Reading the Bible Is not Rocket Science.  Or Is It?

By now it is an old statement, but every once in a while, someone still makes it:  “You don’t have to be a scholar to read the Bible.”

Well, of course you don’t!  

Reading the Bible is not rocket science any more than looking at the moon is.

I’ve looked at the moon all my life. I’ve had many thoughts about it, read lot’s of things about it. I have even taught my children things about it, bought them telescopes, and books, and maps of the moon. I’ve read about what some other cultures have thought about it.  I watched a rocket launch live in Florida. I’ve followed at least some of the moon landings. I’ve read about and watched numerous specials on moon missions.

I’ve even watched as there is an incomprehensible rise in the number of people today who don’t believe we ever went to the moon and that the earth is flat!  I know these people are either crazy, deluded, ignorant, or all three. However frustrating that is to me, it is always the people who know the least about something that have the most to say about it.  

Don’t base your faith on things that are not matters of faith—Christian history has shown that to be a common and huge mistake!

Even so, at no time do I ever think that I have to be a rocket scientist to have an intelligent view of and appreciate the role and function of the moon for life on earth.

However, if I decide to GO to the moon, that might be a different story!  Rocket science is going to have to come in at some point.  No matter how much I want to think that “Hey, since I’ve looked at the moon all my life, that is all I’m going to need!”—no matter how much I accept that, I’m just wrong! 

Living a life of faith is great!  That is not under question.  Nobody has to be a technician to have faith in Christ, to read the Bible cover to cover, or even the memorize the Bible beginning to end. But none of that will give anyone  knowledge of technical questions about ancient biblical manuscripts or biblical texts and things related. Not everything related to the Bible is a matter of faith;  we certainly do need technicians (biblical scholars) to address many things about the Bible. 

I often say to friends: “Don’t base your faith on things that are not matters of faith—Christian history has shown that to be a common and huge mistake!” There are a lot of technical issues related to the Bible that are not matters of faith. 

There is a difference between

(1) faith in what God has done in Christ, and

(2) things that others have decided to accept as fact whether they correspond to known or demonstrable criteria or not. (A long list of these things could be made.)

Quite frankly, I have no obligation to call the latter “matters of faith.” 

Not all questions need biblical scholars to address them.  Some do.