The Word: The Foundation of Revival
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the July 20, 2013
Sabbath School Lesson
“In the beginning was the Word…” John
1:1a “And God said…” Genesis 1:3a, NIV
We live in a
world where everyone has the potential to be connected with everyone else on
the planet through the internet. Through devices little bigger than a deck of
playing cards, we can access staggering amounts of information. We can verify
if something is true or false in an instant. However, we often fail to do so,
sending on spurious information with little effort to fact check. When this
happens, our great resource becomes nothing more than a faster means to spread
old wives’ tales and gossip. In spite of this, we find ourselves drawn into the
virtual world, even preferring it sometimes to reality.
In almost
every public setting we see individuals oblivious to their surroundings as they
sit mesmerized by a tiny glowing screen. The power of these glowing bits of
liquid crystal to hold our attention is so great that the devices are sometimes
prohibited at certain events, summer camps and in schools. We have all attended
meetings where almost everyone is paying more attention to these devices than
to the meeting.
Young people
used to have raucous gatherings with boom boxes and loud social interaction.
Now they often simply sit quietly with ear buds in place listening to iPods,
smartphones, iPhones and tablets preferring to stay plugged in to their virtual
friends rather than interacting with those sitting next to them. Certainly, some
still cruise main street with the mating beat of subwoofers emanating from
their vehicles, but these are “old school” and the heavy bass often falls on
deaf ears as mating rituals all too often take place online where cars and
their music systems only play peripheral roles.
All this has
dramatically changed how we obtain information. In less than a generation, we
have gone from books to bytes. While books are transitioning to digital formats,
some might question whether or not they will survive in the long term as
multimedia formats provide a more immersive and compelling experience. On the
other hand, are text messages a foretaste of things to come as words become
more concise yet still able to convey the intended meaning? Perhaps words may
evolve to pictorial symbols. After all, aren’t words simply symbols themselves?
As Christians
we place a great deal of emphasis on words and books. We especially hold the
books of the Bible in high regard. Some may even go so far as to practice a
form of bibliolatry. In such case, they may even reject the Holy Spirit if it
does not agree with their understanding of the Bible. This was the case with
many of the Jews in the time of Jesus. They truly worshipped the creation
rather than the Creator when they rejected the Source of the very scriptures
they claimed to obey. As the Israelites came to worship Nehushtan[i]
instead of the God who provided the healing through that brass serpent, so some
then and now worship the Bible instead of the God whose word it represents.
While the Bible may be seen as foundational to the Christian faith, there was a
time when even its earliest books did not exist.
Even taking
the most conservative view possible and assuming an earth only six millennia
old and assuming an early 16th century BC exodus from Egypt, we find
a vast period without a Bible. If Moses penned the first books as some might assert,
then there was a period of at least 2,500 years with no Bible. Perhaps there
were earlier writings. Maybe the Gilgamesh Epic and others made up that pool of
earlier texts, but they differ so much in detail from what Moses is alleged to
have penned that one might question whether there really were any uncorrupted,
reliable texts from which Moses could derive his account. Perhaps there was a proto-mosaic
version that predated Moses, but it has not been found.
In view of
this lack of evidence for a written tradition for the mosaic version, some have
maintained that there was an oral tradition that was passed down through the
thousands of years before Moses. While this may be true, it might also be cause
for greater concern about such an account’s reliability. Many of us have played
the game where a secret is whispered and passed from one person to the next
until the final person shares what they were told out loud. Often the final
telling differs significantly from the initial telling.
We see this
in more recent history than Moses’ day. During the medieval period known as the
Dark Ages, many, even among the nobility, could neither read nor write. Instead
troubadours and poets would carry about versions of significant events to
recite from memory. Oftentimes those recitals would begin with a litany about
their version being correct and troubadour A, B or C’s version being questionable.
Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a history of England that heavily relied on these
oral traditions but in spite of the significance of his work, we question the
historicity of his tales of giants and other mythological beings and events.
While some
may not consider this remarkable or worthy of concern when it comes to the
Bible, it may rise to the level of being so when a peculiar version or interpretation
of the Bible is idolized. When this happens and it is made foundational to the
faith of a denomination, sect or even an individual then that faith may stand
on shaky ground.
When an
understanding of scripture peculiar to the Roman Catholic Church that
maintained that the earth was the center of the universe was challenged, it
shook the church, and in order to defend its orthodoxy, the church persecuted
those who would challenge their preferred world view. While most modern
Christians would probably never challenge the present view of where the earth
sits in the cosmos, they are nonetheless manning the very same trenches over a
literal six day, twenty-four hour day creation. They also would roll back many
of the understandings of the cosmos already arrived at that challenge the possibility
of short earth history. Perhaps one day, some will look back at this time and
wonder why the Bible was placed over observation and experimentation in our
day. Maybe they will see little difference between the Christians of our day
and the Church of Rome that challenged Galileo.
So what then
is the role for the Bible in our time? Perhaps its greatest value lies in being
the history of a people’s search for understanding, a search that was
comfortable with maintaining a place for the unexplainable. When we consider
the infinite cosmos, our finite understanding guarantees that the unexplained
will always vastly exceed that which we know. Maybe it is important that we
reserve a place for those mysteries. The Bible offers a paradigm for doing
that. It offers a God who is everywhere at every time and thus omniscient and
eternal. What a great idea to entrust the infinite mysteries to Him.
In the meantime, some might feel threatened while others search for answers to those
mysteries. I doubt that God does. Some might want to use a peculiar perspective
on the Bible to stymie research and development. God, on the other hand, feels
comfortable saying, “Come now, let us reason together….”[ii]
He not only feels comfortable with us using our minds to grow in our understanding,
He encourages it.
The Bible is
a record of man’s growth in understanding the world around him over
approximately fifteen hundred years. Perhaps God did not intend that growth to
stop when the Bible reached the form we have it in today. While bibliolatry
might have us believe that nothing of significance happened outside the Bible
record before the Bible was written and would deny any significant ongoing revelation
today, we might wish to revisit that idea. Especially when it appears that God,
also, might not have agreed with the Bible at times.
One clear
example would be the story of Ruth. She was a Moabitess who married Boaz. The Bible
says that a Moabite could not be a part of the congregation of Israel for ten
generations.[iii]
However, David, Ruth’s great grandson, was chosen by God to be king over
Israel.[iv]
How could this be? Perhaps it is because the story of the Bible is one of a
progressive understanding of compassion. From the earliest times man has tended
to be violent and vengeful. However, as the Biblical narrative reveals, God has
intervened to redirect man toward a more compassionate relationship to others.
Isaiah, chapter 58, may be a high point in that understanding in the Old
Testament.
Jesus echoed
that sentiment in His life and His parables. Perhaps it is found in the New
Testament most clearly in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.[v]
If the Bible is foundational to anything, compassion may be it. If we could
succeed in replacing our vengeful vindictiveness with compassion, we might once
again find ourselves on the path of progressive understanding that the Bible
portrays. Isn’t that what revival is all about?
