The Bible Is Not A Jigsaw Puzzle
I read a blog entry with the title “The Bible is not a Jigsaw Puzzle”. Reading the article written by Frank Viola made me analyze how I consume, formulate, reason and discuss scripture. I think this is a great article, and well worth the long read…maybe even several reads.
Here is an excerpt (I did a little formatting):
How We Approach the NT
We Christians have been taught to approach the Bible in one of seven ways. See how many you can tick off with a pencil that apply to you:
- You look for verses that inspire you. Upon finding such verses, you either highlight, memorize, meditate upon, or put them on your refrigerator door.
- You look for verses that tell you what God has promised so that you can confess it in faith and thereby obligate the Lord to do what you want. (If you are part of the “name-it-claim-it,” “blab-it-grab-it” movement, you are masterful at doing this.)
- You look for verses that tell you what God commands you to do.
- You look for verses that you can quote to scare the devil out of his wits or resist him in the hour of temptation.
- You look for verses that will prove your particular doctrine so that you can slice-and-dice your theological sparring partner into Biblical ribbons. (Because of the proof-texting method, a vast wasteland of Christianity behaves as if the mere citation of some random, de-contextualized verse of Scripture ends all discussion on virtually all subjects.)
- You look for verses in the Bible to control and/or correct others.
- If you are a preacher, you look for verses that “preach” well for next Sunday morning’s sermon. (This is an on-going addiction for preachers. It is so ingrained that many of them are incapable of reading their Bibles in any way other than to hunt for sermon material.)
Wow, what a great description of American Christianity today. I am sad to say some personal analysis will force me into prayer and repentance.
Why are we so bent on our own formulas, ambitions, doctrines and personal agendas? I can’t answer that one, but it seems to be in our nature.
Below is the full article:
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