It might rile some people to find an article about the Bible posted under the category “NEWS”. Most of us think that Bible stuff should be listed under religion. But quite often religion or its related holy books truly are news. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was huge news for example. And let’s be honest, the “war on terror” is all about the Quran vs. Western civilization. The fact is that the Bible has had an immense effect on the evolution of Western civilization and anything that effects our understanding or knowledge of it should rightly be considered news. Right now news is being made as our perspectives on the Bible are being changed by the slow release of discoveries from scholastic circles. These discoveries will impact the lives of secularists just as profoundly as they will religionists. So I say that if the Old Testament is old news and the New Testament is the good news it is about time we sort it all out and get down to the latest news.

If you have cable or satellite TV you may have noticed a lot of glossy analysis being applied to Biblical programming in the last ten years or so in the media. These treatments have all been simplistic, introductory entertainment pieces designed primarily to capture public interest. A lot of tip-toeing has gone on in the creation of these ‘documentaries’ as great care has been taken not offend believers. But I have noticed that producers have been getting ever so subtly bolder in the facts they dare release of late. In fact just about two weeks ago I heard one documentarian let slip the fact that there are actually two contradictory creation stories in the Bible (Gen I:1 – Gen II:4a and Gen II:4b – Gen II:24). This revelation of biblical fallibility would have been condemned as blasphemy just 20 years ago. But, hey, I saw it on the History Channel so now it must be true. Move over God; TV’s the new omniscient One.

Where do these sorts of facts come from and why are they surfacing now? Is this evidence of some sort of Leftist plot to discredit the Bible and undermine Judeo-Christianity? Who digs up such facts and how do they find their way to popular media?

It does look suspiciously like a Leftist attack on the Bible but believe me no Leftist ever had the stomach or intellect to get so deeply into Scriptural study that he could learn the hard facts that reveal the structural make-up of the Bible. The facts that are beginning to seep out these days were actually dug up two and a half centuries ago during the “age of enlightenment” by a number of independent free thinkers. These men were vital to the establishment of a new field of academic study called Critical Bible Scholarship. If a conspiracy has existed at all it has been a plot by the religious establishment over the last two and a half centuries to suppress the discoveries made in critical scholarship and keep them from ever seeing the light of day.

What kind of secret discoveries am I talking about? Well the most basic secret is so elementary that it is stunning in its simplicity. But at the same time it is impossible for most of us to grasp in REAL terms. Discovering new truths about the Bible is as simple as changing its definition. That’s all critical scholarship actually is; a field of biblical study that bases its investigation on a new definition of the Bible.

You may know the traditional definition of the Bible:

The Bible is a book…
…written by men…
…who were inspired by God.

Of the three parts of the traditional definition of the Bible only the first two are facts. The third part is not a fact – it is a statement of faith. How can anyone know that the authors of the Bible were inspired by God; especially when no one knows who those men were? The only way to know if the traditional definition of the Bible holds water is to find out who wrote it. And if we are going to embark on that great search it is essential that we work with an absolutely factual definition. The same way any science proceeds. In other words we must start from the position that we be wedded to the only facts we have:

The Bible is a book…
…and it was written by men.

As simple as this may sound it is an extraordinarily difficult process for those of us who have been indoctrinated all of our lives to accept the traditional definition of the Bible. We are not in the habit of seeing the minds of men in the words of Scripture. We have always been told that they are the words of God. And if we are to accept that God is the real author of the Bible you can imagine our astonishment and wonder that God would inspire Mark to record Jesus’ last words as:

“My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?”

Or Luke to record Jesus’ last words as:

“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Or John to record Jesus’ last words as:

“It is finished.”

At best only one of these “quotes” can be correct. We know that God does not make mistakes or embellish the truth. Something else is at work here and throughout the Bible. The information that has been discovered by critical scholars and sequestered for centuries has arrived at its point of inevitable release. You’re going to see it all soon enough. Or you can see it now by looking through my past posts.

More to come.