Too often people reject the Bible because something is offensive or hard to understand. The Bible continues to challenge and confront a modern world.
Transcript
[Darris McNeely] You want to understand the Bible? It might help to be patient with the Bible. Too often people reject the Bible because of scenes that they don't relate to within the Bible. It's offensive. It's hard to understand in some cases. And there are certain episodes that are very, very challenging to accept for a modern mind. We recently had a Beyond Today viewer write to us with several observations about the Bible, and we've been going through those here. One last one to talk about here today. This viewer wrote to us and said that:
"The Bible is fascinating, complex, and passages that I previously found offensive become more understandable when I apply human psychology and context, accounting for the customs of the days in which the Bible was written. The Bible humbles me, whether I believe it or not, in the paranormal or spiritual aspects of it."
Complex, some areas hard to understand – very true.
You know, one thing that people find offensive about the Bible, just to zero in on one point, are the scenes, especially in the Old Testament, when Israel is going into the Promised Land after the days of the Exodus and the wandering. And God tells them to go in and to kill the men, the women, and the children in the land of Canaan, making no sparing of anyone. And that is offensive to some, and especially to a modern mind. We today talk about the native peoples of North America, or Australia, and the lands that were taken from them by the white Europeans who came into those areas. And we have this big movement to try to make restoration in some way, or at least to try to atone for what may be called sins of our forefathers. And so, when people read the Bible, and they see the stories of Israel going into the land of Canaan – that's the reaction they have, and they throw the entire Bible out.
Well, as this reader does astutely say, the context in which the times of these stories were written is also important to understand. The people in the land of Canaan, where the Israelites were going, you know what they did? Among other things that were repulsive, they sacrificed their children in fires to their god. That's right, child sacrifice. That's just one of the matters for which God said, "Move them out as you go in to establish a just and a righteous society and nation in My name" (Deuteronomy 7:1-6). And that's what happened. And understanding that ancient world and some of those customs are very important to understanding what the Bible says in regard to this. History tells us any country that has practiced child sacrifice in one form or the other, in whatever name, has eventually been washed away and out of history. It's not just what we read in the Bible. These people in Canaan would have gone by some other means and vanished from the pages of history just as other cultures not recorded in the Bible have done so because of child sacrifice.
That's important to understand, and something about being human, there's something about a basic sense of humanity and morality and laws that do govern this world and this universe, that are true and that are right. God told Israel to do it in His name and for His purpose, and that shows in the long run, the loving purpose that God has for all mankind. Yes, the Bible does show us some gruesome parts of real life in many different ways. But that's life, and that's there. But when it's understood in the context of the culture, and especially the plan and the purpose of God, then even those matters of extreme human nature can be understood, especially as God directs and foretells.
It is, also, something that we also should admit. People reject the Bible and these stories because they don't really want to admit that there is a God. And that's a convenient reason not to do so. There's a scripture in Acts chapter 17 that helps us to put all this in context and in perspective. In Acts 17, the apostle Paul was giving a sermon in Athens on Mars Hill, and he says this in verse 26: "That God has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitations" (Acts 17:26).
The God of the Bible is a God of history, who controls peoples and times and places, and the appointments of all people ato whatever they have come to. It's important to be patient with the Bible. Our viewer also astutely wrote that they were humbled when they look at some of the aspects of the Bible, even if they don't believe in the spiritual aspect and the supernatural parts of it. Well, if you're really to understand the Bible, we do have to understand that there is a supernatural or a spiritual dimension, that is God and His purpose and plan and what is behind the book. And that's the only way it can be understood. And with that, and patience, we can understand the Bible.
