Good morning, Friends! We’ve been talking for the last month about what Quakers believe. We’ve covered a bunch of different topics – light, truth, peace, equality. It’s time for us to talk about what Quakers believe about the Bible.
Now, there are lots of different feelings and opinions about the Bible today. They range from “the Bible is the greatest book ever written” to, “Meh! I’ve got other things to do with my time.”
Some people read the Bible every day, and give it serious study. Very few people have actually read the whole book. I just keep encouraging people to read the Bible, and discover how much is in there.
This morning, I’ve brought three special Bibles for you to come up here and look at.
The first Bible is one of my family treasures. It’s the Geneva translation, which was first printed in 1560. It’s a tattered copy, but it came over with the Pilgrims. It’s been in my family for 14 generations, so it’s pretty special.
The second Bible is one which was given in 1830 by one of the pioneers of Springfield, Nathan Hunt, to 21-year-old Rachel English, who married Allen U. Tomlinson, another famous member of our meeting. It’s got a lot of her family information written inside it, as older Bibles often do.
The third special Bible is a large teacher’s Bible. It was given to Allen Jay in 1870. It was given to Allen Jay by the students of the teacher training program which he helped to start here at Springfield. These young teachers were being sent out to minister in the small Quaker schools all across North Carolina which were set up by the Baltimore Association right after the Civil War.
So, you’ve got a Bible that goes back to 1620, that crossed the ocean to the New World. You’ve got a family Bible from 1830. And you’ve got a large, sophisticated Bible from 1870.
Part of what makes them all special is that each one has a direct, personal connection to someone we know. It’s sort of like having a letter from Paul or a scroll from one of the Apostles.
These aren’t just Bibles, these are connected Bibles. So, please come up later and look at them, or touch them gently. When you touch them, or read them, you’re making a connection to people of faith. And through them, you’re making a connection to all the people who love the Bible and find it helpful.
Today, I want to read from a letter which Paul wrote to a young minister named Timothy.
You all know about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, my persecutions and sufferings – what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is breathed into by God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.2 Timothy 3:10-16
So, what do Quakers believe about the Bible?
I’ve asked that question to many individuals, and I’ve heard a lot of answers. People’s answers range from, “It’s a sacred, holy book,” to “it’s an important piece of historic literature.” Some people say that every word in the Bible is literally true, while other people say a lot of it needs to be adjusted in the light of what we know today.
I’m not going to try to push you in one direction or another. I just want us to look at a few things which most of us probably agree on.
I’m a Bible preacher. Every sermon I’ve ever given, is based on the Bible. I don’t lead off with jokes. I don’t use made-up stories to make people feel emotional.
On Sunday, I choose one Scripture reading, and make sure we all understand it. Sometimes it’s a familiar part of the Bible. Sometimes it’s one you never heard before.
I might raise questions. Probably they’re the same questions that come up in your mind. I have tremendous respect for you all. I don’t think I’ve ever told somebody, “That was a stupid question!”
If I don’t know the answer, I say so. Or I try and find out the answer, and get back to you. And I always figure that behind every question, someone is seeking to strengthen their faith.
The Bible is a very old book. Parts of it are as much as 4,000 years old. The Christian part, what we call the New Testament, was written between 30 and 70 years after the resurrection of Christ. So, it’s all pretty old.
The Bible isn’t just one book. It’s a collection of books. There’s history, there’s poetry, there are prayers, there are visions, there are letters and love stories. 66 different books, by different writers, all packaged inside one cover.
All the books of the Bible were originally written on scrolls. The scrolls had to be copied by hand, so they were very expensive. Not every church had copies of all of them. A church might have just one of the gospels, or a couple of the letters of Paul.
They were precious documents, and individuals didn’t usually own them. If you wanted your own, you had to copy it yourself. And people argued about which ones were the best or most inspired. Some books got rejected.
All the scrolls that make up the Bible weren’t collected till close to 300 years after the Resurrection. And it was over a thousand years after that, before the printing press was invented.
So, people who wanted to learn the Bible had to memorize a lot. In poor countries, they still do. When I visited Quakers in Kenya, 20 years ago, most of the elders and many of the adult members in country churches had memorized large sections of the Bible. It made me humble.
Running through all the books of the Bible are some similar ideas:
- God is real. God isn’t made up. God is very real.
- God cares about us. God really cares.
- God saves people. God saves people in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it’s individuals. Sometimes it’s whole nations. But God saves.
At least three different religions have their roots in the Bible. We’re sometimes called “people of the book,” because we all respect this collection of books.
Jewish people claim that the first five books of the Bible were written down by Moses. They also honor the many different history books, the Psalms, the books of wisdom, and the many writings of the prophets.
All of the first Christians were Jews. So, we claim the Old Testament as part of our Jewish heritage. Christians add the four gospels, the book of Acts, which is about what happened in the early church, and a bunch of letters written by Paul and other Christian leaders. Christians also include Hebrews, an early Christian teaching book, and Revelation, a book full of visions.
You may not know this, but Muslims also respect the Bible. They honor Moses and many of the Old Testament figures. They honor Jesus as a great teacher, even though Muslims don’t see Jesus as the Son of God. They even honor Mary, as Jesus’ mother.
Every Bible that you and I read is a translation. We don’t read the original Hebrew and Greek. Somebody translated it for us. Everyone in the world reads a translation in their own language.
The red Bible in our pews at Springfield is the New International Version, a translation which came out in 1978.
A lot of people still enjoy the King James version, a translation which was created by a committee of Bible scholars under the orders of James the First, king of England, in 1611. There’s nothing magic about the King James version. The people who translated it were contemporaries of Shakespeare, so they wrote beautiful English.
But Shakespeare isn’t the English we speak today. Many modern translations are much easier to read and understand. In my office, I have at least 20 different translations of the Bible, and I use all of them.
Over the years, I’ve worn out three Bibles, till the covers fell off, and now I’m working on my fourth. For me, a worn Bible is a good Bible – not a dusty one that never gets opened.
Quakers have always had a special understanding of the Bible. We respect and honor the Bible deeply, but we feel that we need the Holy Spirit to understand it.
George Fox, who helped to start the Quaker movement, said that without the help of the Holy Spirit, it’s as though the Bible was completely sealed. Imagine your Bible with one of those zipper covers some people like to have. Without the Holy Spirit, the Bible is zipped up, tied shut with a rope, and locked with an unbreakable seal.
The Holy Spirit is what helps to unlock it for us, and the Holy Spirit helps to make the connection between the words on the page, and the hunger in our heart.
Somebody told me this week that they have a lot of trouble reading the Bible on their own at home. She said that it’s so much better to read it with a group, at Bible study. And that’s certainly true.
Some people can study on their own, but it really helps if there’s a group with a prayerful, searching attitude. I work mainly with our midweek Bible study group, but I’m always willing to meet with anyone who wants to try and understand the Bible better.
Because we’re reading really old materials, which were originally written in a different language and culture, other materials can help. I use Bible dictionaries, search tools to help me find things, and several different kinds of commentaries. None of them is perfect or tells the whole story. Usually I need to stop and think, and pray, before I feel like I understand.
Back at the end of the 1800’s, and early in the 20th century, a lot of new ideas were stirring around. Scientists were making a lot of new discoveries, about how old the earth is, and how big the universe is.
Some people found all these new ideas really threatening. They felt that their faith was under attack. They rallied together, and they said that every word of the Bible was literally true. They were getting back to the basics, and they called their movement fundamentalism.
Fundamentalism is a very new movement. It’s less than 150 years old. It took over a lot of Christian groups, who felt they had to do battle with modern ideas and reject them.
(And, by the way, there are fundamentalist Jews and fundamentalist Muslims as well. It’s not unique to Christianity.)
Most Quakers are somewhere in the middle, between the two extremes. On the whole, we accept modern science, and most of us don’t hold a literal interpretation of the Bible. We do feel that the Bible is a special book, a holy book. It’s holy, because we see God at work in all the stories. We meet Jesus in the gospels, and we feel it’s good news for us.
We feel the Holy Spirit in so many of the stories. And we read about the people in the Bible, and we feel a connection with them, as they tried to listen to God, and as we try to listen to God.
Allen Jay is remembered here at Springfield, because he lived here, just across the road. He worked here, for eight years, to rebuild the North Carolina Quaker community and to restore our faith in God.
But Allen Jay is also remembered, because he worked to help create that middle place of what Quakers believe about the Bible. Outside of North Carolina, that’s one of the things that other Quakers remember him for.
As the fundamentalist movement was gathering steam, and as scientists seemed to be knocking down so many old beliefs, Quakers were working to map out that middle way.
Allen Jay knew the Bible very thoroughly. He was an outstanding preacher, and he wanted everyone to know the Bible and to welcome Jesus into their heart.
He never thought of himself as a Bible scholar, because he didn’t read the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew. But he understood the battle between fundamentalism and modern science. And he wanted to help outline a position in the middle, where Quakers could keep our faith and be safe.
After Allen Jay left Springfield, he moved back to Indiana. And he helped to call together a group of Quaker leaders from all over the country, and invited some Quaker Bible scholars from England as well.
They met in Richmond, Indiana, in 1877, and they talked about where the Quaker world was headed, and about the dangers we were facing. What they came up with, was a statement of faith to share with Quakers, to help guide us in the middle way, between the extremes. The committee that wrote the statement of faith met in Allen Jay’s living room. The final draft was written at Allen Jay’s desk.
It was amazingly wise document. It treats the Bible reverently, but it leaves room for the Holy Spirit to help us understand it. I’m going to read you from the section about the Bible:
“It has always been the belief of the Society of Friends that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were given by inspiration of God. They are able to make wise unto salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Then it quotes the gospel of John: “These are written so that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” (John 20:31).
“The Scriptures are the only divinely authorized record of the doctrines which we are bound, as Christians, to accept, and of the moral principles which are to regulate our actions. No one can be required to believe, as an article of faith, any doctrine which is not contained in them. . .”
That’s an important point. We are free to believe. But no one can force us to believe anything extra, which isn’t in the Bible. No one can make us believe that right is wrong, or that wrong is right. That’s freedom and faith, together, side by side.
“To the Christian, the Old Testament comes with the solemn and repeated attestation of his Lord. It is to be read in the light and completeness of the New; thus will its meaning be unveiled, and the humble disciple will be taught to discern the unity and mutual adaptation of the whole, and the many-sidedness and harmony of its testimony to Christ.
The great Inspirer of Scripture is ever its true Interpreter. He performs this office in love, not by superseding our understandings, but by renewing and enlightening them.
Where Christ presides, idle speculation is hushed; His doctrine is learned in the doing of His will, and all knowledge ripens into a deeper and richer experience of His truth and love.” (Richmond Declaration of Faith, 1877)
That’s about enough for today!
By all means, please study the Bible. Enjoy it. Find strength in it.
Read the stories of how other people have tried to be faithful, how they made mistakes, and learned from them, and were forgiven.
Read the stories of people who were saved – from illness, from danger, from fear and depression, from war and defeat, from all kinds of situations.
Go ahead and ask questions – lots of questions! Questions are OK.
And listen while you read. Because God spoke to all those people in the Bible. And God is still speaking, today.
Jesus still saves. And the Holy Spirit still leads us.