Many of my believing friends pride themselves on "taking the Bible seriously", something that I too strive to do. The plain fact of the matter, though, is that many claiming to do so do not take it nearly as seriously as they claim to do.
Allow me to give a for instance...
Most of those who claim to "take the Bible at face value", and who congratulate themselves for always extracting its "plain meaning", are Protestant. I've rarely, if ever, heard a Catholic talk this way. The Protestant reformation is a Christian movement that we largely have Martin Luther to thank for. Yet Martin Luther, in his preface to the Book of the Revelation, wrote the following words:
"I miss more than one thing in this book, and it makes me consider it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic...I can, in no way, detect that the Holy Spirit produced it...My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christ is neither taught nor known in it."
I'm not saying that I agree with Luther, I'm just quoting the man. Now, why would this be important? Consider these closing words from the writer of the Revelation:
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; 19 if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (Revelation 22:18-19, NRSV)
Not only does the author warn that taking away from the words of the book will result in one’s share in the holy city being taken away, but that adding to it will result in one having added to them, the plagues described in the book, which include a "lake of fire", which many a literalist interprets to mean "hell", a spurious interpretation, but one held to by many, nonetheless.
So let's lay this out: According to what many consider "taking the Bible seriously", the very founder of the Protestant movement, Martin Luther, by taking away from, and possibly adding to, the validity of the text of the Revelation, will not only lose his place in Heaven (again a spurious interpretation) but will also earn himself a place in hell! He is the founder of the movement that so prides itself on taking the Bible seriously and literally, and yet, in his lifetime, spoke and wrote words that would, in this worldview, nullify his salvation. So, if the Protestant reformation and movement was founded by someone who amounts to a damned reprobate...why are we so confident that it's a God thing?
Do you see what I'm getting at here? If we really took the Bible seriously in the way that we claim then we would eschew the label of Protestant, and want nothing to do with the doctrines of the Reformation. After all, if many of them were concocted within the heart of a man whom our beliefs demand we say is burning in hell, how can we trust that what he taught and founded came from God?
Now, I don't really think that way about Luther, but if you take literalism as literally as many claim we must, then the very founder of the movement many claim "saved Christianity" was a reprobate, and anything founded by him is most likely tainted.
Again, though I don't agree with Luther on everything, I don't believe any of what I wrote actually applies to him. My point is simply that if you take the Bible the way that many claim, the very Protestant foundation upon which they stand crumbles.
You see, there is much more freedom in reading and understanding the scriptures than we've allowed, and it's high time we stopped dogmatically declaring that only those who understand it like us are "in". We must either affirm this truth, or be consistent in our beliefs, and consign our "hero" and "founder" to hellfire. If we're not willing to put Luther in "hell", then we're forced to admit that not even we take the Scriptures as seriously as we claim, or, at the very least, not as literally as we claim.
Let's allow for a little more grace and freedom in how we read and understand the Scripture. After all, Luther's eternal fate is riding on it.
Allow me to give a for instance...
Most of those who claim to "take the Bible at face value", and who congratulate themselves for always extracting its "plain meaning", are Protestant. I've rarely, if ever, heard a Catholic talk this way. The Protestant reformation is a Christian movement that we largely have Martin Luther to thank for. Yet Martin Luther, in his preface to the Book of the Revelation, wrote the following words:
"I miss more than one thing in this book, and it makes me consider it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic...I can, in no way, detect that the Holy Spirit produced it...My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christ is neither taught nor known in it."
I'm not saying that I agree with Luther, I'm just quoting the man. Now, why would this be important? Consider these closing words from the writer of the Revelation:
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; 19 if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (Revelation 22:18-19, NRSV)
Not only does the author warn that taking away from the words of the book will result in one’s share in the holy city being taken away, but that adding to it will result in one having added to them, the plagues described in the book, which include a "lake of fire", which many a literalist interprets to mean "hell", a spurious interpretation, but one held to by many, nonetheless.
So let's lay this out: According to what many consider "taking the Bible seriously", the very founder of the Protestant movement, Martin Luther, by taking away from, and possibly adding to, the validity of the text of the Revelation, will not only lose his place in Heaven (again a spurious interpretation) but will also earn himself a place in hell! He is the founder of the movement that so prides itself on taking the Bible seriously and literally, and yet, in his lifetime, spoke and wrote words that would, in this worldview, nullify his salvation. So, if the Protestant reformation and movement was founded by someone who amounts to a damned reprobate...why are we so confident that it's a God thing?
Do you see what I'm getting at here? If we really took the Bible seriously in the way that we claim then we would eschew the label of Protestant, and want nothing to do with the doctrines of the Reformation. After all, if many of them were concocted within the heart of a man whom our beliefs demand we say is burning in hell, how can we trust that what he taught and founded came from God?
Now, I don't really think that way about Luther, but if you take literalism as literally as many claim we must, then the very founder of the movement many claim "saved Christianity" was a reprobate, and anything founded by him is most likely tainted.
Again, though I don't agree with Luther on everything, I don't believe any of what I wrote actually applies to him. My point is simply that if you take the Bible the way that many claim, the very Protestant foundation upon which they stand crumbles.
You see, there is much more freedom in reading and understanding the scriptures than we've allowed, and it's high time we stopped dogmatically declaring that only those who understand it like us are "in". We must either affirm this truth, or be consistent in our beliefs, and consign our "hero" and "founder" to hellfire. If we're not willing to put Luther in "hell", then we're forced to admit that not even we take the Scriptures as seriously as we claim, or, at the very least, not as literally as we claim.
Let's allow for a little more grace and freedom in how we read and understand the Scripture. After all, Luther's eternal fate is riding on it.
