When I think of secular critics of the Bible, such as the so-called new atheists, I am reminded of a cartoon depicting popular incredulity concerning Einstein’s theories when these first gained cultural currency. Demonstrated with a flashlight (in the cartoon) is the fact that light doesn’t go round a corner; it travels in a straight line. Einstein is therefore refuted.
My point is that an appreciation of relativity theory requires a measure of scientific literacy, along with at least an intuitive grasp of the subtle concepts involved. And so, of course, it is with the Bible – in that a certain qualification is required for its spiritually meaningful apprehension. The scriptures themselves are quite overt and emphatic on this point.
Mathew 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
John 8:31-32 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Isaiah 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
It is revealed to babes – to those, according to John 3:5, born of water and spirit. In Isaiah this is qualified somewhat, showing that it is not exactly the newborn who accede to doctrine and knowledge, but those that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. John again concurs, Jesus stating: If ye continue in my word ... ye shall know the truth ... Truth, in other words, is revealed to those who persist – not to those who set out, or merely take a dip.
One can only wonder then at the brazen confidence exhibited by our critics in the altogether unfounded assumption that they are able to read the Bible and pontificate concerning its content. Yet from their perspective the matter is clear. We moderns are infinitely more sophisticated than the primitives who wrote the Bible, and what with a liberal arts education, or some comparative religion, anyone is suitably equipped to deal with the relevant texts.
It is noteworthy that even C. S. Lewis fell into this error – namely in the belief that he, the self-confessed layman of the Church of England, should be competent to pronounce on diverse aspects of holy scripture. But this, of course, is consonant with the intellectual culture of our age. The emphasis, the basic assumption, within our modern seminaries is that Christ is apprehended through scholarship – that it is doctorates and ordinations which enable a man to pronounce on spiritual truth. Yet as the quoted passages indicate, this assumption is false. If thus the 'church' cannot get it right, it's reactionary critics are - inevitably - twice confounded.
So concerning our dialogue with the kind of militant and vociferous atheists cited, it suffices to observe that they have no idea what they are talking about.
Tuesday, February 3. 2015
This thing was not done in a corner, it is stated of Paul in Acts 26, concerning the passion of Christ. Effectively the whole world bore witness, although the tremors registered but faintly through the halls of worldly power. It is no different today. The image of the Crucified is a universal icon. Whether by divine foreknowledge or accident of history, this image and its surrounding narratives have become intrinsic to what we call the Western canon. They are in our face, so to speak.
It is ironic then that spiritual seekers – in ages past no less then today – disdain the transmission in plain view, and seek for knowledge in realms of the esoteric, the hidden or occult. The Bible cannot be trusted, it is claimed – it has been edited, expurgated and contrived in accord with a sinister agenda. At best its asseverations pertain to the shallow and exoteric, to the outer courts of conventional understanding and myopic religion. For the real spiritual meat one must enquire among hidden and secret documents, among spiritual lineages suppressed and persecuted, among Hermeticists and Gnostics, perhaps in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi texts, in the writings of the Essenes and the perennial lore of the Grail. Such is the claim.
While we might welcome this broader historic and cultural perspective, we know the essential claim to be false. Our biblical source documents, extant in thousands of manuscript copies, are remarkably consistent. Variants do occur, likewise in their thousands, but these are mostly transcription errors, such as the occasional word being omitted or misspelled. There is nothing to call into question the essential purport of the documents. Concerning biblical critics, one has the impression rather that such as seek to undermine the integrity of scripture are motivated by ulterior considerations. They are offended by its content – that content or purport, as they perceive it. As to the other claim, that of extra-biblical wells of the sublime and profound, one might ask what sublime and profound which is not also intrinsic to biblical scripture?
The problem here is that no-one understands the Bible, and the majority of would-be critics – here one thinks of the so-called new atheists – do not even know its content. The churches are beholden of their non-biblical creeds, and secular critics have the overt historic church in their sights, thus being twice confounded and removed from the spiritual heart of the matter. Concerning the biblical transmission then, the God of the Bible is indeed hiding in plain view. The biblical legacy is ‘out there’ in the public domain, its text ubiquitous in millions of copies. It is hailed, expounded, debated and derided. And yet ... its purport is a mystery. This legacy, this presence, is rather like a beacon or ensign. It is saying, here I am, here is something ... But beyond that all is conjecture and confusion, a melee of claims and counterclaims, of creeds and sects and cults and traditions – namely insofar as the public eye and mind is concerned.
Spiritually speaking, we assert hat God is hiding in his Word – that the Word (i.e. the canon of scripture) functions as a spiritual veil. The Word is also synonymous with the spiritual body – that is, through the sacrifice of the Word the spirit is released and God is beheld face to face. This is the significance of the atoning death of the cross, and of the new or spiritual birth. But, as the apostle further observed, there are none that understand.