Biblical Inspiration

Anthony Green

Questioning and ultimately rejecting the traditional view of biblical inerrancy led the author to a crisis of faith. Following the examples of Jesus and Paul, issues of contradictions, moral problems, and cultural contexts in the Bible require a more nuanced understanding of inspiration that allows for human interpretation and reinterpretation. A holistic approach to faith is able to embrace the Bible's complexity while still affirming its spiritual value.

perspective

cultural interpretation

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Biblical Inspiration

Anthony Green

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Community Discussion

A brilliant article, thank you. I completely agree with you about the risk of trapping God in the pages of selectivity-interpreted and over-interpreted texts. I really like Rob Bell's 'What is the Bible?' as a lens on this...I also like Rob's analogy of faith as a trampoline (still operational even as springs are removed/changed), not a brick wall (vulnerable to collapse if key bricks are removed). I really relate to your description of a 'messy, but still living, breathing' relationship with the divine. I think this is a great article for all who have deconstructed…and are looking for ways to articulate and reconstruct new, liberated relationships with God.

- Matt

Thanks Matt. Yes! I agree with Bell’s trampoline analogy too. Having a rigid and fixed belief system that isn’t set up to handle the nuance of lived experience will just end up breaking. Jesus understands this and taught it in the parable of the wineskins. Luke 5v36-39 Sooner or later cracks appear and if we don’t change the way we see all could be lost, wine and skins alike. Those who deconstruct need not fear, they just need new wineskins! Sadly the community's most common answer to this “wine” problem is that “the old is better” and we are left to walk this wilderness alone.

- Anthony Green

Just found your site and read the recent article by Anthony Green on Inspiration. I wanted to get in touch to thank him (and the team) for it. I have been on the same journey and enjoyed reading a comprehensive, humble, and articulate description of what it involves. I know many have taken a similar path but turned away from Christadelphia because of the way inspiration was misunderstood as an “all or nothing” issue. While there are some beliefs that we grow away from, it’s important to recognise they were part of both our individual and community history. I appreciate the way the article respects this without demonising sincerely held, if mistaken, beliefs.

- Nathan

Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate feedback from others who have gone through the same journey because, as you well know, this can be a very lonely process. So often the early stages feel like grief and anger and I suspect coupled with the rather stoic and disapproving push-back people may receive, leaving the community seems like the only reasonable choice. It would be great to see this change. Having open discussions like this may offer a lifeline to those who feel they're caught in a season of liminality. I totally agree with you regarding our individual and community history too. I find it helpful to think of the metaphor of a tree, which includes and transcends as it grows.

- Anthony Green

I appreciate Anthony's talk, with which I have, over past years, come to concur. I don't know that we were done a good service by having all the 'books' of the Bible tied up together as one document that, therefore, by implication, gives many the feeling that all the writings are of equal validity in different times and cultures. Perhaps we should have had the gospels up front and recognised that they primarily bring to us a greater appreciation of what God manifestation is all about. Jesus dealt differently with the issues of his day than society had come to expect, and in seeking to manifest the character of God in our own limited spheres, his love, mercy, grace, inclusiveness etc., we may deal differently with issues in ways that our forebears and those steeped in past 'protocol' may well expect.

- P.R.

Thanks for your contribution to the conversation. It is important to be reminded that as Christains we should be constantly pulled back into Jesus' teachings and the spirit in which he taught them. After all, it is in him that we are named. In regards to the Bible as a book, information doesn't stand still, neither should our faith and the models they're built upon. It is only responsible as Christians to incorporate any new information into our world view if faith is to remain relevant in the modern world.

- Anthony Green