The Bible (Part 2)

the Intro with Scott, Spencer, Marcy, Kyle,  and Todd

Cue the gang making all sorts of animal noises. Except for Marcy.

“Giraffes don’t have voice boxes. So when I’m silent, I’m doing a giraffe.” - Marcy

Kyle just buzzed his hair. He claims his new haircut gives him a fresh start and now he can do whatever he wants. This leads to everyone wanting to shave Spencer’s head...perhaps on a future podcast? He’s been growing out his hair for 10 years! Say goodbye to those glorious long locks, Spencer...

In other news, Todd spent a ton of money on a new furnace for his house, and realizes that means now he won’t be able to afford a different vehicle for a very long time. He’ll have to stick with his old truck he named Rocky...but “she’s a strong gal.”

Turns out Marcy is a boss. At the new year, she thought “New year, new me.”and signed up for 2 races within a week of each other. With little to no training, this weekend she is running a 5K and the following weekend doing the Spartan race. Good luck!

Kyle is injured and currently rocking a boot, after a day at Flying Squirrel.

“I just jumped from one trampoline to the other and found out I’m aging.”

Big news with Scott. He is officially an RV owner. He wonders if that means he’s old...

Spencer has a protip:  Keep floss picks in your car...it’s the best idea ever. He started doing this and it’s revolutionized his life. He can now floss throughout the day, and he wants everyone to know how amazing that is.

time to discuss the bible.

Now time to get down to the nitty-gritty of this episode: How we Zootowners view the Bible and some of its history.

Where did the Bible come from?

There seems to be this weird view that God wrote it in Heaven and then just dropped it from the sky. But the Bible was written by lots of different authors over thousands of years. As guys heard from God, they made record of it. For a long time, it was through oral tradition until it got written down. Specifically looking at the New Testament, there was actually a HUGE process of deciding what was actually from God. All of the New Testament authors were eyewitnesses of Jesus, so the Gospels were used as the deciding factor. If something didn’t line up with the Gospels and what we see in Jesus, it wasn’t put in the New Testament.

The early church didn’t have the Bible. In fact, much of the New Testament is a collection of personal letters that Paul was writing to the churches. Do you think Paul knew they’d be in a book someday? Kyle speculates that Paul didn’t know. He just obeyed God to write to the churches at that time...but God had a greater plan for it.

This leads to a little discussion about deconstruction, to which Spencer says: “I can’t throw out all the good that has come from me just trying to live what I’m reading about and how it’s applying to my life.” The Bible is real and honest and it spoke to that culture, and it still speaks to our culture today.

Is it the Bible speaking or is it the Holy Spirit speaking through those words? This is a question Scott wrestles with a lot.

The Bible didn’t even come together until 300+ AD. Instead, churches used the “Rule of Faith”. They had the Gospels, and then everything had to line up with Jesus’ divinity, the resurrection, the cross, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Other than that, a lot of other stuff was up for debate. If it was such a long period of time of not having the Bible, what importance did the Scripture actually have for those people? Do we put an importance on it that it was never meant to have? Are we fighting about some things that we shouldn’t even be fighting about?

Kyle thinks that since we have access to the writings, it’s worth studying and making an opinion, and determining where our faith lies in them. Yes, maybe there is too much pressure on it, especially since so much of humanity throughout history hasn’t had access to the Bible...even today. That doesn’t make their faith in Jesus weaker or prevent them from seeing accurately what the Bible would teach on certain issues. Since many cultures throughout history haven’t had access to all the Scriptures, it must not be as IMPERATIVE to understand and agree and be exact in what Scripture would teach. It comes down to faith in Jesus. In Western culture, we do have access to the Bible though. We study it and teach it, so we ought to be careful on its accuracy so we actually teach what God intended in those letters.

Do we worship the Bible? Can it become an idol? Can we get so wrapped up in what Scriptures are saying, that we miss the Spirit moving and what the Spirit is saying? Oftentimes, there seems to be something in us that wants to make sure we’re “doing it right” and we end up ranking ourselves above another person. We tend to think if we just repeat verses and say the right lingo, it somehow makes us "real Christians".  

The super religious people in the evangelical church maybe hold the Bible too high to some degree. To their credit, in their hearts they are trying to honor God…except it seems like it's by getting this Book right instead of by acting like Him.

Humanity has a tendency to take something that is good and of God and become so focused on it and make it such an integral part of our lives, that it does become idolatry. It’s worshipping the worship experience instead of the object of the worship. This happens with church, worship music, and preachers all the time...and it can happen with the Bible too. The intention of these things was to help us see Jesus, but then they end up being worshipped instead. The Bible is clearly how we see Jesus and the character of God, and because it draws us to Jesus...because it’s the vehicle...it can take the position of idolatry and then we end up worshipping that instead of the Jesus it’s revealing to us.

Is the Bible the main way that Jesus communicates to us?

Kyle is most confident that the Bible IS how God is speaking. Although, God can use all types of avenues to speak to us. He can use creation, Netflix shows, books, family, preachers, etc.. But when you open the Bible, you can be confident that God WILL speak to you. A Netflix show, He certainly can speak to you...but will He? The Bible is God’s voice to Kyle, but he knows that God is always speaking, so we shouldn’t neglect how he speaks to us in other ways.

Spencer adds that the Holy Spirit shows us things when we’re reading. So it’d be beneficial to be more conscious of asking the Holy Spirit to be the voice, and then combine it with the Scriptures.

Scott believes the MAIN way God communicates is through the Holy Spirit. Over a hundred times throughout the Bible, Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the giver of life.

After Jesus healed the guy at the pool of Bethesda in John 5, Jesus says (paraphrased) “You study the Scriptures to find life, but in them, you find me.” The religious leaders loved the Scriptures, but they were missing life and grace. In this passage, Jesus heals a guy who had been sick for 38 years...and the religious leaders weren’t happy about it! Instead, they were too caught up with concern of who told the guy to carry his mat on the Sabbath -- which was a big no-no to them. This is a perfect example of how we can almost completely override what God is doing just because it doesn’t fit nice and neat with the Scriptures. We end up missing the main thing.

The Bible is meant for us to know the Holy Spirit, which is inside of us. And He speaks through everything, not just the Bible. In John 14, when Jesus is talking to his disciples about how he’s going to be leaving them, he tells them that the Holy Spirit will continue to teach them and remind them of all of His teachings. Jesus taught them a lot, but didn’t conclude all of the things he could be teaching. And that’s why we have the Holy Spirit.

Kyle says that the Bible was written to transcend time and culture, but there are a lot of day-to-day decisions we have to make that we’re not going to find a black and white answer to in the Bible. “What movie should I go watch? What house should I buy?” Things like this are why it’s essential we have the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus magnified the importance of having the Holy Spirit because that’s how He would continue to teach us.

“Not everyone can have the Bible. Everyone can have the Holy Spirit.” - Scott

In the Bible, Paul says that God’s law is written on everyone’s hearts. He gave the whole world His spirit so the whole world would know Him. This leads Scott to believe that someone in the far corners of the world could be like “I don’t know what you are or who you are, but I want to know you...” and God probably works that out somehow, even if they don’t have a Bible.

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Scott agrees that, yes, Scripture is PROFITABLE for it. However, it does not say that it is the MAIN thing or that it’s ALL you need. You can find everything you need to know about how to live a good life in this book...but that’s not IT...that’s not ALL. The Holy Spirit is IT.

Todd points out that a common thread found among people deconstructing the Bible is the tendency to create a separation between God’s Word and the Spirit. He asks if we value what the Spirit is speaking, shouldn’t we value what He’s already spoken to us too? Because the Bible is God’s word...it is the grounding place and anchor. Some tradition has turned into religion, but some tradition is also very good. So he thinks there’s some arrogance when people want to throw out the Bible. We should be uniting them and bringing them together. God’s word is so much sweeter when we bring in the Spirit too. The Word helps us know God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

“The Word is not God. It is what he has spoken to us.” - Todd

Good point. It’s not Father, Son, and Holy Scriptures. It’s Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...

Scott rabbit trails…he asks, if we are led by the Spirit, what about when people claim that the Spirit will never say anything that contradicts the Bible? There’s some really weird stuff in the Bible. If someone did some of that weird stuff today (like impregnating prostitutes or eating poop, etc.), and claimed it’s because God told them to, the average Christian would probably abandon that person. Even back in the day, people were asking who that Jesus guy was that was breaking the laws. It all comes together though through your relationship with God. You have to press in to that relationship to figure some of these things out...it’s not just what you may have memorized in Scripture. So, if you’re looking to the Bible instead of the Holy Spirit for every single answer for your life, there’s going to be a lot of stuff you can’t find answers for.

Kyle says he couldn’t hold the Bible in a higher regard...but the Holy Spirit is clearly what God wanted us to have. He’s going to continue to speak to us today in ways that we can’t specifically find in black and white in Scripture. But when we have the opportunity, we should study the Bible...because why wouldn’t we? The Bible helps us interpret what the Spirit is trying to tell us. Sometimes we can hear incorrectly, so it’s good to make sure it lines up with the Word of God.

So how does the Zootown crew read the Bible?

Todd tries to read the Bible for about 30 minutes each morning. He likes to start his day with it because that time with Jesus affects his day. He also journals quite a bit as a way to talk to the Father.

Marcy was raised with the mentality that the whole purpose of reading the Bible was to memorize it, and she’s been trying to break out of that. For a while, she got into subjects...like studying jealousy if she was struggling with that. But now she is taking her time going through Scriptures. Currently she’s reading the Paul letters so very slowly. (For instance, she’s taken 3 months studying the wedding at Cana.) She says it’s been very helpful going through them slowly, rather than trying to read a lot quickly just to memorize it.

Spencer did the Bible in a year for two years in a row. He says that sometimes he would blaze through it just to get it done. He doesn’t regret doing the Bible in a year by any means, but he’s liked the way he’s going about it this year. He’s been spending more time on each Scripture and asking the Spirit what he’s supposed to read each day. He also recently found out about something called The Bible Project, a non-profit with online videos that help explain and understand the books of the Bible, which has been quite helpful for him.

Kyle has the type of personality where it’s helpful for him to set a goal...whether that’s doing the Bible in a year or setting aside a certain amount of time in a day. Otherwise he might slack off. Right now, he’s working through the Bible chronologically. He also keeps an ongoing journal on his computer for anytime he has a thought on Genesis through Revelation. And to top it off, he has it color-coded based on the translation he’s reading at the time. (Wow, Kyle.) Generally, he and his wife wake up at 6:30 AM to read the Bible until their kids wake up. He’s thankful that one of the privileges of being a preacher is that he gets to study the Word in depth throughout the week, which supplements wherever he’s personally at in Scripture. He’s always digging in deeper somewhere.

Scott reads the Word morning and night for about 20-25 minutes. He says he definitely MUST do it in the morning, or else it shows in his attitude. He sits for ten minutes before he starts reading to calm his mind and heart, and oddly enough, will often quote the Bible to get into the Bible. As he reads, he talks to God too.

An interesting point is made that sometimes people want to leave out the Holy Spirit entirely...perhaps because they think it can get too messy. There’s a book by Jeff Robinson called 15 Things Seminary Couldn’t Teach Me that talks about how it’s easier to be orthodox than it is to be loving. Also, oftentimes you can be right about certain Scriptures, but in your reaction to your rightness, you’re wrong in the eyes of Jesus. We’ve all done this. You can be right about something, but if you say it in the wrong way, you’re wrong. The point of the Bible is to show the mercy and grace of Jesus, so therefore we should go show that. It might not be nice and neat, fitting perfectly with “chapter 3, verse 17” or whatever, because every person and situation is different. But if we can get the heart of Jesus, we can act out the Bible in those situations.

Changing gears entirely...earlier in the episode, Spencer proclaims:

“I’ve always wanted to end a sentence with ‘I suppose.’”

And Scott tries to make Spencer’s dream come true by giving him a chance to close out the show with “I suppose”...but he didn’t catch on quick enough and missed his chance. Stupid, stupid. ;)