In today’s world we often hear:

“That may be true for you. But it’s not true for me.”

The shadow lie of “Relative Truth” has entered the world.

The “Absolute Truth” of the Christian Bible has been questioned by many, and found to be unbelievable.

7 Lessons From Job: Is Everything in the Bible True? – Part 4

The book of Job recounts the undeserved suffering of a man of God. Through his circumstances and reactions, what lessons can we discover to help us in difficult times?

A Quick Look:

Lesson 1)

God does not cause bad things to happen; however, He allows bad things to happen. 

Lesson 2)

We can question and complain to God. We can ask “Why God?”

Lesson 3)

We can express our negative feelings toward God.

Our feelings are real, even though our perceptions may be incorrect.

Lesson 4)

The Biblical interpretations of others may be unhelpful, even incorrect.

                 

A Summary of the Book of Job

The biblical story of Job is set around the time of the patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (also known as Israel).

The book of Job considers the problem of the suffering of those who, like Job, are “blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.” (Job 1:1 NASB)

However, his friends rebuke him for his unconfessed sin.

Job believes (as do all his friends) that the suffering comes from God.

Is this true?

Or has their perception, their interpretation, of events mislead them, and kept them from understanding what is true as seen by YeHoVaH?

7 Lessons We Can Learn From Job For Support During Difficult Times Like a Pandemic – Part 4

How are we to comfort and support those suffering from the horrific effects of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Well, first thing off the top of my head is, NOT like Job’s so-called “friends.”

But, really, do we do any better?

Have you heard (or said) any of these?

•  Everything happens for a reason.
• God is in control.
• God will not give you more than you can handle.

Biblical Truth During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Often, while attempting to give comfort to hurting people in trying times, many turn to what I call “Biblical platitudes.”

Zelfred, of The Grief Toolbox, says in Platitudes and Mis-Quoted Scripture vs Reality: What is Really Helpful?

Well-meaning Christians use “sentimental Christianity quotes” made up of trite platitudes that are designed to make people feel better because they don’t know what else to say.  While long on optimism it falls short on the ability to confront the real brokenness of people.

So what about those clichés?

Are they really in the Bible?

Are they really “true”?

Matt Smethurst in 5 Christian Clichés that Need to Die says

“God will not give you more than you can handle.”

… this motivational slogan is meant to encourage, to reassure us that life won’t be too hard. There will be challenges, sure, but God knows my limits. …

The problem, however, is that God will give you more than you can handle. He’ll do it to make you lean on him. He’ll do it because he loves you.

Is Everything in the Bible True?

Often, these platitudes are, at the least, unhelpful. And at the worst, unbiblical and hurtful in themselves.

Matt Smethurst continues:

“God helps those who help themselves.”

I’m not aware of a statement more commonly misidentified as a Bible verse. And the fact that it originates from Benjamin Franklin—not God’s Word—is the best news you will encounter today.

If God only helps those who help themselves, we’re all sunk. … the entire message of Christianity hinges on the fact that, as Charles Spurgeon once quipped, “God helps those who cannot help themselves.” Indeed, he helps those who humble themselves, who repent and rely on Jesus alone.

The Rev. Cassandra Carkuff Williams, in Pandemic and Platitudes, calls out the emptiness, insensibility, and uselessness of platitudes in 2020 when she writes

Platitudes are tempting but not beneficial. …This pandemic has pulled back the veil of our cliché-ridden faith and reminded us of what most of the rest of the world knows: life is hard, circumstances are unjust, children die, and simplistic religion is valueless.

Pandemic and platitudes

How have these not-Bible-based platitudes become “true” for so many?

I don’t know.

But I do know the Bible is open to interpretation.

And anyone who thinks they have the “one true interpretation” is mistaken.

Lesson 4)

The Biblical interpretations of others may be unhelpful, even incorrect.

I like what Jeremy Myers of Redeeming God says in 10 Christian Clichés To Avoid Like the Plague.

God said it. I believe it. That settles it.

In other words, “I just believe the Bible.”

Riiiiight. Me too.

So when we disagree, who is correct?

[…] my concern is that when most people say “The Bible says” what they really mean is, “My understanding of the Bible says…”

Any Bible student who has read more than two books on any subject in Scripture will be aware that different people read various passages in Scripture in different ways.

Settling theological or ethical debates is not a matter of just quoting Scripture.

We need to actually understand what the Scripture says in its various contexts, and then bridge the gap between those contexts and our own.

In this process, there are thousands of possible ways to go astray, and so in many areas of theology and Christians ethics, what we believe must be held with a degree of humility.

10 Christian Clichés To Avoid Like the Plague by Jeremy Myers

So …

back to …

Interpreting the Bible

 

Question: Is everything in the Bible “true”?

Answer: It depends.

 

“Depends on what?” you may ask.

Before that which is “True” and that which is “Truth” can be discussed, the terms must first be defined.

 

What is meant by “True” and “Truth”?

 

I think there is a difference between something that is considered to be “True” and something that is considered to be a “Truth,” a Biblical “Truth.”

 

What is “True”?

In Greek, “true” is

alēthḗs ²²⁷ (an adjective, derived from  a¹ “not” and lanthánō²⁹⁹⁰, “unnoticed, concealed”) – true, as it accords with fact (reality), i.e. attested because tested – literally, “what can’t be hidden.” See alētheia²²⁵ [truth].

To me:

• Whatever is “true” is related to being factual.

It is something; or it is not that something.

It is true; or it is false.

• Another kind of “true” is whatever is perceived to be “true.”

That is, what is true by my understanding may, or may not, be true to you and your understanding.

(This is not about various religions and secular world views.)

• Also, something is considered to be (conditionally) “true” when there is no proof that it is not true. (This means that something could be proven untrue at any time.)

As a result, when we ask: Is Everything in the Bible true? we must consider what kind of “True” are we asking.

• Is it true (a fact) that it is told and written in the Bible?

Watch Out! Don’t believe everything you hear in church!

This is one that personally drives me crazy.

It’s when someone preaches about something as if it were true, as if it were written in the Bible, and it’s not in there.

For example, at two different churches, by two different pastors, each described the Temple in Jerusalem as having concentric circles of increasing holiness.

I was flabbergasted, with jaw agape!

Not once!

But twice!

Sorry, I gotta break it to you: BOTH pastors were incorrect!

While it is true that the Temple had areas of increasing holiness (set apart), the areas were (rectangular) courts of greater and greater holiness leading to the Temple itself, with the building containing the (rectangular) Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.  [1 Kings 6]

Second Temple Plan

Unfortunately, listeners in the congregation who are unfamiliar with the layout of the Temple Mount could come to consider the Temple to be something more like (the pagan) Stonehenge.

Stonehenge Plan

In addition, one of them described the Temple in Jerusalem as being built by King David!

This is what the Bible says about who built the Temple:

³ “You know that David my father was unable to build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet. ⁴ “But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune. ⁵ “Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name.’                                                     1 Kings 5:3-5 NASB

• Is it true that it happened the way the Bible says it did?

The Christian Bible is a book of faith.

And, as book of faith, it has to be taken on faith, by people of faith.

By faith, Christians believe the Holy Bible to be the Spirit-given Word of God, the revealed Word of YeHoVaH.

However,

This does NOT mean that we, as mere humans, can’t misunderstand, misread, misconstrue,  doubt, question, disbelieve, and mistranslate the Bible.

No interpretation of the Bible, whether ours or that of someone else (no matter how many letters are after their name) is God’s truth, God’s whole truth, and nothing but God’s truth.

Yes, the Bible is important.

• Please read it.
• Please study it.
• Please apply it.

It is the inspired Word of God.

But MORE important than the written Word is The Word, The Logos, The Son of the Father.

MORE important than the written Scripture is our King and Savior – Jesus the Christ.

MORE important than the Holy Bible is our relationship with Yeshua the Messiah.

lógos³⁰⁵⁶   G a word, being the expression of a thought; a saying.

Lógos³⁰⁵⁶  (“word”) is preeminently used of Christ (Jn 1:1), expressing the thoughts of the Father through the Spirit.

As Jeffery Curtis Poor writes in Everything in the Bible is True… BUT

The Bible is not the center of Christianity, rather it is written about the center of Christianity: Jesus.

Everything in the Bible is True… BUT

• Are the perceptions of all of the people, as recorded in the Bible, true?

Regarding this type of true, the book of Job is full of perceptions that are untrue.

Job’s friends continually speak their opinions of what is true, but they are wrong in their thinking.

Eliphaz the Temanite (Job 4:7-9 NASB)

Zophar the Naamathite (Job 20:4, 29 NASB)

Bildad the Shuhite (Job 18:5, 19, 21 NASB)

Even Job is incorrect when he says, The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. (Job 1:21 NASB)

As pointed out in Lessons From Job: Is God to Blame? – Part 1  Job’s belief that YeHoVaH was the source of his suffering was incorrect.

The Bible is  a collection of the stories of sinful humans making their way in a sinful world.

And, it is story of the loving Creator, Who seeks to show them the way to be reconciled with Himself.

As Chris Goswami puts it in Is the Bible True? 3 Things You Need To Know:

Some parts of the Bible were never meant to be “true” …they record accounts of human faults as warnings, lessons.

Is the Bible true? — 3 things you need to know

What is Biblical “Truth”?

All of what is written in the Bible is not “True” in the sense of being a Biblical “Truth”

³⁸ Pilate said to Him [Jesus], “What is truth?” [in Latin, Quid est veritas?]                                                   John 18:38a NASB

Again, I think there is a difference between something that is considered to be “True” and something that is considered to be a “Truth,” a Biblical “Truth.”

Each Biblical assertion must be read in context to determine if it is saying something that is “True” and/or meant to be a Biblical “Truth.”

Biblical Truth, i.e., Bible-based Truth, is the ideas and concepts, the dogmas and doctrines, that are basic to our Christian faith.

Unfortunately, as can be seen by the number of denominations of churches today, this “Truth” may or may not be the same “Truth” for all the followers of Jesus.

There are numerous online lists of “Truths” from the Bible.

Some are direct Scripture quotes. Others are understandings of Scripture gleaned over the millennia.

• 24 Bible Verses About God’s Word Is True
• 30 Irrefutable Biblical Truths About Jesus Christ Every Christian Must Know

Are we to depend on the Biblical interpretations of others?

Nonetheless, are we, like Job and his friends, to depend on the interpretation(s) of Scripture by others?

          

The Christian faith is called a “personal” faith.

This is NOT because it is a faith for oneself, to be kept to oneself, as the world wants to define the term.

No. the Christian faith is “personal” because each believer, follower, disciple, disciple-maker, has their own personal relationship with the Father, through the Son, via the Holy Spirit.

This does NOT mean that we, as mere humans, can’t misperceive, misunderstand, misread, misconstrue, doubt, question, disbelieve, etc. the interpretation(s) of the Bible, whether ours, or the interpretation(s) of others.

God points out this type of wrong thinking to Job’s friends, and thus to us.

⁷ … the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.                                                                           Job 42:7 NASB                                                       

And, as the examples above, the errors that I was taught in church from two different preachers.

So,

How Are We to Respond to the Truth of God, as Revealed in the Bible?

Through the Bible’s narratives, we are told both what to do, as well as, what NOT to do.

• Are we to follow the example of the 10 spies who entered the Promised Land, found it flowing with milk and honey as YeHoVaH had said, and yet were afraid to enter and fight the foes that God had promised to give into their hands?

²⁷ Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸“Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

 ³⁰ Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” ³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” ³² So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.                                                       Numbers 13:27-28 NASB

• Are we to follow the example of the Pharisees who “pay the tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb” but do not mete out justice or show the love of YeHoVaH?                                     

⁴² “But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.                                                   Luke 11:42 NASB

Or,

• Are we to respond as the Bereans did?

¹¹ Now these [the Bereans] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.                                                   Acts 17:11 NASB

I think each believer, follower, disciple, disciple-maker should be a Berean.

I think we are to check it out.

I think the best “Biblical Truth” is the Truth that each person receives from the Word of God, as revealed by the Spirit of God.

This received Truth cannot be misaligned with the rest of Scripture nor be beyond the counsel of more mature disciples.

But I think Biblical Truth must be experienced, made real and true for oneself, by and through the Holy Spirit.

I think no one should take the meaning of Scripture as interpreted by someone else as the total sum of God’s Truth.

That is, each person is to read, study, and question Scripture, for themself.

[Note for the grammar police: This is the form I use. You use the form you want to use.]

Hence my tagline,

It’s okay to doubt if you check it out!

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[T]he best “Biblical Truth” is the Truth that each person receives from the Word of God, as revealed by the Spirit of God.

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Think On This

Is the Bible “true”?

Or, perhaps some of the recorded words of the people in the Bible are only true in their limited perception, from their human perspective?

 

What if we are to concentrate on the Biblical Truths, as revealed by the words of God as found in the Word of God?

²³ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. ²⁴ “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.                                                         John 14:23-24 NASB

What if we are to live by the teachings of the Word of God – the Son of God?

¹⁵ “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.                                                         John 14:15 NASB

What if we are to depend on the leading of the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth?

¹³ “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak …                                                    John 16:13 NASB

Consider what is “True” and what is “Truth” in the Bible yourself.

As a child of the Father, you are, among other things, chosen, you are loved, you are a new creation, and your sins are forgiven.

 

So,

What do you consider to be “True” in the Bible?

What do you hold as Biblical “Truth”?

 

Have you ever questioned a teaching (an interpretation) of the Bible?

What happened when you asked your questions?

• Were you shot down?
• Did you find what’s “True”?
• Were you led to “Truth”?

As always, you can use the comment box to ask me any questions you may have.

[Remember! The only stupid question is an unasked one.]

 

Don’t keep wondering.

Ask, and together we can …

Check It Out!

Blessings,

 

TLThomas

 

It’s ok to doubt, if you check it out!

Be a Berean!

 ¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.                   Acts 17:10, 11 ESV

Please join me in this journey of discovery.

• Leave a comment, or ask me a question.
• Share this blog with others, whether they are doubting, or not.
• Take what I say and CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF!

Next time, the 7 Lessons From Job will continue with the question:

“Who Are We Compared to God?”

 

See also

Is God to Blame For the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Suffering? – Part 1

Can We Question and Complain to God About the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Suffering? – Part 2

Is It Wrong to Be Angry at God About the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Suffering? – Part 3

 

TLThomas ©2021