This isn’t the first time

This is part two of a series on biblical illiteracy and its effect on American culture and the Church.

I never thought of Billy Preston as a preacher.  But his words, more often heard in commercials nowadays, ring true in this age of biblical inerrancy.  ”Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.”  Preach it, brother!

His words remind me of many conversations I have had with people who claim to be Christians but who reject the gospel.  One story in particular comes to mind.  I had been trying to reach out a friend and we had once gotten into a fight because I basically told him that he wasn’t a Christian.  Needless to say, it was a while before I could share the gospel with him again.  When I finally got that chance, I simply shared with him the basic tenets of the faith.  I talked with him about Christ’s life, death and resurrection, that we must be born again and that no one could attain salvation based on merit.  After I finished talking, he simply said this, “I just don’t interpret it that way.”  This baffled me.  How could his interpretation lead him to a completely different basis for his faith?  How could we both be Christians and see God as two different Gods?

In this day and age, we have sacrificed so much for the sake of interpretation that you need not know the basics of the Bible to interpret it.  To be fair, there is some liberty within the faith.  Romans 14 is all about the freedom that Christians have to make their own convictions.  However, Scripture also strictly commands that those convictions be based on Scripture.  You can’t interpret the Bible if you know nothing about the Bible.  In fact, when you leave behind the specifics of Scripture you create ambiguous, Scripture-sounding words that communicate nothing at all.  People interpret “love” to mean something radically different than that wonderful verse in Romans 5, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” “Love,” “peace,” “wholeness,” “happiness,” “doing the right thing,” “living like Jesus”–all of these things are good as long as you know what they are specifically.  Take away the Bible, and you have a Christ-less, vague, come as you are and leave unchanged Christianity.

Theologian and pastor John Piper warns about the effect that this has on Christian leaders:

It is the Scripture that reproves us when we are headed in the wrong direction; corrects and turns us in the right way; and then trains us how to stay there.  It makes the leader complete and ready for every good work.

But in many leaders it begins to take a back seat to storytelling, and social analysis, and family discussion, and psychological diagnoses, and all kinds of things which in themselves are innocent, but which begin to usurp the priority of the inspired Word of God.

The Bible begins to get token references, exposition recedes, biblical sounding slogans (like peace, justice, kingdom, mutuality, grace, acceptance, wholeness) begin to replace specific sentences, contextual considerations diminish, moral generalities begin to replace attention to grammatical detail, and soon the Bible in its pointed specificity is not the authority, but rather the ideas of man.

The lusts of the flesh can much more easily exploit a fuzzy moral generality than it can a firm, precise, specific biblical prohibition.  There is a hermeneutic that leads to adultery.  Loose and sloppy handling of Scripture will lead to loose and sloppy living¹.

Every time people have strayed away from the Scripture, they have created new religions and cults without even knowing it, many times for the sake of interpretation, relevance or packing out the Church. They, in turn, mix cultural ideology with biblical theology.  With this, Christians lose grasp on the basic tenets of their faith and in the end, Christianity is a club, not a Church.  The whole point of getting together on Sundays goes from honoring God’s commands and worshipping Him to social networking.  People have plenty of other places to do that and, if this problem takes full effect, only people who like gothic architecture and 15th century choral music will go to church (my family and a couple of other people).

The immediate danger of biblical illiteracy is the deception of a culture.  A nation believes it is Christian because Christianity is a part of its tradition.  As it works out in bodies of believers, biblical illiteracy has an even higher danger.  And, as the Bible itself points out, a lack of biblical knowledge has devastating consequences.

But biblical illiteracy is much more than just not knowing who said what or which books are where in the Bible.  In fact, it is even more than not knowing the basic truths about Christianity.   The heart of biblical illiteracy is a failure to know and understand what the Bible is about.  It is not only ignorant because of a lack of surface-level knowledge.  It arrogantly assumes its knowledge is sufficient and that culture can shape doctrine.  It denies that you can and you must take the Bible for what it is.  Throughout the history of the Bible, we see this ignorance in three main aspects.

Forgetting and ignoring the Word

A mournful King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes, “God repeats what has passed” (3:15b).  For anyone who has read the Old Testament, the history of the Hebrews seems like one big cycle.  Raise up a leader, times get good and the people worship God.  Go too long without a sign, wonder or revival, and the people complain, forget the law or fall into sin.  There is a reason God eventually sends Israel and Judah into exile.  It is because, from day one, God’s people have been forgetting and rejecting the Word of God, and ultimately, God Himself (1 Samuel 8:7-8).

God calls Israel repeatedly throughout the Old Testament a “stiff-necked people” (Deuteronomy 9:6) because they have an unwillingness to learn God’s commands. He sets up many rituals and practices to help people remember that He brought them out of Egypt and that they are to “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him” (Deuteronomy 6:13).  He gives the Passover in remembrence of how He spared Israel the plagues (Exodus 12:43-13:16).  He tells Aaron the High Priest to wear tassels so He may remember the Lord’s commands (Numbers 15:37-41).  Leviticus is one book hitting the same nail:  you are a sinner and your corruption is deep.  The many sacrifices throughout the book are a reminder of the curse decreed in Genesis 3:19, “For you are dust, and you will return to dust.” The sacrifices reveal that man’s intentions are evil form his youth (Genesis 8:21).

Yet, despite all of these reminders, like an alarm going off every thirty seconds screaming, “hope in God!  Obey God!  Love God!  Repent!” the Israelites’ response is this, “Let’s appoint a leader and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:2).  When you forget God’s Word and that Egypt means slavery, that slavery looks appealing.  It is the same with our sin.  The book of Judges tells a story of eleven of Israel’s tribes making war on the Benjamites for one man’s sin, then destroying a town who did not fight so they could take their virgins as wives.  It is an evil crime and, as there is no leader to remind God’s people to obey His commands, “everyone did whatever he wanted” (Judges 21:25).

Forgetfulness usually begins when one generation fails to pass along God’s Word to the next generation.  In Judges and later in Kings and 2 Chronicles, the theme of Israel’s funeral is, “we forgot.”  King after king, time after time these people fall into sin because they do not know God’s Word.  In Judges, this comes from the people’s lack of submission.  When a judge dies, they do not appoint a new judge or keep God’s Word close personally.  They cave to the influences of outside culture and when their enemies surround them, they cry to God to save them.  In the accounts of the Hebrew kings, the leaders (for the most part) exercise their authority poorly.  They would not equip the people with God’s Word and as a consequence, the people would turn and worship other gods.  When you don’t know the truths of Scripture, you don’t know God.  As Paul writes in Romans 10:17, “So faith comes through what is heard,” or for people that can read, what is read.

Adding to the Word

Before church one Sunday morning, a relative of mine was irritated with my casual dress. At my home church, I usually just wear whatever I want to, which means that it is probably a t-shirt and jeans.  My family member comes from the tradition of wearing your Sunday best to church, which I have no problem with.  Occasionally I will put on something nice, which means wearing a button-up shirt and khakis like my pastors.  However, my relative was not cool with my dress.  He rebuked me firmly, saying that I needed to honor God.

“There is nowhere in the Scriptures that say, ‘You must wear your Sunday best to church,’” I told him.

“No,” he admitted.  ”But there is 1 Corinthians 10:31.  ’So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do to the glory of God.’“

For my relative, that meant dressing up for church and because that’s how he saw it, that’s how I should do it.  Now, I love him to death, but he failed to understand the point of that verse.  The New Testament reveals to us what many failed to see in the old.  Any physical and outward sign given to men by God is of no value without doing it to please God.  The Old Testament sign of circumcision, for example, is a matter of the heart, not of the letter (Romans 2:29).  Our conviction in dress ought to be that we dress to please God.  If and when I dress up, it should be that I dress to go to the king’s house every Lord’s Day morning.  I dress like I do everyday because I am prone to vanity, and I do not wish to add to that in my attire.

Jesus encounters a much larger and serious case of this when He enters His ministry.  In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is constantly rebuking the Jewish leadership for the same reason I spoke to my relative: they were adding to the Word of God and teaching as doctrines the commands of men (Matthew 15:9, Mark 7:7).  They add a heavy burden upon the people because, as Jesus puts it, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8, Isaiah 29:13).  They would have their reward by merit and for that reason, God does not reward them righteousness because they do not pursue the law by faith (Romans 9:32).

Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, perhaps the most well-known and misunderstood passages in Scripture, reveals the true meaning of Scripture and separates the commands of God from the commands of the Pharisees.  In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus gives one of the most radical teachings of all time. “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,” Jesus teaches. “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (5:43-45).  This makes no sense to common logic.  Why would you do good for your enemies?  If you are supposed to love your neighbor, should you not also follow the reverse?  Do you not hate your enemy?

In his excellent commentary on the Sermon, Sinclair Ferguson writes the following:

“God’s word had taught that men were to love their neighbour (Lev. 19:18).  It is interesting to notice that Scripture indicates no conflict between law and love here.  Love is part of the law, and is commanded in the law!  But, like so many biblical principles, this one had been first analysed and then distorted by the teachers of the law in the following way: not only is the law in itself true, but its opposite will be true.  So, if we are to love our neighbors it follows that we are to hate our enemies…It is true that you are to love your neighbor, Jesus affirms.  But that law is intended to restrain your hatred, not to justify it against those you do not consider to be your neighbors².”

The Pharisees have, in effect, taken a biblical truth and distorted it.  Rather than remembering such Scriptures as Proverbs 25:21, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty give him water to drink” or Proverbs 30:5-6, “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.  Do not add to His words, or He will rebuke you, and you will be prove a liar,” they rely on their own thoughts of holiness and thus fell under judgment.  The question of the law is not, “Who is my neighbor?”  The earnestness of the law is this prayer of Moses, “Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight” (Exodus 33:13).  Where God’s commands end is where personal, sometimes Scripture-based, convictions begin.  There is no adding to what God has decreed (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

So what is the effect of adding to God’s Word?  In the week before His crucifixion, Jesus explains just how evil and dangerous this hypocrisy is.  He says of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:4, “They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them.” Later on, Jesus continues, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy, and faith” (Matthew 23:23).  When the command of the Pharisee–tithe your ten percent–is more important than the principle of charity, people will reject faith, not because they see God, but they see high demands and hypocritical leaders.  Adding to the Word of God does not make it holier, but filthier.  God’s Word is fine enough as it is.

Taking from the Word

While some like to make tradition as important as doctrine, in its ignorance of Scripture, some also try to pick-and-use what truths to believe based on what little biblical knowledge they have.  Perhaps you have heard of the term “post-modernism.”  Post-modernism can be summed up in this statement, “there is no truth.”  Despite the obvious fallacy in that statement (how can someone who doesn’t believe in truth make a truth claim that there’s no truth?), this is the popular philosophy of modern culture.  Because all ideas are opinions, you can’t say anyone is wrong.

The Bible, however, makes a large truth claim and an even larger claim on your life.  It claims that it is the standard for truth and that it can withstand the test of time (Isaiah 20:8, 1 Peter 1:25).   When the Bible and post-modernism combine into one ideology, you get a watered-down, weak, tolerant but unloving, fickle, uninspiring faith incapable of loving with abandon, much less saving people from their own destruction.

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright pokes fun at the stupidity of post-modernism’s treatment of Scripture:

“The hermeneutic which emerges from this kind of reading is itself very much characteristic of postmoderntity’s pick-and-mix, smorgasbord culture.  You read the bits that resonate for you, you give them that that suits you, and you use them to subvert the bits you don’t like.  (When you hear someone preaching like that, that message carries no authority whatsoever.  Allusions to the Bible with that framework are themselves in danger of being just power trips.  If you can pick and mix, then all you are saying is, I agree with the Bible wherever it agrees with me.)”³

Post-modernism, however, is nothing new, just as forgetting and adding to the Word are nothing new.  The philosophy is rooted in the human tendency to discard God’s commands when they oppose natural desires.  The Bible illustrates the consequences of taking from God’s Word through Israel’s first king, Saul.  The narrative of 1 Samuel takes us through the reign of this king, who is anointed after Israel demands a leader to be like the rest of the nations (1 Samuel 8-10).  But soon after Saul takes up his kingship, he disobeys God’s commands.  Samuel proclaims to Saul in 1 Samuel 13:14, “now your reign will not endure.  The Lord has found a man loyal as ruler over His people, because you have not done what the Lord commanded.”

This decree seems a little harsh.  After all, Saul only sins once and law of Moses says that God is “slow to anger and rich in faithful love, forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion” (Numbers 14:17).  Why doesn’t He forgive Saul?  As we see two chapters later, Saul’s heart is not repentant but set on his own glory. “I have sinned,” Saul eventually admits.  But his next concern is not asking forgiveness from God or mourning that he offended His holiness.  He asks Samuel to, “Please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel” (1 Samuel 15:30).  It’s as if Saul is saying, “Okay, I’ve done wrong.  But now that we’ve gotten the repentance out of the way, can we get back to my glory, please?  It’s way more important.”  He fails to realize that, as God’s king, his first priority to obey Him.  Moses declares that to worship God with heart, soul and strength is the greatest commandment (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Pastor Mark Dever says that Saul’s treatment of God’s Word reveals how he regards God Himself.  ”He seemed to have a tendency to shape God’s Word to be what he wanted it to be,” Dever says.  ”He would hear God’s commands through Samuel, take them in and acknowledge them in some sense but make them more ’sensible.’ And he did this repeatedly”⁴. Saul knows that God demands offerings and uses that as an excuse not to do what God says (1 Samuel 15:20-21).  He takes plunder instead of destroying everything in the town like Samuel commands him (1 Samuel 15:4-7).  He fails to learn this lesson, that “to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22), that “nothing set apart for destruction is to remain in your hand” (Deuteronomy 13:17).  Eventually, Saul’s love for his own glory and his constant “stripping” of God’s commands cost him his life (1 Samuel 31:5) and his story becomes an exposition of Romans 6:23, “for the wages of sin is death.”

God gives Israel all of His commands so that they might live by them.  Moses writes, “Keep the Lord’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good” (Deuteronomy 10:13).  What Saul fails to do is rely on the Lord’s promises.  He takes precautions for himself, even though he can read into the history of his Lord and God and learn that, “None of the good promises the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed. Everything was fulfilled” (Joshua 21:45).  He fails to understand that his actions reveal in whom he trusts and that God’s perfect words, in his eyes, need revisions.

Framers as Apostles

All three of these forms of biblical illiteracy or ignorance have invaded American life and culture.  We can see from the Bible that ignoring, forgetting, adding to and taking from God’s Word is nothing new.  The problem as it relates to my generation, your generation and modern American culture is that no one sees it as a problem.  We as a culture are ignorant of the consequences of not knowing, not understanding, not applying and not growing in our knowledge of the holy.  We take random pieces of practical wisdom from Scripture and miss their point.  God does want us to be hard workers.  God does want us to be good people. God does seek to bless us, care for us, treat us as children and help us live in total victory. But that total victory is found in knowing Him, as Jeremiah 9:23-24 says:

“The wise must not boast in his wisdom; the mighty must not boast in his might; the rich must not boast in his riches.  But the one who boasts should boast in this, that he understands and knows Me–that I am the Lord, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things.  This is the Lord’s declaration.”

To a degree, this problem of biblical illiteracy began at our nation’s birth⁵.   The ideas of Federalism and Romanticism were becoming more a part of American culture.  Our nation’s founding documents–the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution–draw from these values, somewhat influenced by the language of the Bible.  Our “inalienable rights” of life ,liberty and the pursuit of happiness draw from John Locke’s Enlightenment philosophy⁶ which, in turn, find their origin in Scripture.  The Ten Commandments themselves tell us not to deprive another of life or of his possessions.  The Tenth Commandment says that you should not even desire or covet what is not yours (Exodus 20:13, 15, 17).  Federalist ideals, such as temperance, hard-labor, thriftiness, education and involvement in society all bear similarities to biblical principles (see Proverbs 20:1; Luke 12:43; Proverbs 10:4; Matthew 6:19-21, 24; Proverbs 4:1-9; Romans 13:1-7; Mark 12:13-17).

But Federalism and the Framers missed the point.  What later developed into the American Dream came from a distortion of biblical principles.  Success in life became defined in things and acquisitions; your happiness was dependent upon health, wealth and prosperity.  Every ideology that followed Federalism: Manifest Destiny, the Industrial Revolution, Gilded Age businesses, the ’50s and the Baby Boom, Feminism’s destruction of gender identity, the pro-choice movement and above all, retirement, all of these come a works-based, social justification of sorts that basically says that you can only find satisfaction in the things of this life.  Galatians 6:7, “For whatever a man sows he will also reap” means to America that if you are hard-working and a good person, you shall get what you deserve.

The Bible is not about deserving.  Those who obey the Lord’s good commands do so out of trust, not out of self-justification.  They see the emphasis that Paul places in Galatians, not one of prosperity, but of a life for, “the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  Furthermore, Paul says, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness were by the law, then Christ died for nothing” (Galatians 2:21) and also, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phillipians 1:21).  The Bible is about the author.  As we can see from the history of Israel and in modern times, the failure to understand Scripture’s main message leads to all sorts of devastating consequences.

1. Piper, John. “Avoiding Sexual Sin, Part 1: Pitfalls and Protections for Christian Leaders.” Minneapolis, 28 June 1987. 5 June 1987. <www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/> [↩]
2. Ferguson, Sinclair B. The Sermon on the Mount: Kingdom Life in a Fallen World. Edinburgh, UK: Versa Press. 2009. [↩]
3. Wright, N.T. “The Bible for the Postmodern World.” Monergism.com. 8 June 2009. [↩]
4. Dever, Mark. “Overview of 1 Samuel.” Expository Sermons from Genesis to Revelation – 1&2 Samuel.  19 Apr 2007. 8 Jun 2009. <www.monergism.com/directory/link_commentary/Commentaries [↩]
5. I draw most of this section from a class I took at UT on American Literature from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, taught by J.P. Craig.  The curriculum for the class is a available in the UT catalog [↩]
6. Locke’s three rights, however, were life, liberty and property, perhaps the source of this country’s obsession with wealth [↩]