Teaching the Bible or about the Bible?

It was very disturbing to hear that the teacher in a class on the Old Testament, a credentialed teacher at that, told the students that the first few chapters of Genesis speak of only generic creation and that the names Adam and Eve were not to be thought of as specific persons.

That may well be teaching about the Bible, but it is not teaching the Bible. If we teach the Bible then we interpret it by what it actually says, not what someone thinks it says. Was that not the original problem when Adam and Eve were sinless that the serpent fooled Eve to think that God did not mean what He said? The professor fell for his lie about God’s truthfulness and likely so have many of this teacher’s young students. They have been led astray from the truth.

Fundamental evangelical Christianity believes that sin came into the world when the original man disobeyed God. That as soon as he disobeyed death came into the world also. But if someone believes that the parts of the Bible that tell this story are only typical then we will be misled to believe that there is no such thing as sin against a God and that He did not mean what He said. And if there is no sin problem then why do we need a Savior from sin, although the Bible says that Jesus came to save people from their sin?

Romans 5:15 – 18 But God's free gift immeasurably outweighs the transgression. For if through the transgression of the one individual the mass of mankind have died, infinitely greater is the generosity with which God's grace, and the gift given in His grace which found expression in the one man Jesus Christ, have been bestowed on the mass of mankind. And it is not with the gift as it was with the results of one individual's sin; for the judgement which one individual provoked resulted in condemnation, whereas the free gift after a multitude of transgressions results in acquittal. For if, through the transgression of the one individual, Death made use of the one individual to seize the sovereignty, all the more shall those who receive God's overflowing grace and gift of righteousness reign as kings in Life through the one individual, Jesus Christ. It follows then that just as the result of a single transgression is a condemnation which extends to the whole race, so also the result of a single decree of righteousness is a life-giving acquittal which extends to the whole race.

How can it be that anyone with the mind of Christ, a condition that Paul attributes to born-again believers in Jesus, would imply that God contradicts Himself? Either that person is ignorant of what the Bible teaches or he has been deceived himself by false teachers, or else that he is not a believer. In any case he is not excusable and must be called a false teacher. The Bible warns us about false teachers and the book of Jude illustrates this.

Jude 1:4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed--men spoken of in ancient writings as pre-destined to this condemnation--ungodly men, who pervert the grace of our God into an excuse for immorality, and disown Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord.

Notice that these false teachers are unnoticed, which makes us wonder where did they come from but from our own ignorance and carelessness? They must have been very clever or had good degrees or perhaps they were even relatives or children of friends, but they had gotten in and were teaching false ideas. No doubt they were teaching ignorant people and new believers who swallowed what they taught and we should have noticed. The rest of the epistle goes on to mention the sins of both the false teachers and their disciples, but the epistle ends with a promise that God will keep His own.

Certainly a subjective book review of the Bible can be spoken of as teaching about the Bible, but it is not the same as teaching the Bible. To teach the Bible we must start out believing that it is the authority and that the teacher is not, How dare we infer that the good God contradicts Himself in any way? However we must realize that we and all other teachers are human and limited in what we know.

That the Bible is dependable is another subject, and fortunately there is abundant proof both internally and externally that the Bible as we have it is fully authentic and reliable. We can depend on it as being exactly what Paul told Timothy.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 Every Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for convincing, for correction of error, and for instruction in right doing; so that the man of God may himself be complete and may be perfectly equipped for every good work.

The Bible is God’s word to us today.