Rob Bell's WHAT IS THE BIBLE? may be a beacon of light when it comes to PARTS of the Bible being beacons of light. (The good parts.) It is strange and wonderful to me how the Reverend Bell approaches the Bible through belief in the stories, whereas I am more of a rules guy. I mean, he finds the same values in the histories, prophecies, and letters that I enjoy in the wisdom books and the Sermon on the Mount.
The thing is, with the stories, what is the rhyme or reason to embracing the progressive or moderate passages over the traditional ones? Meanwhile, with the rules in the places I mentioned, you aren't as led or misled to believe in holy wars or good slavery or divine revelation or miracles or demonic possessions or eternal hell's fire-and-brimstone or subjugating women or queerphobia or asceticism or self-castration or the hoarding of wealth or monarchism, et cetera.
To each one’s own!
Arguments:
“There are lots of words of God and you can and should listen to them all” (p. 267). In other words, there is nothing unique about the Bible; it is just one source, of a multitude, that is God’s word (see p. 173). “
—Kind of like: stop believing Jesus is God, leads to Jesus no longer being special? (“No one has seen God.”—1ST JOHN, Chapter 4.) But Jesus IS special, regardless of his divinity. The Bible IS special, regardless of its inerrancy or infallibility. Human doesn’t equal mediocrity! There’s a variety in the quality of choices we make, and of the things we produce.
“Bell believes, that there are not right answers or interpretations: “There are lots of ways to read it…you dance with it” (p. 81). But bottom line is that we sit in authority over the Bible, rather than it being in authority over us (p. 272).”
—Or are there shallow right readings, and deeper right readings? I mean, is it possible to learn three truths from one passage, and each lesson to come to us with a stretch of ten years in between? “Not right answers” sounds more like an argument of fear of ambiguity, not anything Rev. Bell was saying—words that the arguer put in Bell’s mouth.
“There is nothing new within its pages, although Bell promises a whole new way of reading the Bible. The author has merely refreshed and popularized this older, destructive form of approaching Scripture for a new generation, many of whom will lap up Bell’s poison to their detriment.”
—The Reverend wrote this book not to espouse any school of thought, but to turn our attention to old and new wisdom alike. He knows better than this arguer who forgets so many lessons taught by personal experience that—yes!—must trump parts of the Bible. God can’t always be smarter and mysterious as an excuse for ideas that cause great harm and suffering for us—see my list above. And the teaching that the arguer subscribes to would, because it isn’t experience-based, have us think miracles were just for the apostles in ACTS, whereas logic would suggest from “no miracles today” that the Bible may be shrouded in legend. He has experiences that he acknowledges (“no miracles today”), he just doesn’t base his beliefs on them (his Perfect Bible remains unscathed). But of course there is higher authority in the Bible, because whoever wrote it is leading our wise guys with its words. And hopefully leading us as well!
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About the author
Rob's internal conflicts sabotage his intent
I just finished this ridiculous book. At this point in my journey, I am probably even MORE open (heretic) and theologically loose than Bell, but it was still painful seeing his mind try to hold two conflicting views at the same time. He cannot fully release his need for the Bible to be inspired and true, yet he tries SO HARD to work around the passages that show it isn't. When you've built your fame and career on something, you'd rather lie into the mirror every day than admit the whole thing was a lie. He still wants to play church, he misses the perks, but he also wants something deeper. Two conflicting views. The end result is, this book is weak and awkward.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2025
- Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2017
Top reviews from other countries
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Cristina ZapataReviewed in Mexico on November 11, 2019
Si eres nuevo leyendo la biblia y quieres saber que estás leyendo
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Ione Brandão VazReviewed in Brazil on May 8, 2018
A revolutinary way to read the Bible
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Australia on March 1, 2018
Inspirational and Refreshing
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- Paul HazeldenReviewed in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2020
It does what it says on the cover
