Introduction to Rethinking Scripture

Rethinking Scripture Podcast - Episode 1: Introduction to Rethinking Scripture

June 5, 2021 - Host: Dr. Gregory Hall

Web Links & Social Media

Podcast Website: RethinkingScripture.comSister site: RethinkingRest.comYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6YCLg2UldJiA0dsg0KkvLAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/RethinkingScriptureTwitter: @RethinkingStuffInstagram: rethinking_scripture

Episode Summary

Why is it important to rethink what we already know about the Bible? Well... because what we think we know is very likely wrong. Or at least it has been somehow altered, away from its original meaning, by our traditions and creeds. We also need to rethink because it's exactly what we don't want to do on our own. It's a human condition to want to hunker down and think the same way we've always thought. But intelligence in the modern era is more about how adaptable to change we are... than our unwillingness to think about something new. 

Episode Notes

Content Cited in this episode:

Grant, Adam M. (2021) Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know (Introduction). New York, NY: Random House.Walton, J. H. (2009). The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (pp. 7–8). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.McKnight, S. (2008). The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible (pp. 31–33). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Transcript

00:06 

Welcome to the Rethinking Scripture podcast. I’m Greg Hall and I teach whenever I can. I write when I find time, and today I’m excited to share with you somethingthat might cause you to rethink what youthought you already knewabout the Bible. For more about thispodcast andother Rethinking Projects, you can visitRethinkingScripture.com. So, let's stop for a moment to revisit… and rethink.

00:45 

Welcome to episode one, an introduction to the podcast. I thought I’d start just by answering the questionwhy another podcast? And why specifically a podcast about rethinking biblical topics in Scripture? 

It goes back to my master's program. It was a few years ago and it was a small local school here in Salem, Oregon where I live. And the president of the university, the seminary, had invited a well-known theologian in. And I don't remember the topic that he was speaking about that night. I’ve actually gone back in my notes and I couldn't find my notes, so that's a little embarrassing. But I do remember one specific thing and I’ve remembered it every day since.

Whatever the topic was, there was four or five major views on that topic that had been discussed withinevangelicalism, and the discussion for that evening was to cover the four or five different views. And this particular theologian, at the beginning he said, “You need to understand that at one point in my career, I’ve held to each of these points.” And I thought, wow! But that wasn't the end. He said, “I’ve not only held each one of these points but I’ve held each one of these points, at different times, dogmatically!” And I thought oh, that's really interesting. It's not that he was halfway convinced, but he was all in on every single point at some point or another in his career. Which is really hard to think about if you know think about salvation orsin or some of the topics within evangelicalism that are hot topics and how they have very divisive ideas on both sides or in the middle and everywhere in between.  

And for somebody of his stature to come out and just say, at the beginning of the evening, you know what…you need to hold loosely to what it is you believe right now (this is essentially what he was saying) becauseodds are you are going to rethink those thoughts that you're currently having. And maybe even come to different conclusions at some point in the future. So, I took that to heart. 

03:00

One of the things that I try and do when I am researching or learning something new, especially when it comes to Scripture, I try and learn as much as I can about the people that are saying things different than what I believe. I try and lean into that as awkward and as uncomfortable as that is sometimes. I try not to be an early adopter on things. I do that with technology too, and I wait for something to prove itself in the marketplace before I jump in. usually but I do that with my theology as well. I tend not to be an early adopter. I tend to wait for peer review to happen and for other people to start talking about it so I can listen, so then I can decide on my own and I think. 

That's a good thing and that's what I’d like to accomplish in this podcast I’d like to do that for you, the audience. I’d like you to bring to you different things that people are talking about regarding Scripture that might cause you to rethink what you thought you already knew.

So, you know the information age is turning up so much more material than we could ever imagineespecially about the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) cultures. Some of this new information has birthed a whole new generation of people who are rethinking Scripture. And so we're going to reflect on some of those things. Some of the ideas that I’ve come up with as I have studied Scripture over the past. As I mentioned I’ve got a master's in theology, I’ve got a doctorate in biblical preaching and teaching. And so I’ve spent some time in the word. I’ve spent some time not just for myself, but also unearthing what other people haveunearthed. I’ve re-dug things that have been dug up. And trying to piece those things together is kind ofsomething I love to do. And I wanted to bring that to a podcast so this is episode one that's what it is.

04:56 – Adam Grant & Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

You know, I recently got a book. There's a newer book out, at the time I’m recording this, by Adam Grantcalled Think Again. And he has a couple things in his introduction that I just thought fit for his book, obviously, but they also fit for this avenue or this atmosphere that we're talking about, for Scripture as well.He says and I quote, “Intelligence is traditionally viewed as the ability to think and learn yet in a turbulent world there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more the ability to rethink and unlearn.”

So he's talking about intelligence and how that's traditionally just how we think and learn. But in the type of world that we're in, where things are being unearthed and dug up and we're finding new things. And science is taking us in ways that we never even imagined. The ability or intelligence might better be thought of as the ability to rethink and unlearn. In our day and age, I thought that was quite profound.

Adam Grant on to say in his introduction, “Part of the problem is cognitive laziness some psychologists point out that we're mental misers.” I love that idea. “We often prefer the ease of hanging on to old views over the difficulty of grappling with new ones.” There are also deeper forces, he says, behind our resistance to rethinking. “Questioning ourselves makes the world more unpredictable.” 

Now think about that for a second. When we question ourselves, or something that we've held on to for a long time, it makes the world more unpredictable. And I thought this world couldn't be more unpredictable, right! So, he goes on to say, “It requires us to admit that the facts may have changed. Reconsidering something we believe deeply can threaten our identities making it feel as if we're losing a part of ourselves.”

There's a lot of wisdom right there. Let's bring it to the world of the Bible and the world of Scripture. We do this so much. We hear something early, we believe it wholeheartedly, and then we're not willing to revisit something. Oftentimes that's the case, but just like the rest of the world that is unearthing new technologies and finding out new things in the scientific world. Things are happening in the biblical world exactly the same way. And if we're not willing to revisit those things that we learned, however long ago and have held on for however long we've held on to them. If we're not willing to go back and revisit some of those things and consider what the new information might be on that topic, we're doing the Bible a disservice. We're doing our faith a disservice. And just like that theologian, that was invited that I went to listen to that night, who late in his career, when I was listening to him, had experienced it enough to be able to say, “What you now believe may not be exactly what you end up believing.” And the only way to move forward is to rethink what you already know.

Adam Grant goes on to say, “Rethinking isn't a struggle in every part of our lives.” And this is important, quote, “When it comes to our possessions, we update with fervor. We refresh our wardrobes when they goout of style. We renovate our kitchens when they're no longer in vogue.” When it comes to our knowledge and opinions though, he says, “We tend to stick to our guns. Psychologists call this seizing and freezing. We favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt and we let our beliefs get brittle long before our bones.” Adam Grant concludes his thoughts this way, “We laugh at people who still use windows 95…” I don't even know anybody that still uses windows 95, or anybody that owns a computer that could load windows 95 for that matter. “We laugh at people who still use windows 95, yet we still cling to opinions that we formed in 1995. We listen to views that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard.” 

Let me say that last part again because I think that's the key to what we're doing here on the podcast. We listen to views… we tend to do this… we listen to views that make us feel good instead of ideas that make us think hard. In regards to this podcast, what I’m hoping to do is bring to the table things that help us do the latter, and stay away from the former. I mean they may make you feel good eventually, but that first initiallistening to something that makes us think hard is uncomfortable. And we just have to acknowledge that it's uncomfortable in every area of life. That's why we hate going back to school, or most of us do, because we have to think hard. But when it comes to biblical… What's more important? What's more important than rethinking the Bible? We want to get to the actual truth that's there, and if it's our unwillingness to revisit and rethink, then that's on us. that's on us!

10:24 – John H. Walton & The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate

[Music] There's a lot of authors out there that bring new ideas, and ways to rethink Scripture, and conceptsto the discussion. One of those, that I’d like to mention right now, his name is John H. Walton. He's a professor at Wheaton College, in Illinois. And he has something that he writes in most of his works, just to lay kind of a groundwork for how he approaches Scripture. And I think it's worthy of mentioning now. He said, “The Old Testament does communicate to us, and it was written for us, and for all of humankind. But it was not written to us.” It was written to Israel, he says, “It's God's revelation of himself to Israel first, and secondarily through Israel to everyone else.”

Now you might say well that's a weird distinction. But if you think about it, how often have you heardsomeone say, “Oh, the Bible says this, and it was written directly to you. And so, you need to understand what that that says within your culture and your cultural understanding of things. And the language that it's using, its verbs and its nouns in the English language, that was written to you. Well, the problem with that is, the Bible wasn't written in the English language originally. It was translated into English. It was originally written in other languages, to other people groups, and other cultures, at other times. So the Bible was written for us, John Walton says, but not to us.

It's like it's like we're reading someone else's mail. I don't know if you've had the opportunity to read someone else's mail lately? But… and if you have, stop that. I think it's illegal in most states. And please don't let me know the circumstances, I’m a mandatory reporter and I think that might apply somehow. But it's like we're reading someone else's mail. This example actually hits home in a unique way for me because last September, my sister passed away unexpectedly. She was my only sibling, and I’ve spent the better part of the winter, and this spring and summer, going through and keeping stuff that might be sentimental andthrowing away a lot of stuff. My sister kept almost… she was a teacher for 30 years. My sister kept almost every note that she ever received from students. And those of you that are teachers out there know,especially first grade teachers, your students write lots of notes. And as I’m sitting down, and my wife and I are sitting down going through all of this stuff trying to decide, “Do I keep this? Do I not?”

The biggest thing that we're asking ourselves is what's the relevance to us? Do I even know, when I pick up this note from 28 years ago, do I know anything about this child? Does it say anything specific, or particular, that would cause me to save it? And I gotta tell you, when I read someone else's mail, like my sister's from 28 years ago, or even five years ago, there's so much of it that I don't even understand. Why is that? Even though I knew her, I didn't know the context of most of the communication that she received. And so, it's a similar process we go through when we read the Bible. That Bible message was written in a context that we need to more fully understand before we can understand what it was communicating in that original context. And without that, how are we going to decide? Well, we're going to come up with maybe something that makes sense to us in our day and age. But they weren't thinking about us in our day and age. God knew it would survive to us. But we have the awesome ability to bring new ideas and new thoughts to Scripture that were never intended. And it happens all the time.

And that's one of the reasons why we need to rethink what it is that we know about Scripture. Because, oftentimes what we've done, is we've brought our own concepts. Maybe this is what we were taught. Maybesomebody else brought their own and they spoke to us. And what we think the Bible says may not be at all what the Bible means on those points.

15:01 – Scot McKnight & The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible

[Music] One of the things I love to do is teach. I’ve had the opportunity recently to teach at a few universities and schools around my local neighborhood and area. And usually what happens is, I’ll pick a main textbook,like for a Bible survey course or a theology course. And then I’ll pick a secondary text, a shorter book. It's not written like a textbook maybe, but brings more flavor to the course and the content. So, I have several of those that I’ll be speaking of in future podcasts, but the one I’d like to mention right now is one by Scot McKnight. It's called The Blue Parakeet. And there's one point in the book that I’d like to kind of walk through. At several steps that we go through when we end up thinking and believing something, especially something that we've read in the Bible, or heard about in the Bible. And he speaks largely abouttraditionalism. So what's traditionalism? Well, it's if it's a tradition um… I was in Fiddler on the Roof when I was in high school, and one of the main songs in that is about tradition, right. But traditionalism is not always a great thing when it comes to our understandings of biblical terms. And McKnight says there are about sixsteps in the approach of getting to traditionalism. And it occurs in every church and denomination and here are the steps:

Step one: We read the Bible.

That's always good. That's a great place to start, right?

Step two: We confront a current issue and we make a decision about an issue. So, like the examples hegives, baptizing infants or adults. That's the current issue. We make a decision about that. We frame what we believe into a confession or a creed or a doctrinal statement. 

So, first right we read the Bible. We confront a current issue. We make the statement or confession about what we have decided we believe. three 

Step three: We fossilize our discussion and our decision and it becomes a tradition. Somewhere, he says, around here we become absolutely convinced our tradition is perfect interpretation of the Bible. 

It is a perfect… interpretation… because it's in our… doctrinal statements, right? Okay so it becomestradition there.

Step four: We are bound to our tradition forever. 

This is where tradition becomes traditionalism and that's not good. It leads to… 

Step five: We are bound to read the Bible, not for itself anymore, but through… yes… through our tradition. 

We now read the Bible and, he says, somewhere around here we become convinced that God's Spirit led us to our tradition. And that it is nothing less than accurate. And God prompted… and don't question it. Does that sound familiar? Maybe you've heard someone else say something like that. But my guess is, there’s somewhere, there's something, that you believe. That if I pressed you on it you would say yeah, “I’ve got the inside line on that.” And that's really just a hard thing to say. Because that's born out of traditionalism…which is born out of tradition… which is born out of creeds and doctrinal statements. And the question is, how do we just get back to the Bible. Let the Bible speak to us. Still consider our traditions… sure! They're there for a reason. They've lasted for a reason, right? The question is, sometimes we don't question what the reason is, why they've lasted, and sometimes those are good reasons and sometimes they're awful reasons. And they need to be rethought. So…

Step 6: McKnight says those who question our tradition are suspect. Or worse yet, they're kicked out of ourchurch. Well, we don't kick people out of churches very much anymore. People used to actually be kicked out of churches. And why were they kicked out of churches? Because they didn't agree with the dominational distinctives. So somewhere around here, McKnight says we become ineffective in our world. And become increasingly cantankerous about how the youth are wandering away from the faith. I love McKnight, he puts it so bluntly. And you know, I spent seven years as a youth pastor, okay. So, I beat the average, because I think the average is like 18 months. And I cannot tell you how many times… and you've heard it. You've probably thought it. You may have even said it, “Man the youth… this next generation…they're just not … whatever when it comes to their faith or the Bible.” 

And I can tell you, this the next generation is never going to look like the previous generation. It just never is. And let's hope that the next generation doesn't look like the last generation. There's so much information coming forward. There's so many new things, biblically speaking, about what we now understand the Bible to mean, that we didn't understand just a generation ago. So please, next generation, you can't look like the previous generation! That would be horrible if you just bought into the traditionalism that got us to where we're at. But, at the same time, we can't just turn our backs on everything. So where's that line?

McKnight says, “The Bible itself points us away from traditionalism. The biblical authors and the early fathers didn't fossilize traditions. In other words, each one went back to the Bible, to God's word, so they could come forward into their own day in their own ways. It explains a variety of expressions from Genesis to Revelation and it alone explains how Paul and Peter could preach and preach and hardly quote the word of Jesus. It wasn't because they didn't know the words of Jesus. It was because they knew them so well they could renew Jesus' message in their day, and in their own ways as God's Spirit prompted them to do so.”

McKnight finishes this way, “I believe it's important to live with the great tradition and to interpret the Bible alongside that great tradition. But I also believe it has become nearly impossible for fossilization and traditionalism not to creep in.”

And he's just wondering is there a third way is there a way that can both return to the Bible to retrieveeverything the Bible says but also respect the great tradition? And he does. He believes there is. And it's the way of ongoing and consistent renewal that returns, and retrieves, and renews by reading the Bible with thegreat tradition alongside.

And so that's what I want this podcast to end up being. It's that process of questioning what it is we believe.How it is we got to what we believe. And then… what else is out there that might influence my ideas about that. Let this podcast be that for you. Let it be a conversation. I’ll bring people to the table. I’ll interview people. I’ll bring their text to the table. I’ll go into Scripture itself and walk-through Scripture with you. And let's let Scripture just speak to us directly. That's what it's supposed to do. Let's hold our tradition right beside, and consider what the tradition has to say about it. But let's let the Bible speak, first and foremost, out of its original culture as best we can.

23:08 – Next episode preview

[Music] In the next episode, we're going to jump into the book of John. Several years ago, I had the chance, at my church, to teach through the entire book of John, chapter by chapter. We're going to be using some of that audio, I’ll insert some of my more current thoughts about the Scripture as we go through. And I’ll also go out and find what “the rethinkers” are saying about it out there in the theological world. And I’ll be bringing that to the table as well. I’m really excited about where we're headed in John. Thanks so much for tuning in to this premiere episode of Rethinking Scripture.