Question

While some of the other Worldviews do offer some kind of explanation on how all things came about in the universe, the Christian Worldview is the only one that offers any kind of help and hope to humanity. The creation story found in the Bible is all about God, a being that was before all things, whom created this earth and everything on it. God alone always does what is good and right and perfect—the Bible calls him holy. God is the Creator of all things and He upholds all things. God’s sustaining providence means that every created thing depends on something outside itself for its origin and continuation. According to the Christian Worldview, this something is God. Unlike His creation, however, our Creator depends on nothing outside Himself for His existence. He is self-existent, having the power of being in Himself. We were created in time, and in God “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:22–34). God, however, IS. We know Him by His covenant name, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). There never was a time when He was not, and there never will be a time when He will not be. As dependent creatures, we rely on God for our standard of right and wrong, our knowledge, and much more. We know our place in the universe only when we realize that He is our Creator and we are His creatures. This distinction is fundamental to everything. Every act of sin arises when we forget that we are not the Creator and then attempt to live by our own rules. True understanding begins when we see that we are but creatures and owe our Creator thanksgiving and praise for everything.

Based on this understanding of Origins found in Scripture, and seeing that the Christian Worldview is directly impacted by these Scriptures (the Bible), the question I’d like to pose this week is: What happens if we see the Bible as:
1) A Rule Book?
2) A Compilation of Stories?
3) Moralistic Fables?
4) Motivational Sayings?
5) The True Story of God?

Answer 1

1. If we see the Bible as a rule book then it would emerge that our appeal to the Bible in matters of everyday conflicts as a direct source of authority would reinstate it as a divine rule book. This would lead to the assumption that the instructions within the Bible act in timeless fashion and are directly applicable to us for today. Those who believe in the word of the Bible will follow the commandments and examples set forth in Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

But some of these rules appear as unthinkable or outmoded today. For instance,following the example of the patriarchs and the kings of Israel would mean that polygamy would have to be a necessary social condition. Moreover, God commanded the Israelites to massacre enemies and this would breakdown the delicate balance of harmony in today’s world.

Thus, some of our  unease partly arises from the assumption about the Bible as a book of transcendent rules and which existabove history and are directly applicable today. A way out of this problem would be to see developments and changes in the story of the Bible as a story of our people and how the people of God evolved their understanding of what it meant to be God’s people. Seeing the Bible as a rule book for the 21st century would therefore mean noticing instances where people got the decision/action wrong, without thereby seeing that recognition as a rejection of the truth of the Bible. Thus it is important to see the direction of changes in the Bible as the writers and interpreters grew in their understanding of God.