Saturday, September 22, 2012

Dealing with Morally Objectionable Passages in the Bible, Part I: Why I accept the Bible as God's Word

Randal Rauser has been dealing with morally objectionable passages in the Bible at his blog the last couple of days (here and here). I thought I would offer my own thoughts on the matter here. I thought I would first begin with why I believe the Bible is God's word:

I accept the Bible as God's word for a few  reasons:
1) The New Testament accounts of Jesus seem to be historically reliable.
2) Based on these accounts, I think it is reasonable to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the Living God.
3) Jesus accepts the Old Testament (OT) as being God's word.
4) Therefore, I accept the OT as being God's word.
5) Much of the OT offers profound moral and spiritual insight into human nature.
6) Much of the OT offers satisfying answers to important philosophical questions.

However, there are parts of the OT that strike me as morally objectionable. So I struggle to find ways of dealing with these parts. If I didn't accept Jesus's authority about the OT, I'm not sure I would accept it (or at least those parts of it that I find morally objectionable) as God's word.
So I put the question of whether the OT is God's word as secondary. The first question should be: Who was Jesus?

2 comments:

Grundy said...

What about these accounts seem historically accurate to you?

Bilbo said...

Are you referring to the accounts about Jesus or the OT passages?