I believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible Word of God. It is God-breathed. It is trustworthy. I don’t know exactly how He did it, but one way or another, God got Moses and Matthew, Peter and Paul, James, John and the other 34 or so writers to accurately put into words His will for human beings. And just to remove all doubt, I believe that the inspired volume contains — and is limited to — the 66 canonical books containing what Christians call the Old and New Testaments. Genesis to Revelation.
Now that my theologically conservative bone fides are forever more cast across the internet, here’s my confession: I don’t agree with everything in the Bible.
Before you skip down to the comments section to charge me with heresy, hypocrisy or paradox, allow me one more observation — you don’t agree with everything in the Bible either.
No. You don’t. But don’t take my word for it. Take God’s: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:8,9).
In some way, large or small, your opinion on some matter and God’s opinion are in conflict. You are leaning in one direction, God is pointing in another. Maybe it’s a moral or ethical issue. Maybe it has to do with your priorities or how you spend or make your money. Perhaps the way you treat people or how you think they ought to be treated puts you and God at odds. Your dispute with God could be the direction of your life. I mean, He wants you to build His Kingdom, but you’ve got a pretty good blueprint for your own.
Now, if you’re a Christian, you and God probably agree on more things than not. I’m completely simpatico with large swaths of the Bible. All those verses about forgiveness, for example — at least the ones that talk about how much God is willing to forgive me, (1 John 1:9; Acts 3:19; Ephesians 1:7). And I love the verses about letting the little children come to Jesus (Matthew 19:14), or how a righteous person is kind to his/her animals, (Proverbs 12:10).
There are others, though, that sort of scorch my grits. Like Mark 10:25: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.” Paul apparently agreed with that one; “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction,” (1 Timothy 6:9, 10).
Well. Maybe that’s true for some rich people. I’m quite certain that if I picked the right numbers for the Mega Millions drawing, I’d be insanely generous to the little people and kind to the staff.
Then there’s this one: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you,” (Luke 6:27, 28). Does God even know how hard it is to love some people? Can we just be honest here? If you’re black, isn’t it kind of hard to these days to love some white folks? Especially if they wear blue, a badge and a gun? If you’re white, aren’t you just a little tired of being accused of a microaggression every other day when you don’t even know what that means? Maybe you and God agree on this one, but I know a lot of people on both sides who are not quite ready to sign their names at the bottom line of that verse.
So, what do you do when you and God disagree? Do what Jesus did when he disagreed with God. He did, you know. How else do you explain his prayer in the garden? “Abba, Father. Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will,” (Mark 14:36). That seems pretty clear to me. Jesus willed one thing. God willed another. Jesus did not want to die on a cross, praying three times for God to find another way. But in the end, he trusted God’s will above his own and submitted.
If you and I agree with God on everything, there is no need for trust. We don’t have to take His word 
for it because we already know what to think or decide or do. It’s those areas of our lives where our opinions and God’s diverge that we need trust. Trust that He knows better, that He sees more clearly, that His thoughts are higher than ours.
After trust comes submission. Submission is when we do a thing God wants done even if we don’t see the sense of it. Even when it makes no earthly sense at all. Like stepping into the sea expecting it to part or striking a rock to get water or forgiving someone who sinned against you. Submission is the verb form of trust. It’s the action we take because we trust the One telling us what to do.
There is some gospel, some good news in this way of thinking; the more we trust and submit, the more we come to think like God. Not only do we begin to see that He really does know what He’s talking about, but we begin to talk and act and decide like He does. We discover that we disagree less often.
I read it in its entirety. Question: Is it that you or I disagree with what is in the Bible, or is it we wish it wasn’t in the Bible?
Amen Jody, I agree with every thing you said……except “scorch my grits”…… Really!
So basic…so true…so hard!
Congrats on the new job! Hope the move went well. I read all your writings and enjoy them immensely. Always looking forward to the next one.
Wow, I just came across this and after reading it I was thinking it was written today. I noticed it was 2015. I mean the whole reference about the blacks and cops. Seems after 5 years nothing has changed. More of a reason for me to believe that your whole notion about gods word is a lie. All these people fighting for this change and yet nothing has. Nope sorry I can not bring myself to believe there is any such god as he lets children suffer day in and day out. Rape, incest, starvation. If there is a god and he continues to allow such atrocities Im not with him, so I guess you can say I disagree with him and I do not submit to him. what I do belive is human’s are in control of thier own lives and wether you live it in a peaceful manner or coflict pain on others is totaly your choice and doing. Only you have control of you and your actions. The ultimate punishment is when you die, can you die with a clear conscience that you lived your life fully, and in a respectable manner with no regrets. Can you die in peace knowing you did not commit any displeasure or pain to another, if not you die in agony that you can not recuperate that loss. Some Im sure will not, having no remorse and hopefully die alone and in pain themselves.
Hi Deb. Thank you for commenting. And I really mean that. If people who disagree cannot share their thoughts with one another in a mutually respectful way, we haven’t much hope. I share your frustration with the shape the world is in. And I agree with you that humans are in control of their own lives. That’s a big part of the problem. One of the story lines found throughout the Bible is that when people live their lives by their own rules, we make a mess of things. That’s basically the point of this post. When we do it our way, people get hurt. When we do it God’s way, people are blessed. So where is God in all this? Again, the story the Bible tells is that God came to live among us in the person of Jesus. By the way he lived his life, he showed us how to live our lives. By the way he died, he showed us that God loves us enough to enter into our suffering (so we know we are not alone) and to provide a way for us to escape the condemnation of a selfishly lived life.
To say nothing has changed simply isn’t true. People change daily. Unfortunately some people allow the evil they see around them to change them too, into something less than what they were. Don’t let the evil around you make the love in you grow cold. Your comment about all the horrible things going on in the world, which must mean God doesn’t exist. I imagine God wants to know why we are in the middle of all this suffering and we aren’t doing something about it. If God eliminated every thing evil we wouldn’t exist. The first time you lied, stole a piece of candy, hurt someone that loves you, was too selfish to notice those in pain around you. Poof, out of existence. He gave us this earth and told us to take care of it and everything on it. But we have chosen to take care of ourselves and ignore everyone else. We have gone our own way, that’s what has caused this. The answer can’t be keep going our own way, it has to be abandon our ways that have PROVEN to not work, look around, you know that’s true.
Good article. I hope you and the writer have a blessed year. We can choose to rise or fall, win or lose, but whatever we choose, we will do it together.