What questions do people have about the Bible?
Several times a twelvemonth, I accept part in Premier Radio's Mon morning telephone-in, hosted by John Pantry, in which people can call in and inquire any question they have near the Bible. It is both interesting and demanding, because y'all don't know what questions will be asked—and take no time to look anything up earlier giving an answer! The listening audience of Premier is slightly different from the kind of audition I am ordinarily working with, in that it volition include a larger chemical element of more conservative and Pentecostal listeners—but the questions asked offering some important insights into how people read their Bibles and the questions that arise.
These are the questions that were asked yesterday:
1 In Luke 17.37, what does Jesus hateful by saying 'Where a dead body is, there the vultures will gather'?
2. In the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal in ane Kings 18, Elijah tells the people to cascade four jars of water on the offer iii times. But it was a time of drought, and so where did the water come from?
3. Will at that place exist revival, as predicted by Joel 2.38 'in the final days' earlier Jesus comes?
4. In Mark 6.xi, the Authorised Version includes Jesus' saying about Sodom and Gomorrah, whereas the NIV and other modern versions omit it. Is this because of a concern for political correctness?
five. In Isa 6.one Isaiah says that he 'saw the Lord, high and lifted up'—yet John 1.18 says that 'no-1 has seen God.' How do we reconcile the contradictions hither?
6. Why did God brand skins for Adam and Eve if they had 'bodies of light'?
vii. When someone becomes a Christian, practise they then need deliverance from demons or have they all already left?
You might want to intermission and consider how you would take answered these questions!
If I had been given some find, and time to ready, I might have answered differently. But these are the answers I gave on the spot:
i I would need to wait at commentaries and consider all the options [I had in mind that the saying comes in a slightly dissimilar place in Matt 24]. Only we need to look at the immediately preceding verses. Jesus draws a parallel between the 'days of the Son of Human being' and the 'days of Noah'. In the days of Noah, people didn't know what was happening, and carried on with their ordinary lives, when all of a sudden judgement came (in the form of the flood) and took them all abroad. In the same manner, Jesus says, at the fourth dimension of his return, people volition exist captivated with their daily life and won't know what happens when all of a sudden they will be taken away in judgement. What Jesus is saying is the opposite of what is taught in the doctrine of 'the rapture' which originated with the teaching of J N Darby around 1832—and it is why Idesire to be 'left behind'. I think Jesus' maxim about the vultures highlights that fact that people will incessantly speculate about these things—probably to no avail.
two. I idea y'all might be request about the number of times water is poured—four jars, three times each, which makes twelve. And of form the altar is built of twelve stones, one for each of the tribes of State of israel, so this might suggest that the whole nation, every tribe, has had the fire of faith extinguished and needs rekindling. (Biblical authors are more than interested in numbers and in symbolism than nosotros oft realise.) In that location is a river along the base of Mount Carmel, but every bit you say, there was a drought, so it might well non accept been flowing. If y'all visit Israel, 1 of the things you will notice is that, in just about every ancient site, y'all volition see a sign for a cistern. One of the virtually spectacular is at Herod's mount fortress at Masada, by the Dead Sea, where at that place is a sophisticated system for gathering h2o into a serial of cisterns. So at that place would very likely take been a cistern near to the site of the cede, and h2o would take been fetched from there.
three. I promise in that location will be revival, and we should pray for it! Just in the Bible, revival is talked of as a renewing or refreshing or a bringing of new life, and can happen at whatsoever time. The verses in Joel you refer to exercise talk about 'the last days'—but they are 'the last days' that Peter refers to in his speech communication at Pentecost. In explaining to the crowd what is happening as the Spirit is poured out, he reaches for Joel and says 'This is that about which the prophet Joel wrote: in those final days…' In other words, we take been in the 'terminal days' always since Pentecost—and so we should e'er be looking for God to pour his Spirit out, and give us visions and dreams.
4. In its time, the Authorised (Rex James) Version was a skilful translation—only there were ii important differences from our modern context. First, they had many fewer manuscripts to wait at when decided on a translation. Considering of the growth of archeology, nosotros now have many more than ancient manuscripts to compare. As copies of the NT documents were made, inevitably some (minor) changes crept in—sometimes a scribe would think there was a error in a manuscript he was copying, and he would effort and 'correct' it. Second, because this has get more and more than important, the subject of decided what was the most likely original writing (called 'textual criticism') has become more adult. In this case, in Mark half dozen.xi, the parallel saying [in Matt ten.15 and Luke 10.12] does include the reference to Sodom and Gomorrah. But in Mark half dozen.11, some manuscripts include it and others don't. Which is more likely to exist the original that Marker wrote? We could imagine someone with the shorter text remembering the parallels in Matthew and Luke, and thinking that the shorter was an mistake, and 'correcting' it. But it'southward hard to imagine the longer version being 'corrected' past being shortened. So the shorter version is much more than likely to exist the original, and that is the manuscript tradition that the NIV follows.
five. Y'all are quite right to notice an apparent contradiction hither—and information technology is really quite widespread! Moses was said to have talked with God face up to face, and he and the elders of Israel sat with God and 'ate and drank'. And Jesus (in the Beatitudes) promises that the pure in middle will 'see' God. But what practice we mean by 'see'? (This is a very pertinent question in relation to the Book of Revelation.) Fifty-fifty in ordinary language, nosotros employ 'see' in all sorts of different means—'I see what y'all mean'; 'I all of a sudden saw the answer'; 'I can meet the sea'. Much of the time, the Bible is using metaphorical and visionary language. In Isaiah 6 (as in Revelation) it is hard to have this literally—how could God be 'high and lifted up' and accept his 'train fill up the temple' unless the temple's roof was taken off? The important thing is that, in the year that King Uzziah (who'due south name means 'God is my strength') died, that is, at a fourth dimension of change and doubtfulness, God is still the ane who is on his throne, and for Isaiah the truth of that was found in his temple presence. Scripture is clear that God is beyond homo comprehensive—we run across only in part—and that is why God is never actually described in Revelation, but simply referred to as 'the one seated on the throne.'
6. I don't understand the reference to 'bodies of light'—everything in the 2 creation accounts (in Genesis ane and 2) portray the first humans as just like us, formed from the 'dust of the world' (to which nosotros return in death, 'ashes to ashes, grit to dust') into which the breath of life from God has been breathed. God's provision of habiliment from them was a sign of his provision and grace despite the fact that they had done what he had prohibited.
7. When we come to faith, in many means everything has inverse. Paul talks of 'the new creation' (2 Cor 5.17) and it is striking that, in all his letters, he addresses his audience as 'saints', the holy people of God. In Romans 6, Paul says that in baptism nosotros are joined with Jesus' death—our old lives die—as nosotros enter the water, and that we enter the new resurrection life every bit we come up upwardly from the water. That, in principle, is our inheritance that we start to live by. And withal we still inhabit 'sinful human nature'. So the Christian life is lived between these two realities. When we come up to faith, in principle nosotros say 'Jesus is Lord' and so no other force or power has control over us. Simply in practice we still need to brand that a reality—so deliverance ministry is still needed for some people.
Do add fuller reflections in your comments below!
But these questions offer some interesting insights into how people read their Bibles.
Offset, in that location are all the same plenty of people in our churches who pay careful attention to what Scripture says—for which I am very grateful! Last Sunday I was talking to someone who has joined us in the concluding year from another large church building, and when I asked how she is finding is, her first annotate was 'I am enjoying the biblical preaching'. Our congregations are total of people who take the Bible seriously, and desire to be fed. I was specially struck by the question about h2o in 1 Kings 18—which demonstrates a fully imaginative entering into the details of the story. If we don't do our homework, and take time to expound and explain what Scripture says and how information technology applies to their lives, nosotros are selling them short.
The second ascertainment follows from the first. If people are reading their Bibles, then they volition become enlightened of the challenges and questions that ascend. The nigh interesting question from this point of view was the 1 about 'seeing God'. Hear, the listening has noticed an credible contradiction beyond two quite different parts of the Bible, and wants to know whether they can be resolved. In my feel is only isn't the example (as sceptics ofttimes claim) that Christian readers of the Bible are credulous and unquestioning. Just it is true that they need some help in resolved questions and tension.
Thirdly, alongside that, some faithful readers of the Bible might well take an 'eccentric' view—in the literal sense of the word, reading 'off centre'. I was fascinated that the offset question was most a rather obscure saying of Jesus in passing, when the really big questions centre on the immediately preceding verses. And I recollect the questions virtually Joel 2.38 and deliverance from demons are of import questions but ones that are answered by looking at the 'big picture', the more central bug of Christian theology.
Fourthly, this is the fourth time I have taken part in this phone-in; in that location is never a shortage of questions, and so far the same question has not come upwards twice. So people who read the Bible do have questions, the questions thing to them, and possibly this shows that their local churches don't always provide the space for the questions to be asked. And I recall it is fair to say that the questions are quite enervating. Does the theological training of our leaders equip them to answer such things? And do we provide the opportunity for the answers to be explored?
Do make a comment, observation or question below—especially if you have not done so earlier!
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