The Bible Is The Story of God Not A Weapon For Terror

I am reading the book Terror In The Name Of God  by Jessica Stern.  I majored in Behavioral Science in college because I have always been interested in understanding why people do what they do, including myself.  Studying it provided not only a degree but also a way to get free therapy.  I like those two for one deals.

The thing I am finding most disturbing as I read these many interviews with Religious Terrorist is the conviction these folks have of what they are doing is based on their belief in the God and in the Holy Scriptures of their declared faith.  They can turn to and point at chapter and verse to justify their behavior that includes killing people and defending their rights to inflict terror and torture on other human beings because of their judgments on them for not believing as they do.  It is clear to me that my understanding of God and my understanding of the Bible is very different from theirs even though the words read are the same.

I am aware that anyone can use verses in the Bible as proof of many things that have nothing to do with God and His Word.  Anyone can justify just about anything by pulling out a verse of Scripture.  I am aware and ashamed that the Bible has been used (misused) for horrible things throughout history.  It sickens me to see verses used as bullets and the Bible used as a weapon.  My knowledge and understanding of God precludes the thought that God inspired His words to be used in that manner.

I have been in an intimate relationship with God and with the Bible for over forty years now.  I read the Bible every day and have read through the entire Bible many times.  I have been to Bible College, and have been blessed to sit at the feet of many competent teachers of the Bible.  To me it is The Story of God and to me it is the Greatest Story ever told.  The Bible is inexhaustible in Truth and guidance for living life well and for how to be in this world with one another.  To have it misused for anything other than good grieves my heart.

One thing that has helped me in my love of reading the Bible and of understanding the intention and purpose of its message and mission, is seeing it as the whole Story of God, not just random verses and bits and pieces to be used individually.  Jesus is the Alpha and Omega of all things; the beginning and the end.  Jesus is the comprehensive Truth of that Story.  The Holy Spirit is the comprehensive narrator of that Story.  God’s words culminate in God’s Word, in Jesus Christ the Messiah.  The Story of God in its fullness is The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth.

Knowing and understanding the whole Story of God was the last lesson Jesus taught His disciples.  Through out the gospels He kept asking His disciples if they understood what He was saying and teaching them.  They kept saying yes but their actions revealed that they really didn’t understand comprehensively.  They really couldn’t until Jesus completed His mission of dying and rising from the dead.  They really couldn’t until Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to give them understanding and comprehension.  Jesus knew that and was patient with them in their frequent blunders.

(Luke 24)

When Jesus completed (finished) His mission of dying on he cross and rising from the dead, before He left to return to the Father He gave them His final and maybe most important lesson.  After showing them His nail scarred hands and feet, and sharing a meal with them, “Then He said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophet and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

His disciples were to be His witness of His mission; to die, rise from the dead for repentance and forgiveness of sins so we can be reconciled to God.  He then empowered them with the Holy Spirit, and then He left to return to His place with and as God.

It is clear to me that the Bible has a prominent place in my life, in all lives that claim to know and understand God and His work through Jesus, and that place is not as a weapon or an instigator of hatred or terror on mankind.  It is to tell us the Story of God, to fill us with the sense of awesomeness of who He is and how much He loves us.  It is to teach us how to live life well and how to live life well with one another…all one anothers, in God’s love, God’s joy, and God’s peace.