The Bible is vigorously employed by opposing parties in Christian debates, each believing that Scripture proves the validity of their ideas.  However, it is preposterous to believe that the Bible can be fairly interpreted in a way that sustains opposite viewpoints.  Many people sordidly misuse the Bible, in order to make its statements fit their ideas.  This misuse of Scripture is not usually intentional.  However, it is real.  Humans are so determined to be "right”, that they will go to great lengths to prove their ideas and justify their behavior, often making arguments that fall far short of credibility, integrity and honest scholarship.  We grant to all Bible students, integrity and sincere desire to know Biblical truth, as distinguished from theory and human tradition.  Yet simply appealing to "what the Bible says" is never an end-all to argumentation.

No human is able to rise perfectly above all the subjective factors that color everything we think and do.  No human can read the Bible through purely objective eyes.  All attempts to discover "what the Bible says”, and to defend one’s ethical or theological position on that principle, without at the same time admitting one’s personal, subjective contingencies, is spiritual elitism.  That spirit drove the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, and it is the driving force of all modern legalism.

If one admits to fallibility, one opens the door to the possibility that one’s very best efforts may not produce unquestionable truth.  Though difficult to do, we must all face every Biblical discussion on every topic, with the thought in the back of our mind that another viewpoint may be right.  Augustine had a point when he wrote, "Whoever, therefore, thinks that he understands the Divine Scriptures or any part of them, so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbor, does not understand it at all," (Christian Doctrine 1.35.40).

Any interpretation of Scripture that creates hurt, oppression or destruction to people’s well-being, is a wrong interpretation, regardless of how long standing the interpretation, or how traditionally respected it is.  The church’s historical, authoritative, and "orthodox" stance on such issues as race, gender and slavery has accounted for the persecution and death of many thousands of people over the last millennium and a half.  Traditional interpretation still denies to women their rightful privileges, and freedom in Christ to equal social standing, job equality, church ministry – in short the very things that accompany true, full standing in the human community.

Orthodox Church dogma defended slavery, even in the midst of the Civil war.  Racial bias still exists in the church, though admittedly in a lesser degree than was true in past generations.  Who can ever forget these religiously driven acts?

• The horrific tragedy of the Inquisition.
• The murder of innocent people during the Salem witch trials.
• The imprisonment and persecution of great Reformers like Martin Luther.
• The murders of hundreds of people at different points in history for their disagreement with prevailing church orthodoxy, including several whose great "crime" was simply to translate the Bible into the language of the common man and make it available to the public?

Genuine Bible study will always "build the double love of God and of our neighbor.”  The final fruit of all appeals to the Bible for authority, must be the fruit of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”, Galatians 5:22, 23.  These all pass the supreme test of love which is the foundation of all God’s laws.  When we ask, "What is the loving thing to do?", the preceding Scripture answers.

On the other hand, we know that our interpretation of Scripture is wrong if it produces the fruit of "enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and such like", Galatians 5:20, 21.

Bible students must always admit the possibility that the prevailing interpretation of the Bible may not have taken into account important pieces of data.  This is not egotistical.  It is an attitude necessary to fruitful study of the Bible.  One who does not suspect that something new may be found, has no reason to study.  Such a person can logically do only one thing: accept the results of other Bible scholars, trust one’s eternal destiny to their scholarship, and search no more.  This would mean that one’s conscience rests upon someone else’s interpretation of Scripture.  It avoids personal responsibility to study and determine for oneself, what one believes and chooses to practice.  This responsibility, stated Biblically, is "Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind" and "The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God”, Romans 14:5, 22, NASB.  On this principle then, all legitimate study proceeds on the presumption that there is more to find than has been found.

The phrase "Bible student" implies a person who explores the Bible with the expectation of finding what has not yet been seen, or at least, has not yet been made clear.

Does that describe you?