Confessions of a Reformed BIBLiophile

I have read John MacDonald Smith's Guardian article about the Bible and agree with the tenor of the piece, even if not with every point he makes. For me this is too important a subject at the moment to let it pass with a mere one sentence comment (See Note 1).... so here are my thoughts.

The Bible has been a very important book in our culture, and certainly in the evangelical faith in which I and most of my close friends have been raised. In my own experience I could not precisely say when this book really began to assume prominence but, despite an upbringing in a home which was not overtly "Christian", and despite my earliest religious experiences having been in a church where traditions and ceremonies mattered more than doctrines, my attachment to the scriptures started quite early. It is certain that I committed myself to a fundamentalist view of the Bible during my teenage years and that it thereafter held a central place in my thinking. The scriptures were very important to me and, apart from memorising considerable portions, I had read all 66 books at least 15 times by my late twenties and many of them much more than that. There is no other book which I have read more than twice . I became a Bible expert by most people's standards and learned to develop doctrine, judge teaching and accept or reject viewpoints on the basis of my knowledge of the canonical scriptures. Changing my view of the Bible, you must therefore understand, has not been an easy experience for me.

My change of view actually started a long time ago and was rooted in my experience of the "baptism of the Spirit". That introduction to my own prophetic gift enabled me to bring the meaning of the phrase "word of God" more up-to-the-moment. I have been saying for many years that the Bible is not the word of God, by which I mean that revelation can only have relevance when it is reborn in my heart today. Words on the page do not move people; they have to be burned into the soul by an inspiration of understanding. But it is a big step from reaching that understanding to accepting a re-classification of the Bible to equality with other books and to believing that it could actually contain errors, personal opinions and biased views. Whilst that may be the viewpoint of most people in our society, it is a deeply disturbing thought to an ex-fundamentalist. Our cultural background affects the roots of our personality.

//Continued