I
am confident that no one will admit this; however, the human race always has
created God in our image—in direct contradiction to the biblical affirmation
that the revers is true: God created humans in God’s image. Two contrasts help
me understand how Western culture in general, and American Christianity in
particular, has done this. There are other clues; but, I’ll restrict my
comments to these two.
In contrast, it is the nature and identity of humanity to try to hold on to the way things are right now and/or to try to revert to the way things were in some utopian “good ol’ days,” or to actualize life the way it “ought” to be. The key here is the phrase, “hold on to”, regardless of the preferred paradigm.
This contrast goes a long way toward explaining why there are so many different, sometimes mutually exclusive, and too often antagonistic ways of understanding reality and reality’s God. The standard of measure begins with individual humans’ preferred way of being—the way things are, or the way things used to be back when, or the way things “ought” to be… Our cultural paradigm, whether chosen or by default, establishes the lens through which God is perceived, viz., God is perceived as existing for the purpose of helping us obtain and sustain life as we want it to be.
In other words, we humans prefer a secure (read: unchanging) God of stability; so, we create that God and worship him (sic). But, when the perception of God emerges out of any human desire or preference, given the diversity of human desire and preference, the inevitable result inevitably is chaos and antagonism.
And all the while, we humans are missing (or ignoring) God’s promise of new life: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (II Corinthians 5:17 NRSV)
So, what is meant by this cryptic phrase, “in Christ?” In its most basic understanding, it simply means being who Christ is and doing what Christ does. It means “dying to self” (those human insecurities that lead to the chaotic and antagonistic reality mentioned above) and being raised to new life as imitators of Christ, whose paradigmatic identity was manifested fully in Jesus of Nazareth.
In the second contrast, it is the nature and identity of God to desire unity, in Christ, of all things (Ephesians 1:9-10). That unity is the end and goal of God’s ongoing creative industry (“always making all things new”.)
The contrasting human desire is for uniformity in human desire and behavior. So, the God created by humans has the compound duty, first, of meeting our human needs and desires and, second, of making everyone else “like me/us.”
Remember that muffler commercial from several years ago—the one in which a guy in coveralls with greasy hands is wielding a two-pound maul and says, “Ill make it fit”? Whether consciously and intentionally or obliviously and by default, all of us some of the time, and some of us all the time, begin interpretation of Scripture with the intention of making it fit what we already have decided to believe. And then the various denominations and cults square off and point accusingly at one another and demand conformity. The majority of faith-based human ideologies insist on the exclusive merit and absolute correctness of their interpretation.
Indeed, most will deny that their approach is an interpretation at all. They will insist that their “understanding” is clearly the only true meaning and intention of Scripture. Well, to quote my nephew, Christian Piatt, “There is no uninterpreted Scripture.” I will take it a step further and say that a literal understanding of Scripture is humanly impossible.
We cannot totally free ourselves from the preconceptions and expectations we bring to any reading of Scripture. For most of us who read the Bible in English, even when simply reading, verbatim, the exact words of scripture, we at best will be reading a translation (probably of a translation) which inevitably redirects some of the subtle nuances of the original language. Without some knowledge of, or guidance through, the original languages of Scripture, we begin our reading with several layers of translation between us and the text.
And while God’s Spirit always is available to guide the writing of Scripture, not all humans are in tune with that guidance when they translate or interpret. The contradictions among the multiplicity of English versions of Scripture makes my point.
Moreover, we bring to any reading of Scripture all the bits and pieces of remembered, half-forgotten Sunday School lessons, camp songs, Hymns, sermons, devotional readings, and opinions shared over coffee with friends. It’s difficult to clear the attic—to sweep away the shards and cobwebs of partial memory to make way for a new reading—to let the Scripture speak fresh, as if for the first time.
Even a verbatim reading will be an interpretation, simply by the emphasis and inflection we inflict on the individual words of the text. Finally, one’s choice of text in any given situation will reflect the preconceptions with which one approaches Scripture.
“My Bible says…” should be replaced with, “The way I read scripture…”, because in all honesty that’s the best any of us can do. That’s why St. Paul insists, “…we walk by faith, and not by sight” (II Corinthians 5:7) That’s why he insists, “ For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (I Corinthians 13:12)
But we don’t want to walk by faith. We want an absolute guarantee. So, since the Bible offers only faith, we create the guarantees. And the result is the absence, not only of the uniformity we seek, but also of the unity which is the will of God as demonstrated in Christ.
I love the C. S. Lewis quote, “It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers will bring us to Him.” For me, the Gospels and the Christian Epistles are consistent in their definitive testimony regarding Christ; therefore, I approach all of Scripture through the lens of Christ—the Word-become-flesh. In him, my faith has hands and feet, and a voice.
That’s the way I see it through the Flawed Glass that is my world view.
Together in the Walk,
Jim
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