Is it just a book?

The other day, I came across an article or blog about the Bible. It is entitled ‘My Problem with the Word “Biblical.”‘ The author claims that he has a problem with the word biblical, in that we use the Bible as a rule book.

Here are few quotes from the article that I want to focus on:

“And so this idea that the Bible presents a comprehensive guide for relationships that is Biblical is, in fact, not a Biblical idea. Nor is it “biblical” for us to use the Bible as a guide to understand science. Or psychology or finances or a guide for how to build a church. In fact, our desire to use the book as an end-all be-all for all things earthly and spiritual is a misuse of it.”

He writes “Imagine reading a newspaper article from a century ago, bound with a series of love letters and the score of a musical and then trying to interpret that compilation as a comprehensive guide for living life, studying science and establishing democracy. That’s what we tend to do with scripture but that’s not what God intended for the book.”

And lastly: “So what is the Bible, then? In my opinion, it’s a book that is God breathed, which is a mystery and a paradox that makes more controlling teachers insecure. And yet that’s all it ever claims to be. I miss studying the Bible as a wonderful piece of God-breathed literature. I think when we turned it into a book of rules, facts and absolutes, we killed its beauty. We killed something that was once alive so we could control it and make it serve our will.”

So, after reading this, I wasn’t exactly sure what to think. Now, I do believe the author makes some good points, in that we use the Bible to defeat any argument that arises and more likely than not, we use verses out of context to suit our needs. But I do want to set some things straight and clear up some thoughts I have on this.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16

In the above verse, Paul is writing to a young man named Timothy, in the passage Paul clearly states that all Scripture, that is everything written before and that which is to come, is breathed by God, given by Him, in order to teach, to disapprove of, correct one, and train people in righteousness.

In Galatians 1:11-12, we see that Paul received the Gospel from Jesus Christ, in 2 Peter 3:14-16 we see that Paul was given wisdom by God to write what he did, and in Romans 15:4 we see that everything written before was written for us to learn from and instruct others!

So, what is the Bible, then? The Bible is not something that may be true. It is not just a piece of literature used to read it to our children for a bedtime story. It is not some post-modern idea in that we only pick and choose what we want out of it. It is God given for us to use in our lives, to love God, to love others, to obey His commandments. We are never to use the Bible for our own will, but for the will of God.