I don't care how you try to shake it, it's pretty hard for anyone to make a lot of stories in the old testament relevant to today's society. Maybe it's because I don't own any goats. Sure, you can "cross the hermeneutical" bridge and look for the principles that apply to today. That's what every good pastor should do, so we are taught. But bible scholar or not, it's impossible not to notice the difference of themes between the old testament and new testament. Hardcore conservatives will put their hands in their ears and scream, saying that there is no difference. But why do you think that this is one of the first things people notice about the bible when reading it? It would be ridiculous to ignore it, but I think this difference is one of its biggest strengths.
Say what? For a majority of Christians, that statement seems "incorrect," but hear me out. Perhaps this change of theme represents something about what the bible as a book is, a changing understanding of God. This is what theologian Brian McLaren thinks anyway. While most conservatives would shoot down McLaren in cold blood, the man has a point. It's not that God is changing, but it is our understanding of who he is that changes. I mean, do you really think that the Hebrews would really have a better understanding of God than those who spent time with Jesus? As we grow as a people, we learn more and more, and thus our understanding evolves.
So what does that mean for us now? It means that our understanding of God needs to evolve to a modern day setting. The new testament as we know it took over 200 years to be formulated and decided upon. The reason it took so long was the early church fathers argued about what was canonical and what wasn't. Their main argumentation was that an author of a piece of "scripture" needed to have personal ties to Jesus. But what happens to us now?
None of us have personal ties to Jesus today. That is to say, one may "know" him through prayer and worship, but you did not really live life with Jesus. So now we're stuck in this awkward place where all of us are trying to figure out what it means to be a Christian in the modern age. Some argue that the best way to do this is to make the bible translate for situation to situation to today. This is certainly one way to do it. But then you run into problems like "cultural significance" and "literal significance." For example, a lot of the passages about women in the bible are often referred to as culturally significant because we would never treat women like that in our modern society.
So the big question is, who gets to decide what is culturally significant? The whole book is steeped in culture and to read it without a cultural lens would be foolish. The only way that "Christian truth" can be understood today is subjective as best. The reason is because nobody has spiritual authority. If someone claims that "God told them the truth," will we believe them? Most people are going to say no. And rightfully so, because the logic of "God told me to" has been misused and abused throughout all of history.
The best that we can do today is compare notes with one another and see what others think. Those that are prone to having everything wrapped up in a black and white box do not like this, but to force spirituality and Christianity into this absolute box is a disservice and manipulative. To say that discussions cannot occur because your understanding is "right" and an abuse of power. Think about the traditional Christian system. In order to have a legitimate voice in Christendom, you must got to school and then seminary. The power structure is explicit and clear.
The biggest challenge for us today is to figure out how Christianity works in today's society. We can only do that by living life together and having open discourse about the process. In the process of the discussion, I think we find the freedom so often proclaimed by Christianity and the bible. But what do you think? Does this make sense to you, or have I now branded myself as a heretic? Sound off below!