Decoding` the Bible
Decoding the Bible
By John Scott, Dallas, Texas
"Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened."
Winston Churchill.
"The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer."
Edward R. Murrow.
The phenomenal popularity of The Da Vinci Code and the record-breaking sales of the Left Behind series has led some in the news media to say that decoding the Bible has become a "fad." But it`s no fad. We Christians have been trying to decode the Bible for centuries.
Some of our efforts to decode the Bible remind me of a humorous story about an obnoxious military officer. Still swaggering from his recent promotion to the rank of captain, he was addressing his troops. A private ran up to him with a message from headquarters. The captain, assuming it was another letter of congratulations, told the private to read it out loud. "But sir," the private said, "You may wish to read this one privately." "I gave you an order, son," the captain barked, "Read it!" So the private read it, loud enough for all to hear.
The message read: "Captain, You are proving to be the most incompetent officer that has ever served in the U.S. army. If you do not shape up within a week`s time, I shall remove you from command and reduce you in rank." Signed: Colonel Smith.
Immediately, the Captain said, "Good job, private. Now go and have that message decoded."
Unfortunately, some of our efforts to find "hidden" meanings in the Bible have been like that-vain attempts to avoid the obvious.
For example, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: "But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins " (Matt. 5:15). Hoping to "decode" that passage, I looked it up in some Bible commentaries.
No luck. The commentaries just pointed out that Jesus made that statement to explain a line in the Lord`s Prayer: "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" (Mt. 5:12).
What a scary thought.
An even more disturbing passage many have tried to "decode" is the one where Jesus described the final judgment. He said we`re all going to be divided into two groups: those who helped others in need, and those who didn`t. And he specifically talked about worldly help-for those who need food, water, clothes, and shelter, and those who are sick, lonely, or in prison. Jesus indicated that those who engage in that kind of worldly charity are going to receive a heavenly reward. And those who don`t, won`t (Mt. 25:31-46).
I started attending a Baptist church nine months before I was born. I`ve since heard thousands of sermons. But I have never heard a sermon based on that warning. One preacher mentioned it, but only to say we shouldn`t take it literally. But that same preacher insisted in another sermon that we should take the Genesis account of creation literally. I wondered: "Why would he take Genesis at its word, and not take Jesus at his word? Even if he`s right about the creation, that won`t matter at the judgment. But if he`s wrong about charity, that might be the only thing that does matter at the judgment."
I`ve heard hundreds of sermons saying that salvation is ours for the asking if we only profess a belief in certain facts about Jesus, and call him Lord. But Jesus said: "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,` will enter the kingdom of heaven; but only he who actually does the will of My Father who is in heaven" (Mt. 7:21). And, "The gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matt. 7:14). The Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned about a "comfortable Christianity" and placing our hopes on a belief in "cheap grace."
It`s true that Paul said salvation comes through faith, and not from works (Eph. 2:8, 9). But he never said that salvation requires no works. We can`t do enough works to save ourselves, so there can be no salvation without God`s grace. But saying works are not enough, is not the same as saying works are not necessary. So it seems we have stretched Paul`s words beyond what he actually said, and then acted as if they trumped what Jesus said. That would appall Paul himself.
The important question is: What did Paul mean by faith? Or, more accurately: What did he mean by the word later translated into English as "faith"?
I`m just a layman, but I have read how many scholars have answered that question. I have found that Protestant and Catholic scholars, all across the fundamentalist-to-liberal spectrum, agree on this: a saving faith is not just intellectual assent to teachings about Jesus; it`s a lifetime commitment to obey the teachings of Jesus.
Billy Graham called faith a "total commitment" and said, "There is a vast difference between intellectual belief and the total conversion that saves the soul."[1] Dr. Foy Valentine, founding editor of Christian Ethics Today, put it like this: "Saving faith is absolute commitment to go with God with no exceptions listed at the bottom of the covenant in fine print."[2]
Sýren Kierkegaard said, "The misfortune of Christendom is that it has encouraged people in the notion that by knowing the facts about Christ`s life . . . they have faith."[3] Dr. Valentine likewise observed, "No greater trouble has ever beset the church of Jesus Christ than that which issues from an arbitrary division of word and deed, an unwarranted fragmentation of evangelism and ethics, a false dichotomy of faith and works. In God`s plan these are never divided; they are always united. . . . They are two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other."[4]
It`s like placing your "faith" in a heart surgeon. That doesn`t just mean you`re giving intellectual assent to the proposition that the surgeon is licensed to practice medicine. It means to make a commitment to trust your life to the surgeon, by doing what he tells you to do and by trusting him to do what he says he will do.
That kind of faith in God will result in obedience. That will include good works. So those works are evidence of one`s salvation. And Jesus said the final judgment will be based on that evidence, or the lack of it.
Nevertheless, surveys show that most people who call themselves Christians practice no charity, at least not the type of worldly charity Jesus described. Actually, it`s worse than that. Even if you limit the count to Christians who are active in church, most of them are not active in charity.
Apparently, most of us don`t even like to read about the importance of worldly charity. Walk into any Christian bookstore and you will see hundreds of books on what God can do for us. In fact, you will see one little book that advocates a blatantly selfish prayer that has become a runaway best seller. But you will not find a single book on what Jesus warned we must do for others. Not one. Go ahead; try it and you will see I am not exaggerating.
It seems we want to hear God`s promises, but refuse to heed His warnings. Some people would rather argue about how God inspired the scriptures than to spend that time doing what the scriptures say we should be doing for the poor and disadvantaged.
If you have the courage, carefully read the passage we`ve been discussing (Mt. 25:31-46). Notice how the people react to what they hear. They are surprised. For those who practiced worldly charity, it`s a glorious surprise. For everyone else, the news couldn`t be worse.
Now ask yourself: Why are they are surprised? Could it be they "decoded" what Jesus said, instead of just accepting it at face value?
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[1] Billy Graham, Peace With God (Word, 1984), 113.
[2] Foy Valentine, What Do You Do After You Say Amen? (Word, 1980), 39.
[3] Selected Readings From Sýren Kierkegaard, edited by Robert van de Weyer (New York: Fleming H. Revell), 52.
[4] Valentine, 20
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