Biblical Interpretation

Good to see you back. I am sorry to say that I am still not feeling all that well. Though over the last two days I had brief periods where I felt like I was getting better before an invisible truck hit me. If I disappear, it's because this horrid flu has overtaken me again. I haven't been this sick in years.

Biblical interpretation is a wonderful thing. I have never understood why Bible literalists call themselves literalists, as though there is only one literal interpretation possible. I think of myself as a Biblical literalist but find that my literal interpretation of the Bible is very different from other 'literal' interpretations of the Bible. Which is the whole problem with some forms of Christianity claiming to follow 'the truth.' Which literal interpretation is then true?

We sang "Onward Christian Soldiers" as well - but we had a very different interpretation of it. Let me quote it below:

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!

2. At the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee;
on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

3. Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we, one in hope and doctrine,
one in charity.

4. Crowns and thrones may perish,
kingdoms rise and wane,
but the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail;
we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail.

Refrain: Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.

To me the song has always applied the discipline associated with the armies of this world to the life Christians ought to lead. Christ is our 'royal master' - not the kingdoms of the world. We fight not flesh and blood, but the powers and principalities of the darkness referenced in Ephesians 6.

The New International Version of Ephesians 6 reads: 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

We are told in the Bible that the ruler of this world is Satan, the evil one. In Ephesians 6 we are told specifically, no matter what translation is used that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Paul also uses the army metaphor here - but instead of telling us to gird ourselves with earthly swords and shields, we are told to arm ourselves with truth and righteousness - and the gospel of peace.

As far as people like policemen are concerned, as you know, one of my brothers is in the police force. And I love him and I hope he is never hurt and never has to hurt anyone else. I'd be perfectly fine if he had to give his own life in cause of saving someone else's life, as in hypothetically throwing himself across a train track to push some little or big kid out of the way. But he has to come to that realization by himself. He knows the theology so there's no need for me to bug him about it night and day.

But theologically, the policemen and soldiers of this world govern a world that Christians are not a part of in that way as in when Jesus said to one of his disciples, "Let the dead bury the dead." Let the non-believers of this world whose only hope is this life govern this world. It is not our eternal home.

I don't believe that Christians serving in the armed forces or in the police forces make this world one little bit better than non-Christians doing the same job. Christians make a world better by turning the other cheek, by giving up their clothing to one who has none, by visiting those in prison, by giving food to a hungry person. By seeing the face of the Lord in everyone they meet. Christians should have no one they see as an enemy.

You once quoted C.S. Lewis on his views on pacifism. It is generally held by scholars that that is weakest argument C.S. Lewis ever came up with in his apologetics. The argument about pacifism versus non-pacifism in the cause of war and state always boils down to splitting your Christianity in two: as in yes, one ought to be a Christian on Sunday, but not on Monday when you go right back to shooting your neighbour because that's okay. He's an enemy of a state that will pass.

I guess that is why the argument still rages to this day as to just how much Christians ought to turn the other cheek, and still we are arguing about who our neighbour actually is - we really don't want to love our neighbour or help our enemy Samaritan. So we use semantics to try and prove Jesus didn't really mean what he said, or he didn't mean it that way.

In the beginning of the same Ephesians 6, it states:

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

In the not-so-olden-days and this was particularly the case in the US, that verse was used to promote the idea that God instituted slavery and whoever was against slavery was against the infallible word of God.

Not everything that is written in the Bible is written because it is good to live that way, or that it is preferable. The NT is not a book that tells us, like the Law of Moses, how to wash our dishes and how to clean our food, and how long to work our slaves and when to let them go.

Jesus preached the idea - love is all-encompassing as Paul wrote in his famous verse on love, which I won't quote here. From that we are meant to use our God-given brains and think about what that means to love our neighbour, to turn the other cheek, not to answer violence with violence. There is nothing in the Bible at all that tells us to develop a multi-personality disorder and to apply Christian standards of love only to the Christian - and more importantly to only to the Christian of our particular nationality and then to disregard everything Christ said, and go to war serving temporal powers that will pass away like smoke.

Slavery as an institution began to be questioned precisely because of Christ - and how we are told that in Christ there is neither slave nor free. The fact remained that we had to grow from being babes in our understanding and go from thinking that slaves were just a part of life and that was their God-given place in life because of the curse of Ham, to a grownup understanding that in Christ there is also neither Ham, nor Japeth nor Shem and we cannot hold our brothers captive. It is not Christ-like. When slaves are told to obey their earthly masters, God is being his gracious self, telling slaves who had every right to hate, not to hate. What kindness they had no reason to find in their hearts toward their masters, they could instead feel they were doing the work for God, with the faith that God knew what he was doing.

And what God did through his Holy Spirit was give understanding to the masters and where God's love exists, it is not possible to hold another person in bondage. That was the beginning of the end of slavery.

When Christians realise that that same love encompasses all human life, that God, who is not willing that anyone should be lost, clearly loves all human life, they will realise that Christians have no right at all, it is a sin in fact, though of ignorance (and arrogance) to take anyone's life for whatever reason, then we will be another step further to acting like we ought to.

After all, as you said, nothing happens that God can't stop in a minute. That includes wars. Therefore there is no need nor call for Christians to fight evil men in a temporal world. God has the power to stop it all as he stopped the storm on the Sea of Galilee, as he walked on water, as Peter walked on water until he was struck suddenly by his own disbelief at what he was doing. And Jesus said, "Why did you doubt?"

When evil men begin wars, and so often there isn't anything to say who the really evil man even is since evil men often masquerade as good men, the answer is that the same Jesus who walked on water and could have, but didn't, call an army of angels to his defence, says, "Why did you doubt?" Because, as you say, his will will be done.

Jesus preached a message of love, forgiveness and peace. He said the whole sum of everything he said boiled down to two things: to love God and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Who our neighbour is, he illustrated with the story of the Good Samaritan. Everyone is a Christian's neighbour - including an Iraqi soldier.

He completely overturned the eye for an eye idea of fighting that exists in the OT with that idea. He preached a new gospel, a new gospel that the prophets in the OT told us was coming, led by a saviour, who "was oppressed and afflicted,yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. "

Layla