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MY FEAR OF GETTING IT WRONG

 I just cringed when people would say to me the Bible has contradictions in it. I would just about pass out when they would say, "Not everything in the Bible is true." A big one that scared me to death was if they told me the Bible is not infallible! Run Forrest Run! Be gone foul spirit!

Now I grew up being taught the Holy Bible is God's word to the world. This is true. But the other part was nothing is wrong with the Bible because God dictated to men He choose on earth in a trance under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to write down what He said word for word. (did they have shorthand back then?) Most important of all is to never ever question the Holy Bible!

Now the fear came in when I was taught to never see the Bible in any other way or you are not a Christian and are not saved. If I did not believe the Holy Bible in the right and proper way then my salvation could in some way be in jeopardy. That was very scary to me because I do want to go to Heaven and hang out with Jesus my Savior and all the other cool Hosts of Heaven there. Meeting Michael the Archangel would be really interesting.

Along with this it turned into you better know the right doctrines and dogmas of the Bible to not lose your salvation. Which then morphed into you better be going to the "right" church to not lose your salvation because the "right" church will teach you the right doctrines and dogmas. It became a vicious circle of a dog chasing its tail for me. It was exhausting!

In 2011 I was introduced to the Anglican Church or Episcopal Church here in America. It was a culture shock for me. They seemed defiant of the Bible at first to me because they questioned the Holy Bible and would not always agree with it. (watch out for the lightning bolts!) I was scared for their souls with such belief.

Now eleven years later I read this week in a book called, Those Episkopols by Dennis R. Maynard about how Episcopalians view the Holy Bible and what they believe about the Holy Bible. First and foremost is that "the Bible contains all things necessary for our salvation." That alone gave me great comfort. The Church of England is the mother church of the Anglican Communion and brought the English Bible to the world through John Wycliffe and William Tyndale's translation. 

The reading of the scriptures is central to our worship services. The use of the lectionary allows us to read through the Bible every two years. We are not Bible literalists. In 1910 the Fundamentalist Movement started the literalist view of the Bible. This movement created great divisions among churches and judgments on who is saved and not saved.

Episcopalians believe in divine inspiration but not divine dictation. The Bible was divinely inspired but not divinely dictated like stenographers in a trance. The Bible is not one book but a library of books and letters and poems. It is studied with reason and an educated mind. They believe that the Bible is not closed but Divine inspiration is continually flowing to humankind.

The purpose of the Bible is to point us to Jesus. If we allow the Bible to be the primary object of our faith it then becomes a Bibliography, meaning idolatry. Martin Luther said, "The Bible is like the manger. It is not Jesus Christ, but it contains Christ."

It is odd to me that it has taken over half my life to get over this fear of believing the Bible in the wrong way could jeopardize my salvation. It is hard to bare my soul like this but as much as I have studied the Bible it is embarrassing to me that I have not understood or accepted that simple faith in my Savior Jesus Christ is all that is required for my salvation no matter how many misinterpretations of the Bible I may have. Now that is true grace and love from my Heavenly Father. Faith over fear. May this fear of the right belief in the Bible for salvation never haunt me again.




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