The Bible Tells Me so – it almost sounds like a fair and agreeable declaration. Doesn’t it? But not when it’s a loaded statement intended to cast aspersions on the premise. “The Bible Tells me So: Why defending Scripture Has Made Us unable To Read It” is a book written by Peter Enns. There are no prizes for guessing where he’s going with that subtitle.
Enns is associated with BioLogos, an organization which promotes for Theistic Evolution. It believes science is at odds with the biblical narrative. Obviously Genesis doesn’t record Theistic Evolution; hence one cannot take the Bible’s words at simple face-value….according to Enns’ way of thinking. He’s become something of a go-to-person for the likes of Jen Hatmaker and Rachel Held Evans.
What makes him attractive to progressive Social Justice Christians is that he can justify defying certain biblical texts while identifying as a Christian. If Enns can disagree with Genesis or some genocide passages, then pro-LGBT Christians can do the same thing with their problem texts. For example, Evans calls for a “reality check” and wants to let the Bible out of the box.
Michael Kruger has warned about the power of de-conversion stories using Jen Hatmaker’s de-conversion as an example. He writes:
De-conversion stories are designed not to reach non-Christians but to reach Christians. And their purpose is to convince them that their outdated, naïve beliefs are no longer worthy of their assent. Whether done privately or publicly, this is when a person simply gives their testimony of how they once thought like you did and have now seen the light.
Kruger has also responded at length to Enns’ The Bible Tells Me so:
I confess that I do judge books by their covers. Or at least by the back cover. I read (and review) a lot of books and am always careful to read the endorsements on the back and the description on the inside flap. Although endorsements aren’t everything (and are sometimes even misleading), they can reveal quite a bit about where a book is headed. That’s their purpose anyway. In this case of Peter Enns’s new volume, The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It, the endorsements (and endorsers) reveal quite a bit. One will find blurbs by Rob Bell, Rachel Held Evans, and Brian McLaren, among others. Interestingly, Tony Campolo also offers one but with the caveat that, “As an old-fashioned evangelical, I have some problems with what he has written.” Given that Campolo is by no means a conservative fundamentalist, his statement does an admirable job preparing the reader for what’s coming.
But perhaps most illuminating was the inside flap, where the publisher describes the book’s purpose: “In The Bible Tells Me So, Enns wants to do for the Bible what Rob Bell did for hell in Love Wins.”…keep reading
For another response to Enns’ book see the Answers in Genesis critique HERE
Finally, Kruger mentions Rob Bell. He’s also someone who is embraced as a mentor by progressives. Here’s Owen Strachan’s take on Bell:
After viewing The Heretic, I was struck by five ironies that relate not merely to Bell, but “progressive” post-evangelical gurus more broadly. Here they are.
First, the so-called “heretics” are the new fundamentalists. The worst people for a post-evangelical are the so-called “fundamentalists.” According to Bell and others in the film, fundamentalists believe in a woodenly literal Bible, emphasize the bloody death of Jesus, and get really excited about preaching on the damnation of sinners. Fundamentalists do not exhibit an open mind; they guard their fences with extreme watchfulness; they do not show generosity of spirit to others; they draw the lines of doctrine sharply, and are eager to keep the bad guys out…keep reading
As Strachan notes, the progressives have a problem with a “woodenly literal Bible.” Why is this so? And what does it really mean? Judge for yourself!
Further reading:
How True is the Bible? – Inerrancy
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