The Bible does not give us indisputable truth; it gives us disputes...and faith

            Now we must make a distinction—the Great Story and the written form of the Great Story. God is doing something in the world. Humans are just never sure exactly what that is. As God reveals more of his ideas, as he pens his magnificent plot twists within the space and time of our universe, we are furiously scribbling down observations, reflections, commandments, attempting to capture the vivifying magic of this fairy tale. The Bible is trying to tell people what God is doing. The Bible is not our God nor is it his Great Story. The Bible is simply a courageous and faithful representation, commissioned by God our Author, to proclaim the wonders he has brought to pass, is bringing to pass, and will bring to pass within his creation. The fairy tale like windy colors is sweeping past us and we are just trying to capture in words its unspeakable beauty.

Debate rages over the way the Bible came to be. People use as an attack on the Bible that it was written by men. And since all men are fallible creatures the Bible is an errant and untrustworthy book. For some reason, since humans wrote the Bible, its power is disproved. I understand this position but I find it weak for a number of reasons.

First off is it not odd that our Holy Scriptures, our Great Story…

Is in fact one colossal narrative,

Made up by smaller chapters of people’s lives,

Drawing upon nothing but bleeding hope,

From flawed characters,

With the only consistent character,

Who just so happens to be present in every scene,

Being this one, child-like God,

Manifesting his beautiful, messy, joyful will,

Like a giant, intense symphony,

Which no one has ever,

Or will ever,

Understand;

But simply,

If trusted in,

Can their eyes close

And their hands go still,

And their hearts allow the cathartic and terrifying notes

Lift them into the air,

Where the wonderful Conductor moves

His righteous and musical arm

Like the uncreated and majestic wind,

Which blows softly and with great calm

To and fro across the face of the earth.

Our faith is in a giant novel and God is the Author. Characters come and go (and they are always scarred up and absolutely broken), but God is in each chapter, in every scene. That is something is it not?

But if God is the Author, then the objection people have with the Bible is that the Author does not write it himself. He uses humans as his scribes. But then the qualm is not with human authors, but God’s methods.

Why would God tell his story this way if he is the only God and his Story is true? Their anger is directed toward God’s action, not men’s. If God is God and he wants us to believe his Story and be in relationship with him, then why would he work through humans, knowing that we are distrustful? Would he not rather just show us his scars and then we could believe and not doubt? His choice of medium does nothing to add credibility to his claim that he is the only, living God who madly desires intimacy with his creation. That is the crux of the problem. God should not have worked through humans because we are not to be trusted; we only mess things up.

We have the gospel according to Matthew. But we do not want that one because Matthew was a human and no better than me. I cannot trust that gospel. What we want is the gospel according to Jesus. But Jesus never wrote his chapter in the Great Story down. Apparently, Jesus is okay with others writing it down and retelling it. Apparently, it pleases him when others attempt to describe the glory of this fantastic tale happening in the cosmos even when he knows that there are going to be different interpretations of it. Perhaps his Father prefers it this way.

If we had the gospel according to Jesus, we would have the full, complete truth. There would be no need for faith. But apparently, just judging by how this book has come to be, in God’s eyes, it is all about faith; faith in him, faith in the Great Story, faith in the book which captures it and tells about it a million different ways.

Apparently, to God, faith is more important than absolute, indisputable truth. How do I know this? Well, because if it wasn’t, the Author would have given us indisputable truth; God would have given us the gospel according to Jesus. But we do not have that.  We have the gospel according to Moses and Isaiah and Micah and John and Paul and Peter. We have untrustworthy, flawed, blind characters desperately trying to tell their brothers and sisters of what has happened in their souls, in the soul of the universe…they have encountered the one living God. And they must tell someone. We do not have indisputable anything.

We have disputes…and faith.