Have you ever thought about how much we (I mean all societies, not just limited to good ol' Northern America) depend on context and assumed knowledge when we speak to each other? (Especially over the internet!)
For instance, if I say something like:
"Rage Comics are pretty funny but I get tired of seeing "le" all the time!"
You could, if you had a very basic understanding of English, understand this sentence to some degree. But if all you knew was the literal meaning of the words being used, you'd miss a lot.
For instance, what is a Rage Comic? Even if you understood English AND had a rough idea about US culture, that would in no way help you discover the meaning of "Rage Comic". You'd actually have to know something about a specific sub-culture of the English-speaking Internet.
And even if you miraculously figured out what a Rage Comic actually meant, then you'd have to figure out why "le" would make someone tired. Why should a word exhaust someone? And if it's not making them literally tired, but figuratively tired, why exactly would that specific word cause a problem? Is this a common complaint or is it specific to just one person? And, seriously, what the heck is "le" anyway?! That's not even English!
Of course it gets more complicated.
What if I said something like this:
"I would prefer reform to our current system over a tax-based "universal" health care system. I wouldn't be against a universal health care system, per say, if I thought it could be done right. However, the federal government already has something like that (Medicaid and Medicare) and they're doing a bad job of managing it. Why would I trust them with the entire country? If we truly reformed and properly regulated the system we have I think costs would drop significantly for everyone and the level of care would go up in a way not possible in a universal health care system."
Now whether you agree or disagree, ask yourself: How do you know what I'm talking about? What basic assumptions are you making to understand me? What life experiences or knowledge are you drawing from right now? What would be the absolute minimum amount of information a person would need to understand what I'm saying?
If you think about it hard for a few minutes, you'll realize a lot of "common" knowledge and cultural assumption go into just knowing what I'm talking about, much less knowing enough to agree or disagree! Imagine, just for a moment, what that entire sentence would sound like to someone who didn't have that basic knowledge? Even if they understood English, what I was saying would essentially be jibberish (and probably REALLY boring).
I think most people understand this idea of cultural context when it comes to understanding other people. It's hard--next to impossible--to understand a person (truly understand them) without knowing the culture and time period they're coming from. And even if you do understand a person's culture, you've still got to deal with annoying "personal experience" thing which colors everything that person says.
So, here's the thing, why is it so hard for people to apply this must-have basic way of understanding what anyone is saying......... to the Bible.
I hear Christians say stuff like "I just take the Bible at it's word!" or critics say "It's obvious what the Bible means, it says so right there in plain English!"
Lets just sit here and think about this. The Bible takes place in multiple ancient cultures over a period of several thousand years. And all that on top of the fact that the Bible (in it's basic structure as we have it today, not even in English) is well over 1,500 years old!
Knowing the original languages the Bible was written in (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) is not enough to know what it's saying. Just like knowing the dictionary definition of English words won't help you know what a person is actually saying. If you don't know the culture, the location, and common events going on when someone wrote something you'll barely know anything about what's being said!
In fact, you'll have kindergarten understanding about what you're reading, if that at all. If you're lucky the really really REALLY basic stuff you'll get right, but anything even moderately complex will completely derail you. Because complex conversation requires a higher understanding than just the definition of words on a page.
The Bible was written IN TIME by MORTAL MEN who had REAL LIVES and REAL CULTURES that influenced HOW and WHY they said stuff. Shockingly, many books in the Bible were written IN RESPONSE TO SOMETHING. (Yes, even Old Testament books like Genesis!) How can you know the meaning of any of what you're reading if you ignore all the basic steps required to understand any kind of human communication? You can't.
Let me repeat that: You can't understand most of what the Bible is saying if you ignore the culture, location, and events that transpired when it was written.
Sorry, saying things like "But the Holy Spirit guides us!" isn't gonna work either. Is the Holy Spirit dumping 2,000+ year old knowledge of culture, tradition, and events into your brain? Then the Holy Spirit is not a "Get out of Studying" pass from God. Maybe you should re-read that passage of scripture you get that idea from and apply things like textual, cultural, and historical context to it to get an idea what it's really saying!
So much of the antagonistic behavior I see from skeptics comes from having a faulty knowledge about scripture---which they got from Christians! If Christians studied the Bible, instead of treating it like a book written yesterday for them personally by God, maybe--just maybe--we'd have fewer skeptics and the quality of the skeptics we did have might--just might--be higher.
I know some will say "But the Bible is suppose to be easy to understand! Why would God make it complicated!?"
1) Who told you that the Bible was "easy to understand"? I'm sure it was really straight forward to 1st century Jews (though not so much for the Gentiles) but guess what? You're not Jewish and unless you have a time machine you weren't born and raised in the good old year of 1 AD. The Bible's message is simple, but how it says it is complicated to us.
2) God isn't really making anything complicated here. He chose to talk through mortal men in ways that most of humanity would understand. I hate to break it to you, but the West as we know it has only been around for a few hundred years. And a vast majority of the world--aka, not the commercialized West--still functions in similar ways as found in the Bible. How is it complicated to try to reach the most people using terms and ways of thinking that are common throughout most of history? It's not! It's just inconvenient.... for us modern day Westerners.
This touches on a chronic problem found in much of the West: we want things simple (easy) and quickly with the least amount of effort possible. When we don't get things when and how we want them, we feel put upon and abused. This attitude is childish as well as mind-boggling selfish and yet we expect God to do exactly this with and for us.
God is not going to do it. We live in cultures that are entirely unique from the rest of history. God is not obligated to pander to us just because we live in a cultural that thrives on quick-fix solutions and instant gratification. He takes the long road, which requires WORK on our part, because that's the tried and true road. We develop things like patience, endurance, and hope when the long road is taken... we become more Christ-like, holy. That's His aim, not our comfort and ease.
I'm not talking about a "works based" salvation (it's disappointing how many people jump to that conclusion), I'm talking about having a deep mature relationship with God. Salvation only requires acceptance, but the holy living afterward requires work! God gives us the tools to be holy through salvation (aka, Holy Spirit) but we have to be willing to use them. We have to learn how to use them. That's why we're suppose to be under mature leadership and mentorship within the church: to learn, to grow, and eventually to teach others.
.But Western Christians don't WANT to do the work required to grow. We want to grow without eating; we want to learn without studying. We want others to think for us so we don't have to think for ourselves. We'd rather live on trite sayings and feel good (wrongly applied) scripture verses rather than sit down and really get to understand the book God speaks to us through.
If you don't know what the Bible is saying, you don't know what God is saying. If Christians don't know what the Bible is saying, how can we properly represent God--much less Christ--to our culture? We can't, we don't!
I am chronically frustrated with the high level of WILLING ignorance I see in my fellow Christians. They'd rather be ignorant and accept simplistic answers than do the work required to get the right answer (which is usually complicated and involves a lot of logical thinking and study). You can't help what you just don't know, but you can at least be on the road to finding out! Lots of people don't even want to be on the road!
I don't want to be part of the problem. I want to be part of the solution. I don't think I'm at the level I need to be to teach others, but I know I can at least not spread bad information. So that's what I'm gonna do and I hope you do too.
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