God Does Not Lie

I guess she took exception to my article last week.  She was respectful, but her message on my answering machine can be summed up in these words, “God does not lie.”  I take it that she thought I was suggesting otherwise.  She must have misunderstood me.  What I had actually written was that our understanding of the Bible is not made clear by authoritative pronouncements but by respectful dialogue.  In a local church that means a Wednesday evening Bible study is more enlightening the more people feel free to express their own interpretations.  And interpretation of scripture that takes place ecumenically is probably more wholesome and closer to the truth than any one denomination can claim on its own.  In other words, the church together arrives at Biblical truth much better than any one of us does alone.

Still, the Bible does speak to individuals.  It was through my own reading of the Bible that I became convinced of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Word that became flesh.  Yet, I was helped along in my understanding of Jesus by other books I read, along with conversations with my father.  The Bible gained clarity as I listened to the opinions of others.

Opinions vary, for sure.  And there is no end to the varieties of Biblical interpretation on the World Wide Web.  Sometimes I grieve how much error there is floating around in cyberspace.  Of course, error is in the eye of the beholder.  By and large I agree with the Pope who is reported to have said that the internet is a gift from God.

While there are differences of opinion on how to interpret the Bible I am amazed at the amount of consensus there is regarding its basic message.  For all the extremes on either end of the interpretative spectrum most Christians agree on the essentials – God loves the creation enough to send us Jesus Christ to show us the way of salvation and continues abiding with us through God’s Spirit.  John 3:16 comes to mind.  I am also reminded of something my father said to me when my faith was in its infancy, “It’s not the parts of the Bible that I don’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do understand.”

For all our difficulty in interpretation, the Bible is nevertheless clear enough for us to know when we are missing the mark (“Turn the other cheek.”).  And clear enough to give comfort to the troubled mind (“The Lord is my shepherd . . .”).

Fred Craddock is a famous preacher who taught preaching at the Candler School of Theology for many years.  He tells the story of coming into his office to discover his granddaughter with his Bible in her hands, holding it upside down and singing, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

She may have had the Bible upside down.  But she had it right.

My caller last week was right.  God does not lie.