Why the Bible Is So Hard to Understand ... and tips to understanding it

From Chapter 1: Can a fish see the water it swims in? What a strange question to ask as we begin this exploration of why the Bible is so hard to understand! What in the world does what a fish sees have to do with understanding the Bible? The question illustrates one of the reasons we struggle to understand the Bible. The question reflects our desire to know. We want answers to our questions. Most of us do not know how to answer the question “Can a fish see the water it swims in?” Yet, most of us would hazard a guess … probably without any basis for our position! Someone might go so far as to Google the question in search of an answer. We want answers. We like to have the facts. We want to know the truth. We want to get it right. Our focus on knowing the facts as a way of knowing truth is an example of how we read the Bible. I have a second reason for asking the question about a fish seeing the water it swims in. The question illustrates the thrust of this chapter: we don’t see the water we swim in! By that I mean we don’t think about how we have been trained to think and read. We just read without thinking about it. And that’s how we read the Bible—along with everything else we read. We have been trained to read looking for facts to believe. How we read the Bible is one of the primary reasons the Bible is so hard to understand. The Water We Swim In Those of us who grew up in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have been shaped by a movement known as The Enlightenment. Our education was based upon the thinking of the Enlightenment. Consequently, the Enlightenment is the intellectual water we swim in. It shaped how we think. The Enlightenment was a revolution in thinking that took place in Europe during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It was rooted in the development of science with its effort to understand the mysteries of creation by answering the questions who, what, when, where, why, how. The foundational principle of the Enlightenment was human reason. The Enlightenment thinkers argued that all of life’s mysteries could be explained through the use of science, the intellect, and reason. This approach to understanding led to a focus upon facts that can be proven. It spoke of verifiable facts as truth. All of the scientific advancements we enjoy today—in nutrition, in medicine, in technology, in electronics, in the exploration of space—are based on this line of thought. This trust in our intellectual abilities and reason had a huge impact on the field of religion. It led to a rejection of the traditional religious explanations of life, challenging the authority of the Church in that day. It rejected any supernatural dimension of religion, including the idea of revelation or miracles or the divinity of Jesus. Human reason replaced divine revelation as the measure for truth. In the place of traditional religious understandings, the Enlightenment led to a philosophy called Deism. Deism viewed God as the Master Designer who created and set the universe in motion. But Deism did not see God as directly involved in the functioning of the universe. It understood creation as operating through the natural laws that the Master Designer set in place. Deism used the image of a clockmaker to speak of God and creation. Once the clock (the universe) had been created and set in motion, the clockmaker (God) stepped back and let it function. The Creator gave humans the intellectual ability (reason) to explore and understand how the clock functions (science). A second foundational principle of the Enlightenment was its emphasis on the individual. This exaltation of the individual challenged the hierarchal social order of the day. It gave dignity and power to the common person while challenging the power of kings and the nobility and the Church. This emphasis gave birth to the concept of democracy. In France, it led to the French revolution and the overthrow of the French monarchy. In the New World, this thinking shaped the founding documents of the American Revolution and the fledging nation that became the United States. Alongside the development of democracy, the Enlightenment also led to the development of capitalism and public education as ways to empower common people. The social upheaval of the past sixty years is the product of Enlightenment thinking. The rejection of tradition, the questioning of authority, the emphasis upon individualism, the ideas of freedom and equality, the confidence in human progress—each is an expression of Enlightenment thinking. The continued evolution of Enlightenment thinking has produced what is called post-modern thought. Post-modern thinking rejects any external standard of right and wrong. Objective truth is replaced by subjective relativism. What works for a particular individual is what is “right” for that person. Post-modern thought is expressed in the saying, “It’s all good.” Although the Enlightenment’s revolution in thinking took place over 300 years ago, it continues to influence our thinking in the twenty-first century. Its influence on how we think is beyond our awareness. We don’t see it until it is pointed out. It is just how we think. That is, it is the water we swim in. Consequently, it is how we read the Bible. Reading the Bible through the Lens of the Enlightenment We naturally and unconsciously read the Bible—and everything else—through the lens of our Enlightenment shaped thinking. This scientifically shaped pattern of thinking leads us to look for facts to believe as we read the Bible. We want to know what is true. But reading the Bible through this lens also creates a dilemma for us. The Bible records things that human reason struggles to accept. Reason leads us to question some of the things we read in the Bible. Did God create the world in seven literal days (Genesis 1)? Were Adam and Eve the first man and woman (Genesis 2)? Was there a universal flood that destroyed all of creation except those on the ark (Genesis 6-9)? Did the Red Sea really part so that the people of Israel could walk across on dry ground (Exodus 14)? Did an iron ax head really float (2 Kings 6:1-7)? Was Jesus born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-38)? Did Jesus really heal the sick and raise the dead? Did Jesus walk on water (Matthew 14:22-27)? Was Jesus raised from the dead (Matthew 28:10-15, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-18)? Our questions lead us to wonder if what the Bible says is true. This dilemma creates an emotional bind. How do we believe what the Bible says when what the Bible says goes against human reason? This dilemma and its emotional bind are generally resolved in one of two ways. One way is to accept what the Bible says without question. Those who embrace this way respond to these kinds of questions by answering “Absolutely! It’s in the Bible so it’s true!” These readers exalt what the Bible says over human reason. They view the Bible as a divine book given to us by God. As such, it is totally trustworthy without question or doubt. It never enters their mind to question what the Bible says. For them, there is no emotional bind. The second way of dealing with the dilemma is to follow human reason. Those who follow human reason respond to the questions I raised by saying “No! Iron ax heads don’t float. Men don’t walk on water.” They doubt the veracity of the biblical account, sometimes going so far as to outright reject it. They view the Bible as a human book that cannot be taken literally. Both of these camps are found in today’s Christian culture. The differences in how they read the Bible lead to greater differences. Their understandings of the Christian life are fundamentally at odds with one another. They generally take different sides on moral issues. They are often in conflict with one another. They struggle to find common ground.