Why Do People Reject the Bible?
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Why do people reject the Bible? Is it because it makes extravagant claims which can be easily debunked? At one stage I thought so. But as I got older I slowly began to realize that such wasn’t the case.
When I was fishing around the New Age, I deliberately avoided reading my Bible. It was only after I found myself in a spiritual desert that God said, “Enough is enough,” and took over. I avoided the Bible because I suspected it contained truth. If that was the case, I would be compelled to change my lifestyle. So I kept looking elsewhere.
Among other things, people attack and reject the Bible’s authority because they don’t like what it claims for itself. They reject God’s word because they don’t want it to be true. It’s seen as an imposition on the lives they choose for themselves.
A classic example is Nadia Bolz-Weber. Chapter 2 of her book Pastrix begins with citing 1 Timothy 2:11-12. At its conclusion, she thanks her parents for blessing her desire to become a pastor. Sorry Paul, Nadia did what she wanted to do.
The same can be said of Rachel Held Evans. She wrote Inspired in order to introduce her readers to an un-inspired Bible, which she insisted ought to be loved despite imperfections—perhaps like a dithering beloved family member with dementia. I guess RHE felt she needed to maintain a foot in Christianity; hence, couldn’t totally abandon it.
Suppressing the truth
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse (NKJV, Rom 1:18-20)
Bolz-Weber, RHE and a slew of deconstructionists didn’t reject Scripture because it is a fallible outdated document. They know the truth and suppress it because they refuse to submit to God’s authority. For more, see Ligonier’s article: The Suppression of God’s Truth.
See also Dr. Reluctant’s blog on Apologetics. Paul Henebury:
Cornelius Van Til called God “the precondition of intelligibility.” He meant that the existence of the God of the Bible was necessary in order for us to assert anything about anything – even if that assertion is false. Hence, the Christian-biblical worldview is the environment in which we all live, even though many of us wish it were otherwise, and try to construct other “explanations” for things like love, truth, justice, logic, number, information, good & evil, the external world, consciousness & personhood, etc., or even if that means throwing up our hands and saying (in something akin to blind faith) “it’s just there.”
Scripture is self-attesting
During a video presentation on reading books with Iain Murray, John MacArthur gave praise to John Piper’s A Peculiar Glory. He said it was one of the best defenses of Presuppositional Apologetics he had read. I paid attention because MacArthur has criticized Piper in some areas. High praise from a critic is noteworthy.
One cannot find a comparable work of non-Christian faith which spans thousands of years, with multiple authors, yet telling a cohesive non-contradictory story (e.g., God’s dealing with His creation). And Piper demonstrates that this same Bible attests to itself.
Christ pointed to the Old Testament (Luke 24:25-27) and was the culmination of the OT (Luke 24:27, 44). Moreover, He is the final word (Hebrews 1:1-3). See also High King of Heaven.
The problem for Christians who cherry pick Scripture is that Christ not only authorized it, but gave His disciples the Holy Spirit and the power and authority to seal the canon. Therefore, anyone remotely identifying as Christian ought to submit to God’s written Word in the New Testament. It is His revelation to us. That includes Paul’s writings.
Finally, though I cannot endorse Piper on everything, I agree with MacArthur’s praise for A Peculiar Glory. I’ve found it important and helpful, especially during these post-Christian deconstruction times. I challenge any Christian reading this column to buy the book, or download it for free—and read it.
Alf Cengia bio
Alf Cengia has a keen interest in politics (especially the Middle East), is a collector of books and dabbles in weight training. He is stepfather to Michelle, Sammy’s chief walker and his wife’s favorite coffee maker. He blogs at Zeteo316 and Thoughts on Eschatology.
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I agree that ultimately people reject the gospel, the Bible, and God, because it’s our nature to do that.
At the same time, other factors—like things Christians do—can be also be causes.
“you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme” (KJV, NKJV) may not be based on the right Hebrew reading in 2 Sam 12:14.
Still…
23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Ro 2:23–24)
2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. (2 Pe 2:2)
I also find it interesting that when we speak of the Bible being self-attesting, we often include things like it’s self-consistency despite being written by more than three dozen people over millennia. This is an appeal to evidence and logic. I’m all for that. It’s just interesting that it often comes up in advocacy for presuppositionalism.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
This article misses the over arching issue, and is instead focused on trying to outline a practical explanation. The fact is,
We all reject Scripture. It is the illumination of the Holy Spirit that causes the truth to be revealed.
Isn’t illumination is what the Spirit does and accepting or rejecting what we do?
Apparently, even believers can resist His work (1 Thess 5:19).
So, the question of Why Do People Reject the Bible? remains: We can restate it as Why Do People Reject the Spirit’s Illumination?
And the answer still has two parts: because of our own fallenness and because of other people’s fallenness.
Edit to add: McCune sees illumination as including ‘removal of hostility.’
In short, illumination does three things: It provides (1) an intuitive certainty that the Scriptures came from God and are true and authoritative; (2) a removal of the hostility toward Scripture caused by depravity; and (3) an ongoing capacity to understand the significance of Scripture.
(McCune, Rolland. A Systematic Theology of Biblical Christianity: Prolegomena and the Doctrines of Scripture, God, and Angels. Vol. 1. Allen Park, MI: Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, 2009. Print.)
I don’t disagree, but if we answer the question “Why do people reject…?” with “Because they haven’t been illumined (yet),” we’re still restating the first answer: because it’s our nature to reject. We’re also not erasing the second answer: because Christians often behave badly. They’re all true and part of the dynamic.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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