Some of the most troublesome questions I hear start out with, “Is it Biblical to…”. I find questions that start out this way to be troubling for several reasons. One is that it’s fallacious, circular reasoning. Secondly, I can make the Bible say anything you want. And thirdly, the Bible was never intended to be a rulebook, guidebook perhaps, but not rulebook. I understand the need for certainty that is behind these questions. I lived in that certainty for most of my life. It wasn’t until I entered that period of life that society has currently dubbed as “deconstruction” that the walls of certainty started to fall down around me. The more I studied the Bible, the more I realized that certainty wasn’t one of its strong characteristics. As such, it became evident to me that the Bible could be downright dangerous to use as a rulebook.

Circular Reasoning

It’s in the Bible so it’s true, it true because it’s in the Bible. Round and round we go. A lengthy discussion could be had regarding the “infallibility” of the Biblical texts, but perhaps that is better addressed as its own topic in a separate post. For now, we can find guidance in the words of Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.” If you are inclined to “proof-text” the Bible, this one verse should cause you to be cautious about using it as a source of absolute truth and morality.

What do you want it to say

The Bible has been used to justify many of humanities most violent moments of history. During the reign of Hitler, pro-Nazi Protestant pastors quoted from Romans 13: “The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions invoked this same scripture in 2018 to bolster support for the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies. 

The travesty of U.S. slavery was justified by proof-texting Biblical passages to suggest that slavery was God-ordained. Biblical texts are rife with verses that were used to justify the horrors of slavery, one of the favorites that was used is from Ephesians 6:5-8, “Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ.” 

The genocide and oppression of the North American indigenous population was driven, in large part, by three verses in the book of Matthew, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Amen.”

The list is long and could fill volumes of text, but perhaps we have enough to recognize the danger of starting out questions with “Is it Biblical to…”    

Guidebook, but not Rulebook

To be sure, questions that starts out with, “Is it Biblical to…” don’t always focus on genocidal events. Sometimes one is simply asking the question in regard to tithing, skipping church that week, or getting a tattoo. The quagmire with doing this, at any level, is that the Bible becomes a mechanical checklist, and when our relationship with the divine becomes a checklist of dos and don’ts, we miss out on a deeper connection with God. There is certainly wisdom to be gleaned from the Bible, and understanding the context of the whole story from Genesis to Revelation is key to appropriately gathering those bits of wisdom. 

The Bible, as we have it today, has been written and rewritten through several languages, by hundreds of authors and editors, over thousands of years. It is, to quote Bible scholar and author Pete Enns, “an ancient, ambiguous, and diverse text”. When considering whether or not something is Biblical, it is important that we use the Bible wisely, contextually, through the lens of love, and in ways that build up ourselves and others.