Tackling the tough questions

Some pastors would prefer to avoid the really tough questions parishioners have about the Bible. Adam Hamilton, pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the world (near Kansas City) tackles such questions head-on in his 2014 book Making Sense of the Bible.

Is the Bible inspired by God? What does that even mean? Is it infallible? Were Adam and Eve real people? What does the Bible really say about homosexuality, women in leadership positions and other controversial issues? Not every reader will like every answer Hamilton gives, but they should all appreciate his willingness to offer his answers frankly, while admitting they are not necessarily the correct ones.

Hamilton describes himself as an evangelical, while conceding that his views have changed over the years, especially on the homosexuality question.

He doesn't believe God dictated the Bible word for word. Rather, he says, the Bible was written by people as fallible as anyone else. But Jesus himself frequently quoted passages from what Christians call the Old Testament, giving it authority for him and thus authority for his followers. As for the New Testament, it was written by those who either knew Jesus or knew others who knew Jesus. This proximity to Jesus makes these books more essential to the faith than books written in later centuries that may be no less inspired by God. Thus he is not bothered by the fact that the gospel writers told the same stories a little differently. They were only human, after all. What's important is that they agree on the important things, the Resurrection for example.

Hamilton takes a middle position between the two extremes of the Bible controversy. "Instead of assuming that the Bible is the result of God's word-for-word inspiration of its authors, or that the Bible is merely a human book, I've suggested that the scriptures were written by human beings who were inspired by God yet wrote in the light of their own experiences, the scientific knowledge they had access to, and the historical circumstances in which they lived."

According to John 1:1, Hamilton points out, the word of God is not the Bible but Jesus himself.