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Is the Bible one long legal rule book designed to control our lives until we get to heaven? Or, is there something more going on that we need to know about?
Hey guys, for this post, I want to continue looking at how heaven-aimed Christianity twists the Bible’s teaching and warps how we treat the Bible. You’ll remember that heaven-aimed Christianity is what I call a specific kind of Christianity. It teaches that God made us for heaven. It teaches that Jesus came to save us from the earth and take us to heaven forever. It teaches that an earth one day will no longer be part of our lives. It will disintegrate. The only dwelling for believers will be heaven.
That teaching is wrong. The Bible doesn’t teach that. It distorts the truth and causes a lot of people to mistreat the Bible. I’ve talked about three distortions already. Here’s a fourth. Heaven-aimed Christianity causes you to treat the Bible as nothing more than a set of rules until we get to heaven. How? Well, heaven-aimed Christianity implies real life, our ultimate purpose, awaits us in heaven with Christ. Since we experience sin right now and endure evil right now, the Bible exists as nothing more than a set of procedures for surviving in this thick, treacherous jungle. Once we have made it out of the jungle and into heaven, we can breathe a sigh of relief and get to what we were really designed to do.
Now this assumption is understandable. Here’s what I mean. If God gave us the Bible only to teach us how to get to heaven—which is what heaven-aimed Christianity insinuates—then what else is the Bible for once we know how to get to heaven? If learning how to get to heaven takes only two pages of information, why is the Bible fifteen hundred pages? What else does it have to offer? Those are legitimate questions. What Christian hasn’t thought that? Well, to follow the train of thought, the Bible must then convey God’s do-s and don’t-s for the here and now. Since real living is all about getting to heaven and since our world is so saturated by sin, then God has given us rules to follow in order to avoid sin and bide our time until we get to heaven—where we can really begin living.
This idea is perfectly understandable. The Bible is a long book. Sometimes it is complicated to discern how it all fits together. To boil it down to getting to heaven and living cleanly creates simplicity and clarity. But that is false because it is inadequate and insufficient. And here’s why.
First, the Bible conveys more than God’s do-s and don’t-s for the here and now. Of course, some of the Bible’s commands are only for the here and now and don’t apply to life in heaven after death. But the general aim of the commands is to cultivate the kind of people God intends for us to be as his representatives and reflections. Like loving instead of hateful. Truthful instead of deceptive. Responsible instead of lazy. Selfless instead of selfish. You get the picture. If the do-s and don’t-s in the Bible are primarily for the here and now, then they become a bit arbitrary, ornamental, inessential to our humanity. They’re like God’s personal preferences that we must align our lives with—regardless of how beneficial they actually are to us. But God’s commands are loving because he is loving. They’re for our good and they’re meant to shape us into the kind of people who have a vibrant relationship with him. Before death and after death. That’s the point. The whole thrust of God’s do-s and don’t-s aim at perfecting us into reflections of him in a profound relationship with him. And that leads me to the next point.
Second, the Bible invites us into a friendship. On the evening of Jesus’ arrest, he spoke with his closest followers at length in an upper room. He spoke plainly about who he is, why he came, what will happen to him, and what his plans are. We have what he said in John chapters fourteen through seventeen. In the middle of his conversation, Jesus told his followers, “Now, you are my friends because I have told you everything the Father has told me.” Jesus contrasted their new status as friends with that of a servant. Yes, Jesus is their master. Our master. A master doesn’t tell his servant why he is doing what he is doing. A master doesn’t have to explain himself to his servant. But Jesus explained himself to his disciples, and by extension, to all of us who read and cherish what the Bible says. If Jesus wanted us to be servants only, then the Bible would be only about rules. But it isn’t only about rules. The Bible is about a relationship. Treating the Bible like a rulebook is like going on a date and focusing only on the rules of dating and being a good date without actually focusing on your date, without actually enjoying your date, without actually connecting with your date. The rules of good dating are meant to foster a good connection. Likewise, with God’s Word. The commands he gives us, and they are important—Jesus said his friends are characterized by their obedience to his word—but the commands set up and foster the relationship, which is primary. And that leads me to my third point.
Third, the Bible is more about worship than rules—about a living relationship rather than stale religion. Jesus told an outcast woman in John 4 that the Father is looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. Worship entails acknowledging he exists, seeking who he truly is, and engaging him for who he is and on his terms. The Bible is God’s worship invitation. Of course, there are rules for engagement, but the rules fit within the larger purpose. That larger purpose is nothing less than giving the whole history and trajection of the world, nothing less than expressing who God is and what he is like, nothing less than inviting us to become whom we were made to become and be with whom we were made to be with. The Bible is about ultimate things. Rules fit within that umbrella, but they aren’t ultimate.
If you have always seen the Bible as nothing more than a rulebook, I hope this post has sparked some renewed interest in you to find out what it is all about. Thinking of the Bible as only a rulebook makes God like the Eye of Sauron in Lord of the Rings doing nothing more than inducing fear and demanding obedience for those in Mordor. That’s not what God is like. On the day when the Christian goes to heaven, he will see Jesus face to face. Until that day, the Bible helps break the barriers—offering something like a video chat or phone call—so we can cultivate that connection in anticipation of that day. I’m Aaron. Thanks for listening. See you next time.