Our Experience of God Is Unique Just as the Bible is Unique

If you’ve “experienced” God, it’s undeniable!

Those who’ve experienced God cannot articulate that experience simply because it was an “experience”

Would you allow me to try and use that idea to attempt to explain what I have had so much difficulty articulating in words when I’ve tried to find a way to explain how inspiration works Biblically?

In the past I’ve used several real life examples in an attempt to communicate something that’s difficult to wrap our minds around.

My favorite example is comparing the writings of the New Testament to something like walking into a room in the middle of a conversation

If you’re following me, whenever you and I read something written to another person from the distant past, all we’re getting is the letter itself. Meaning we’re not getting the context of the letter.

We’re not getting the history behind the letter nor the story of the person who the letter is being written to or why certain words or statements are being made to that person, “specifically,” vs if the author was writing to someone else.

When you and I read the Bible, we’re reading it like it’s written by one person who’s writing specifically to us.

For generations people have been doing this.

But what’s missing inside the Bible, and therefore what we’re missing, is the bigger conversation going on behind the scenes. The conversation we missed because we walked in the room in the middle of the conversation.

And it’s for that reason that there are different interpretations of scripture and different denominations of Christianity

It all goes back to an incomplete understanding of the Bible

Allow me to use just one example from scripture. In the book of 2 Peter, the author says that there are spirits in prison who sinned long ago in the days of Noah. This author when writing this doesn’t stop to explain what he’s talking about, right?

He doesn’t stop to explain this because he’s not writing to you and me. He’s writing to someone else who already knows the backstory. Those who he’s writing to are very familiar with the book of 1 Enoch. But you and I aren’t. Therefore, all kinds of misunderstandings of that passage have circulated for generations.

And it’s those kinds of things that are all over the New Testament, (not meaning the book of Enoch), but background information that we’re missing in order to rightly understand what the authors are communicating whether that’s Paul, Matthew, John, or another.

The greatest example of this is found in the book of Revelation

There is so much in that book that has a larger story behind it that the recipients of that book had already understood. But you and I are completely unaware.

And it’s simply due to these “holes,” or missing peices of information in various passages, that’s led to incorrect assumptions about how to interpret certain passages and about how to understand future events.

The Bible is “limited” simply because it was written by real people who were writing to other real people in real time. And you and I aren’t those people.

Yet, the Spirit will make sure we have enough of what we need. This doesn’t mean we’ll understand certain passages of scripture. But it does mean we’ll get the essentials.

Yet, the more you dig into those days when the original authors were writing to the original recipients, the more light you’ll gain about mysterious passages.

All this to say that I believe our “definition” of biblical inspiration is off. Meaning the Bible is actually limited but we’ve been taught it’s not limited. And what I mean is that the only way you and I could get the whole picture or full understanding of a whole variety of passages is if we had of been on the other end of Paul’s, Peter’s, John’s, or another’s letters

But you and I are severely disconnected from the generations who were the original recipients of scripture. And for that reason, we’re misinterpreting passages of scripture. And that’s why Christians disagree on what passages mean.

And finally, though I am not all knowing, and though I don’t know all the answers, I have put in the time, effort, and study/research in order to get a much better grasp of those mysterious, difficult, and highly debated passages in the Bible.

And I’ve tried my best to pass it along. But there is naturally a lot of hostility because it causes Christians to reevaluate or question certain things that they previously were taught.

Thanks for taking the time to consider this.