"The Bible Tells Me So..." by Peter Enns

I heard an interview with the author on The Tom Woods show and HAD to have the book! I'm so glad I did. It was an eye opener. There were some chapters that, even though I had plenty more time to read, I just had to put it down and let it roll around inside my head for awhile.

Only one tiny criticism though. There was one part about Israel and a lack of physical evidence to back up some of the stories. In my opinion, a lack of evidence is inconclusive. It doesn't mean those things could not have happened. It just means there is no evidence. I'm more likely to get behind evidence to the contrary to a biblical story, than a lack. Besides, just because I have no pictures of the birthday party, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I'm not going to go into details about this book, but I will give a few of my favorite general quotes. For one, "The Bible - from back to front - is the story of God told from the limited point of view of real people living at a certain place and time." Don't get him wrong. He isn't saying the Bible is a myth or fiction. We cannot ignore what is written there. We cannot pretend that some parts don't exist. And we cannot ignore what we know about history and science.

"But God seems to be in the habit of working through normal channels, and the Gospel writers were normal storytellers of that time and of any time - they offered their perspective. Maybe this isn't a problem to be solved or avoided, but just more evidence of how God rolls."

"Cramming the stories of Israel into a modern mold of history writing not only make the Bible look like utter nonsense; it also obscures what the Bible models for us about our own spiritual journey."

"Some call that unhistorical clothing myth, and that's a perfectly fine word - as long as we remember "myth" doesn't mean "silly things we made up while on acid. Myths were stories that were part of ancient ways of describing ultimate reality,..."

"I want to align my expectations with the Bible as an ancient text and accept the challenge of faith: letting go of how I think things should be and submitting to God. There's an irony: the passionate defense of the Bible as a "history book" among the more conservative wings of Christianity, despite intentions, isn't really an act of submission to God; it is making God submit to us."

Oh gosh, there is so much more and it's so much deeper than these quotes. I'll tell a personal story. When I was in elementary school we had "released time education". It was an hour each week for those that had permission from their parents to go to a trailer off school property and learn about God. You could choose Catholic or Protestant. I went to the Protestant one. It was they only church service I knew when I was a kid. They told bible stories, gave us a little bible, sang songs. To be totally honest about it, I went because it got me out of math lessons once a week.

But as I grew up, those stories didn't cut it anymore. I wanted more. I wanted the deeper meaning behind those stories and there was no one to give me answers, or even point me in the direction of discovery. Church going people that I asked only told me that the stories were history and to be believed without questioning. As a thinking and growing human being, that just wasn't enough. I ended up walking away from God for much of my young life. But then I met my husband and his wonderful mother. I saw their kindness, patience, and love. I saw their relationship with God and wanted to know more about it. I thank God for that every day.

Which leads me to my final quote from the book. "An unsettled faith is a maturing faith. Christians often get the signal from others that if they doubt or struggle in some way with the Bible, their faith is weak." And I think that is where many people walk away. Our free-will and questioning nature, our longing to understand and connect, I believe, is what makes us "in God's image."

"God may be pushing us to experience him more fully, with us kicking and screaming all the way if need be. Feeling unsettled may be God telling us lovingly, but still in his typical attention-getting manner, it's time to grow."

If you're on the fence about God. If you feel something lacking in your relationship. If you don't feel a connection with the Bible or God, read this book. God might be calling you out to play!