Struggling with Scripture
Original Blog Post, Titled "Why Do You Believe": November 1, 2010
(Edited on January 8, 2025 and Re-posted)
I had a good conversation with a family member recently. They talked
about taking a Bible class at church, and how difficult it was to
understand the Old Testament. Rules. Exile. Punishment. Death. More
rules. They were really struggling with the God of the Old Testament and
how to make sense of their faith in light of what they were reading and
studying. This family member came to three conclusions, and didn't
really like any of those three:
- Take the Bible very literally, in which case they didn't want to follow a God like the one of the Old Testament
- God must have wrongly-predicted the actions of his creation, thus making God fallible
- Assume the Bible is written by imperfect humans, who—though inspired by God—misinterpreted many things that God said to them
These are some hard conclusions to arrive at. I have thought about these
conclusions and agree with this member of my family. The Old Testament [can be] an
extremely difficult set of narratives to accept. So, then, what are we
left with? Unbelief? Doubt? A pointless faith?
Why do we continue to believe?
I can only speak for myself. In a world that rouses my doubt, I continue
to believe because I want to believe in a God who is a champion for the
hopeless. God — who is meant to be a shining light in the
darkest of dark places. God — a haven for those rejected by the world. God — the divine one who loves the unlovable and has compassion on the least of these. Jesus — defender for the weak, the poor and
the oppressed. God — for those who don't like the
way they look; those who can't love themselves; those whose past sins
continue to pour guilt upon them; those who don't feel accepted by any
one. God exists for those people most of all. And when I can identify with any of these qualities listed above, I most sense my need of God. And so I believe.
Can you find God in the pages of both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament? Yes. In fact, it's the foundational document that can give us a glimpse, albeit limited, of who God is. But ultimately, this Bible that we so venerate is a complicated set of books. So perhaps don't restrict your faith solely to the words of the Scriptures; allow those Scriptures to inform your faith, but not fully define it.