Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom from the Bible

We started this series by considering the disturbing data showing the disconnection by youth from faith and faith communities.

I am convinced that one of the reasons for this drift is that we have not provided a full and true picture about who God is through our homes and schools.

Thus, the abandonment by many young people is a rejection of a false or incomplete understanding of the Triune God. This is directly related to a poor understanding of the scriptures that tell us about Him.

We have become trapped in wrong thinking and therefore wrong responses and actions.

Here is the trap. We observe that young people are being turned off faith in the Triune God. The solution? We must be careful not to speak too much of God otherwise there will be greater rejection.

Outcome: We project an incomplete, insipid, understanding of God that is worthy of rejection. This is because we place ourselves at the centre of our understanding. This results in questions such as:

  • “How do you feel about the text?”
  • “What did you get out of it?”
  • “What does the text mean to you?”
  • “This is a safe place to share your thoughts on the text. There are no wrong answers.”

Greg Morse has written an interesting parody based on C S Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. Screwtape refers to God as “The Enemy”:

“Let them commune with their feelings and opinions while the Enemy’s book lies open on their laps. Make the apostles’ teaching the occasion to tell stories about how tough their week has been or to soapbox about whatever makes them most passionate. Never let them be confronted with the words of Moses, Isaiah, Paul, John, Peter, or, through them all, the Enemy himself.”[1]

As I interact with schools across the world, I see a degree of confusion about the role of the Bible in the Christian School. There is a lack of clarity that can become numbing.

There are many reasons for this. We need to take a look at some of them, not so that we can justify our lack of enthusiasm and practice nor condemn ourselves for a less than hearty approach. As always, our analysis needs to be focussed on increasing, hope, intentional purpose, and therefore good practice. Let’s begin.

Blessings
Brian

 

 

[1] Morse, G. (2018) https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-sabotage-a-bible-study