Quote #1: “The fallacies are that the Bible is a uniformly simple book, that it is predominantly a book of ideas, that it is essentially a modern book, that it needs correcting in some areas, and that it was intended to be without mystery and ambiguity. I believe all of this to be the reverse of what is actually true. The truth is that the Bible is sometimes simple and sometimes difficult and complex. It is a book of stories and poetic images more than a book of abstract propositions. Furthermore, the Bible is an indisputably ancient book. As such, it is the book that in its original form is the book that God wants us to have, including much that is mysterious and requires careful pondering and unpacking.” Page 78 (Leland Ryken, Ph.D.)
My response is, yes and amen! To strip the Bible of what it actually is, to take it into our own hands and dumb it down and strip it of its mystery, complexities and wonder, under the assumption that we the people are too ignorant to hear the Lord through it as it actually is, well, is simply wrong.
What we truly need is indeed God’s Word as it is, in our language yes, but not stripped down to where we may seem to indeed be, but rather leaving God’s Word to God’s Holy Spirit, to call us up unto Himself to meet Him in that which has been breathed out by the Father as His Words of Life and thus was inspired and overseen by the Holy Spirit as it was written and preserved through the ages by His chosen human vessels.
For in Spirit and Truth, only by, in and through the Holy Spirit can we truly come to see its meaning and receive its life, for apart from Him we can do nothing that is in itself life. For only the Holy Spirit can open our eyes, ears and hearts and minds to the Truths of God’s Holy and written Word. No amount of over simplification and dumbing it down changes this truth of our limitation and need to be dependent upon the Holy Spirit to unlock the Word of God in, to, and through us.
