The Bible Made Impossible - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Subsidiary Problems with Biblicism

In previous chapters Christian Smith has made his case for the problem of "pervasive interpretive pluralism", which he believes is the biggest problem with biblicism (see chapter one for his definition of biblicism). In this chapter he tackles several other problems with biblicism that are lesser but real.

He gives nine different problems that he sees; I'll list five and give a short summary of them here:

1. Blatantly ignored teachings:  though biblicists believe that we are to obey all direct and repeated and unambiguous teachings of Scripture, there are myriad passages that we don't obey or feel no obligation to obey, such as:
• "Greet one another with a holy kiss" (five times repeated in the NT)
• "Women should remain silent in the churches" (I Cor. 14:34; 1 Tim. 2:12)
• "Do not resist an evil person" (said by Jesus Himself in Matt. 5:39)
• "...you should also wash one another's feet" (Jesus in John 13:14,15)
• etc.
2. Arbitrary determinations of cultural relativism: biblicists rightfully say that not all difficult passages should be applied to our time and culture because of historical and cultural differences, but what is not consistent or honest is the fact that biblicists typically offer no coherent explanation about which Bible passages a) are culturally relevant,  b) remain in effect in principle but may be applied in different ways depending on the particular culture, and c) remain universally binding in their specifics for all believers at all times. Examples:
• Is the passage about women being silent relevant for women and churches today?
• May God's people never eat rabbit or pork? (Lev. 11); should those who blaspheme God be stoned to death? (Lev. 24); should Christians hate those who hate God? (Psa.139:21,22); does much wisdom really bring more sorrow? (Ecc.1:18)
• Should all Christians share their material goods in common? (Acts 2:44,45); is it wrong for men to cover their heads? (1 Cor. 11:4); should unmarried men not look for wives? (1 Cor. 7:27)
• etc.
3. Strange passages: given biblicist principles, all Scripture is for our learning, but the fact is that there are some very strange passages in the Bible that are hard to know what to do with. One example is what Paul wrote to Titus (biblicists assume Paul wrote this book) about Cretans (Titus 1:12,13). What he says sounds racist and violates many of his moral teachings in other letters. So in what sense is this part of God's revealed truth and what are we supposed to learn from it today? Some other strange passages the author mentions are Gen. 6:1-4; Judges 11:29-39; I Sam. 16:23; II Chron. 18:22; Psalm 137:8,9; Deut. 21:10-14, etc.
4. Lack of a biblicist social ethic: although most evangelicals would say they believe "Jesus is the answer", not only for personal needs but for social, political, economic problems in society, "biblicism is unable to deliver one coherent, much less comprehensive, social ethic to guide a compelling 'biblical' response to contemporary social problems." One major reason (among others) for this is that the New Testament has practically nothing in it to suggest the idea of Christian political influence or social action. There are some general principles in Scripture that  can be used, but the problem of pervasive interpretive pluralism again makes a coherent Christian social doctrine impossible. "When theorists who take a basically biblicist approach try to derive a systematic Christian social ethic from scripture, they end up offering an incredibly wide range of proposals." (Smith gives examples of writings by Christians that range from one end of the political spectrum to the other...)
5. Setting up youth for unnecessary crises of faith: the author makes the point that the indefensibility of biblicism's beliefs causes unnecessary crises of personal faith for some young people when they realize that what they have been taught (the biblicist approach to Scripture) doesn't work. These young people then become prey to the teachings and influence of college and university professors who challenge the truth of the Scriptures. "Biblicism often paints smart, committed youth into a corner that is...impossible to occupy for many of those who actually confront its problems." In other words, when a young person sincerely and honestly faces the problems within biblicism, he finds himself in a place that forces him to make a decision; often that decision is to leave the faith in order to maintain integrity. (A wonderful 35-minute talk by Greg Boyd is very helpful on this topic: http://whchurch.org/blog/3819/toppling-the-house-of-cards)

 "Biblicism is not the way forward for evangelicalism. There must be a better way to understand and read the Bible. What might that be?" With this question, Smith's segues into the second part of the book, "Toward a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture."

Next week we'll cover chapter 5, a wonderful chapter on the Christ-centeredness of Scripture. Grace and peace to you this week!