Bible Interpretation

Understanding & Standing Under Scripture (How to Read the Bible, Ep. 2)

Kirk E. Miller

In this episode we talk about the importance of our overall disposition to scripture when it comes to Bible interpretation. Namely, we must place ourselves under the authority and scrutiny of scripture. In this way, scripture is like no other book we read. It “reads” us just as we read it. And this disposition is of vital importance if we are to read and understand scripture rightly. Reading scripture is not merely an intellectual exercise, but a moral, spiritual, and religious one.

Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)

See all other content in this series.

The Path of Faithful Interpretation (How to Read the Bible, Ep. 1)

Kirk E. Miller

We’re kicking off a new series on how to read and understand the Bible. In this inaugural episode, we overview the “pathway” we should take if we are to interpret the Bible properly and faithfully.

Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)

See all other content in this series.

“Christians are a Bunch of Scheming Swindlers” (Søren Kierkegaard)

Kirk E. Miller

We have an uncanny ability to use pious and theological reasoning to explain away our responsibility to do the things that we don’t want to do, all the while cloaking our sinful inhibition in a facade of Christian maturity and conscientiousness.

Søren Kierkegaard: “The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”

That, or we find sophisticated ways of interpretating ourselves out of the Bible’s demands. As Søren says later, this is “the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close.”

He continues, “Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. ‘My God,’ you will say, ‘if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?’”

In other words, if your Christianity doesn’t make you uncomfortable or require much sacrifice, your Christianity is probably not that of Christ himself. It is probably not that of the Bible.

We have fashioned a God in our own image, rather than us resembling his.