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“That’s just your interpretation.” If the Bible’s message is clear, why are there so many different ideas about what it means and so many different church denominations with different beliefs?
There’s a Lot We Don’t Know
There’s plenty we don’t or even can’t know. Even in fields of academic study, there are different scholars who agree on some points and disagree on others. We can all look at the same information and yet come away with different interpretations of that information. Sometimes we learn new information that causes us to embrace some beliefs and leave others behind.
It’s important to remember that this is not just a question for Christians about the Bible – “Why don’t you all agree?” – but a question relevant to any field of study that involves fallible people who don’t always get it right. Theology and Bible interpretation aren’t special exceptions.
The Main Things Are the Plain Things
“Clarity” doesn’t mean that everything in the Bible is equally clear, and it doesn’t mean the Bible will give us every specific answer to every exact question we might have. It means that “the main things are the plain things.” Others have said that we “major in the majors.”
What this means is that in the essentials of our faith – like the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus – we agree with the Bible because this doctrine is absolutely central to the teaching of the New Testament (NT) and absolutely clear in the Bible. Without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no church and no Christianity, and no point in claiming to believe in Jesus at all!
1 Corinthians 15:17-20 …If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
The teaching of Jesus’s resurrection is plain and obvious all throughout the NT. How to be saved from our sins and how to live the Christian life are, when we broadly read the Bible, is plainly taught as well.
But in other areas, things aren’t so clear – like how often we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper (communion) or how old someone should be before they are baptized. The Bible doesn’t provide every exact answer to every exact question we might have about these things, and in those areas that are “gray,” church leaders and theologians must make their most educated judgments about how to proceed. But just like how some historians disagree about whether or not Abraham Lincoln was a good US President, not all Christians agree on these areas that are not-so “main” and “plain.”
There Are Some “Better” and “Worse” Interpretations
While we can acknowledge that there are legitimate areas of uncertainty when it comes to some beliefs and practices within Christianity, the fact is that some interpretations are not a mere difference of opinion, with one argument being as valid as another. Just because people call something a difference of opinion or interpretation does not automatically make it a valid opinion or interpretation. There are some teachings and beliefs that contradict the Bible and are not based on sound evidence and interpretation. There are times in which we have to say that one view is right and others are wrong, such as any view that denies the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, or views that deny central teachings about Jesus’s deity, sinlessness, or miraculous deeds.
God wants to be understood. He speaks to us clearly enough for us to know who he is, to know how to be saved from our sins, and to know how to live within his will. While legitimate areas of disagreement between Christians can exist, there are also teachings that we must exclude as biblically-sound and valid. Not all arguments are created equal.
[External Resource: Why are there so many Christian denominations?]
- What is your initial reaction to this topic? What jumped out at you?
- Have you ever changed your religious beliefs because of something new you’ve learned? What happened?
- What’s one of the most significantly different beliefs you’ve noticed between different Christians or different churches?
- Have you ever been in a conversation or heard/read a discussion where “that’s just your interpretation” seemed to be a cop-out? What happened?
- What do you think is a valid or allowable theological or church practice disagreement between Christians? Explain.
- What do you think are some of the “main and plain” beliefs of Christianity? Explain.
- Why do you think God allowed certain parts of the Bible to be less-clear than others?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
