suffer and die for the same people who rejected and murdered Him.
It is the Story of stories, perfect in every way that counts.
