Questioning the Bible?

Hello All (aka Cambria),

I'm not sure why I've been so apprehensive about posting to this blog since I only have one follower, but I figure I need to at least post something on here. Thus, I've decided to share an e-mail that I sent out to my community group; at least most of it. Please keep in mind I wrote it on my blackberry so there are likely typo's. I will also take this opportunity to use that as an excuse for my grammatical shortcomings as well.

To give future readers some background, community group is a gathering of Christians that choose to share life together. We meet regularly once a week to do... well, to do much of what I hope to do with this blog. To share the evidences of God in our lives and to seek support for our struggles. Just trying to explain community in one short sentence tells me I owe an entire post to the topic, please stand by. But I have a meeting in 15 minutes, so this endeavor is really only meant to be one of the cut-and-paste variety.

"So I've been stuck on a plane for hours. Middle seat. No headphones, no book. Just a BlackBerry and a bible app... Don't worry, its ESV. I also journal better when I am addressing an audience.

Anyways... here's what I punched out on the flight.

1 Thessalonians:
"(5:19) Do not quench the Spirit.
...
(5:21) but test everything; hold fast what is good.
(5:22) Abstain from every form of evil."

During my study time today I came across this passage and it reminded me of group last night. This text seems to address our discussion a bit.

I see our desire to understand God's meaning in the word as part our thirst for Him. Thus questioning, or doubt, is only folly if our intention is to quench our thirst for the Holy Spirit. I can't figure out how to say that clearly so allow me to explain. To use last nights example, believing that the virgin birth is not required makes God easier to understand, and thus quells some hard questions. This is what I mean by quenching the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, It also serves to reduce His glory by making less of what He can, has and does do. Not to mention giving us less motivation to read, discuss, and pray for understanding.

So we come back to why we are asking the question and what we seek in the answer. We test for what is good. Since we know God is good, if we find evil we keep testing, praying, and seeking counsel from our community. To shy away from questions because we fear the answer, or because we fear that we are not being faithfull to God, is not testing everything or ensuring conviction for our beliefs. How can we "hold fast what is good" unless we know what that is? Unless we know where it comes from, what it says about God, and how we can use that knowledge to worship Him?

Romans:
"Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
(14:23) But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."

My ranting reminds me of the only book of the bible I'm really familiar with, Romans. In Romans 14 Paul challenges us to hold all of our beliefs with conviction. We must therefore seek Godly conviction for all of our beliefs. For some of us, that means questioning. For others maybe that means answering other peoples questions.

One last thing. I believe it is very important to distinguish between questioning an interpretation of a text and questioning the inerrancy of His word. Some of our (read: my) questions on interpretation may seem to reflect an ignorance to the text or perhaps seem to challenge His word (not this time I hope). However it may be that these very questions help to reassure the "mature" Christian of what they thought they were already sure of. Or perhaps they help us to address other people with the same questions.

I realize that these thoughts are incomplete; they likely fall shy of even qualifying as that. Perhaps that will better prompt responses.

Now to apply all of this to my own life... "