Do Not Spiritualize Christ and the Bible!
I frequently have discussions with people who tell me they believe that the Bible or parts of Holy Scripture are just stories to make people feel good and have no relationship to reality. For example, Adam and Eve were just allegorical figureheads, the Book of Job was just a story, yet they say they have faith and believe in God.
Christians have become so intoxicated by secular thought and moral relativism that we wade into blaspheme and heresy. The Church in America has by and large become like the world around us. Christians are mostly ignorant of the Bible and what it says, they believe in God but do not know him or have a relationship with him. Sadly, many churches have decided they must compete against the world and in doing so they have spiritualized the faith.
Christianity is just one religion among many to choose from, it is all the same is the consumer mindset.
This is what fallen humans do and we see this in history as nation after nation falls into sin and must be rebuked or destroyed by God. We are now in such a cycle.
Spiritualizing the Bible (Not taking the Bible literally) can mean whatever the receiver perceives it to mean and is often defined by outside authorities like tradition or culture.
Exegesis means “exposition or explanation.” Biblical exegesis involves the examination of a particular text of scripture in order to properly interpret it. Exegesis is a part of the process of hermeneutics, the science of interpretation. A person who practices exegesis is called an exegete.
Good biblical exegesis is commanded in scripture. “Study [be diligent] to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). According to this verse, we must handle the Word of God properly, through diligent study. If we don’t, we have reason to be ashamed.
This does not mean you are expected to be an exegete or a Theologian, but it means you can’t just willy-nilly ascribe a meaning to scripture based on imagination or emotion.
Being faithful and having relationship means we must despite the distractions of life read the Bible and pray. Sunday worship alone won’t do it.
Saying You don’t need to know anything about the Bible is a fool’s errand. Is your witness so weak it does not matter to you?
The family of God is a people, all of us, and not a building or place. The obsession to maintain an old historic building at any cost until death do us part is admirable but not realistic. Meeting to gather, studying scripture, helping others in the family of Christ and community is what God wants.
Perhaps if churches fail and we are forced to do without the identity of a building our Christian mission will change for the better.
This is part of the failure of the church today in America and all of us are complicit. Lack of involvement, taking the easy way out, Sunday attendance and then failure to live the Christian Way of Life the rest of the week.
Instead of watching TV for 2 hours read your bible, listen to a sermon. There are many ways we can and should make God the center of our day.
It cannot be overstated that to adjust to the time we are in requires all of us to bow down to our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.