Do You Prune Your Bible?

                                                                                                                                                                        Vol. VI, No. 6, August 1993

In the 22 April 1993 Religious Herald editor Mike Clingenpeel commemorated Thomas Jefferson's birthday. In part he wrote, "Intellectually [Jefferson] was influenced by the European Enlightenment, so his personal faith was more rationalistic than pietistic, more Deistic than evangelical. The Jeffersonian Bible consisted of our Scriptures pruned of any texts that did not make sense to Jefferson. Most of us, if we are honest, admit we do the same."

Really? Do you, reader, just ignore those parts of the Bible you do not understand? Or do you accept them on faith? While realizing that we all face the temptation to accept only what we understand, to succumb, to reject those Scriptures beyond MY comprehension appears to be the ultimate in ego. It would be to replace God's authority with my own. It would mark the distinction between faith and accomplishment, humility and hubris, obedience and rebellion. II Cor. 5:7 "For we walk by faith, NOT BY SIGHT." Heb. 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the substance of things NOT SEEN." II Tim. 3:16 "ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God..."

We do not need to prune our Bibles; we need to prune our pride.