My Journey through Inerrancy

When I was growing up and going to Sunday School, no one seemed to question the idea that all of the stories we read in the Bible were historically accurate.  If Genesis said there was a flood that covered the whole earth, well it must have happened.  It's in the Bible, right?

The first time I can remember this being a problem for me was when I thought about the story of Eve and the "apple" juxtaposed with the story of Pandora's Box.  Here we had two instances of a woman messing it all up for everyone.  But one was from the Bible, and thus "true," while the other was a myth.  It got me to wondering, what other stories were like this?

In the days before Google and other internet resources, this was not an easy task, but I was a rather bookish child and had no problems spending time in our public library.  There I found stories of Gilgamesh and his flood; I read about the virgin births of Mithra and other incarnate deities; I read creation myths from other cultures and religions.  There seemed to be a great deal of overlap between the Judeo-Christian Bible and other ancient writings.

In addition to the literary front, there was science class to consider.  On the one hand, there was the assertion that the earth was around 6,000 years old; on the other, 4,000,000,000.  Quite the range.

While all of this was going on in my personal life, the denomination to which I belonged was undergoing a shift on the national level.  The moderates were being pushed out in favor of a more conservative understanding of scripture and theology.  This filtered down to our little church in my hometown, and I found myself increasingly faced with the choice between two loves: God and science.  Being a teenager, it should come as little surprise that I sided with the one that my parents did not.  Increasingly, I avoided church.  Even though I went to a denominational college for my undergraduate degree, I rarely darkened the door of either church or the college ministry that was so prevalent on my campus.

After college, I returned to my hometown.  And to my home church.  I had missed it.  Little had changed, which was wonderful with respect to the people and the love that I felt there, but terrible in terms of biblical hermeneutics.  So I bit my tongue and played along.  I even taught youth Sunday School and followed the party line.  Despite my misgivings about the approach to the Bible I encountered at church, I loved the church.  I loved God.  I loved the Bible.  I just didn't feel allowed to reconcile it with my love of science.  I was a professional hypocrite, saying one thing while believing another.

And then I was introduced to a wonderful girl.  And she introduced me to the Episcopal church.  And I fell in love with both.  I had found a person who could accept me for who I was, and a church in which I could hold on both to the faith I loved and to the science I believed.  There was a different way to read the Bible that didn't require their mutual exclusion.

I find it distressing at times that churches will declare themselves to be a "Bible believing church," as though other churches weren't.  Quite often what is meant is that other churches do not read the Bible the same way.  I have heard preachers say, "I'm not saying this; God is," as though they aren't happy about what they have to preach, but hey, what can you do?  As though Christian aren't allowed to think about what God says through the Bible to God's people.  Just accept it and move on.  Or reject it and burn in hell.  Your choice, sinner.

I see my ministry not so much as to convince biblical inerrancists to accept scientific evidence, but more about helping those of a more secular bent see that such a paradigm is not antithetical to Christian faith.  If you are a young earth creationist, that's fine.  I have no desire to shake your beliefs.  But if you have rejected Christianity because you associate it with narrow-minded bigotry, let's talk.  You have picked up a wrong impression about Christ and Christians.  One can reject biblical inerrancy without rejecting the Bible.  I believe that all truth comes from God.  Some truth  God reveals through the Bible; other, through God's creation.  Whatever the source, it is still truth.

When I stopped trying to make the Bible something it is not (at least in my humble opinion) it allowed me to be a Christian rather than a hypocrite.  My desire is that sharing my journey, which is ongoing, may help someone else in their journey.  All I can do is offer it up to God and trust that God will use it.