The following is a modified version of the lesson that you can find here.
"There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan." -- C.S. Lewis
1 Cor. 8:5-6; 1 Thes. 5:21; Ro. 12:1-2
I. The Importance of Story
The idea of story is not in a literary sense, in which characters act and have events happen, but in a meta-narrative sense, meaning the overarching world view that is our foundation and which shapes and gives meaning to our lives. Another way to think of it is a lens. Different lenses bring different things into focus. So what kind of lens will you use for your life?
'What is the real story that my life is a part of and what am I to do?' You can only answer this question if you can answer: 'What story do I find myself a part of?'
Individual experiences make sense and acquire meaning only when they are seen within the context of the story that we believe to be the story of the world. Back before modern astronomy, people believed that the earth was the center of the universe and the sun revolved around the earth. Even their science backed this up. As a result, the way that they viewed natural events and their place in the universe was colored by this belief.
Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant movement said, "People give ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon. Whosoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system which of all systems, of course, is the best. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but Sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth." He was arguing against Renaissance mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus's (1473-1543) model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center. Nowadays, modern technology has shown that the earth revolves around the sun, but back then, Luther's whole perspective and view of the world was colored by his view of Scripture.
Context is always of the utmost importance to the understanding of a story. The fox tells the crow that it's good looking. It wonders, though, if the crow's voice is just as beautiful. It doesn't really give much meaning. But if you see this picture:
And read Aesop's Fable -- go to this post by ' A Project Gutenberg Canada Ebook' or to this post by the 'Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook' -- you would know that the sentence above is the fox trying to trick the crow into opening its beak. Reading the whole story, you would easily understand that the moral of the story is "Beware of flatterers."
We need some sense of the 'big story' of the world before the meaning of any event in our lives makes sense.
II. Biblical Story vs. Humanistic Story
The Humanistic Story finds truth in the timeless ideas that can be accessed by human thought.
The Biblical Story finds truth in the story of God's deeds and words in history, centered in Jesus Christ.
The Bible gives to us the story of God's mission through His people in their engagement with His world for the sake of the whole of His creation.
III. Why This Topic?
Whatever story you use will translate and shape your understanding of the other story.
If we look at the Bible as a series of stories, we miss the overarching Biblical story that God has created for us to understand. We also begin to see the Biblical story through the Humanistic lens and translate the Bible according to a humanist perspective.
Some of you may be familiar with the Catholic Confession of Faith, aka the Nicene Creed:
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through Him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried. On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
(This version of the Nicene Creed was taken from the International House of Prayer website.)
There are other examples of statements of faith:
The Baptist Confession of Faith (1689)
The Westminster Confession of Faith, which follows Calvinist doctrine
The Orthodox Presbyterian Confession of Faith
and the International House of Prayer Statement of Faith
These all focus on how a denomination translates and views the Biblical Story. Even though they all claim to be Christian professions of faith, they differ. Since we know that God is the same and doesn't contradict himself, discovering the Biblical Story as the Bible defines it is important.
Here is an example of a Western Cultural Confession of Faith:
I believe in Science Almighty. I believe in the power of human reason disciplined by the scientific method to understand, control, and change our world.
I believe in Technology and a Rational Society, its only begotten Sons which have the power to renew our world.
I believe in the spirit of Progress. I believe that a science based technology and a rationally organized society will enable me to realize my ultimate human goal-- freedom, happiness, and the comforts of material abundance.
I believe in economism. I believe that the abundance of consumer goods and the leisure time to consume them will make me happy. To this I commit myself with all my money, time, energy, and resources.
After reading that, and some reflection, in what ways have you adopted some of all of that confession of faith as your worldview?
IV. Which Story are We a Part of?
Imagine that a new play by Shakespeare was discovered, or the completed script for the new Star Wars movie was lost. The first 4 acts are intact but only remnants of the final act are left, including how the story is going to end. The production is set to begin, so the script/play is given to actors so thoroughly familiar with Shakespearean/Star Wars canon that they can recite all the lines from memory. The actors immerse themselves in the script and the world it creates. Confident in their ability, the director tells them to workout the 5th act for themselves.
What kind of production will it be? The fifth act needs to be consistent with the other 4 acts, but also be innovative. The first 4 acts would build on each other to move the story forward. The fifth act needs to conclude in a way that continues this and brings it to a solid conclusion. A simple retread of the previous acts would be repetitive and lame and would bomb at the box office. The actors would need to carry forward the logic of the story using creative improvisation to reach the authentic conclusion that the author defined.
The Lost Script metaphor provides an analogy for how the Biblical Story might shape the life of the believing community. The Biblical Story consists of 4 completed acts: Creation, the Fall, Israel, Jesus, and the first scene of the Act V: the beginning of the church's mission. Act V offers hints as to how the story will end, but getting there is up to the believers. The scene of Act V begins to draw out and implement the significance of the first 4 acts, especially Act IV.
Erich Auerbach said:
"Far from seeking, like Homer, merely to make us forget our own reality for a few hours, [the Bible] seeks to overcome our reality: we are to fit our own life into its world, feel ourselves to be elements in its structure of universal history... everything that happens in the world can only be conceived as an element in this sequence; into it everything that is known about the world... must be fitted as an ingredient of the Divine Plan."
The Church today continues to do the same in fresh and creative ways in new cultural situations. To adequately follow the Biblical Story, patient examination and thorough immersion is needed into what Act IV (Jesus) is all about, how Act IV can be understood in light of Acts I-III, and how the first scene of Act V faithfully carries forward Act IV.
V. The Need to Choose a Story
Does it make a difference whether we use the Humanistic Story as the lens to understand the Biblical Story or whether we understand the Humanistic Story from within the Biblical Story? Yes, a profound difference!
As a building cannot have more than one foundation, we cannot have more than one foundation or fundamental story as the basis for what we think or how we act.
Once you make one story part of the other, the nature of the first story, its truth, is destroyed. To accept the authority of the Humanistic Story means dismissing the theological claims of the original writers of the Bible and abandoning the comprehensive and public claim of the Bible Story. Using the Humanistic Story destroys the Truth of the Biblical Story. The Humanistic Story then subsumes Christianity within it and makes the Bible Story one more private, religious option.
It is possible to work the other way around: to embrace the Biblical Story as the true and comprehensive story and to understand the Humanistic Story from within it. The Biblical Story becomes the controlling lens with which you interpret the world and everything in it.
VI. The Danger of Not Choosing a Story (Team Edward vs. Team Jacob)
The differences between to the Humanistic Story and the Biblical Story leads to Unbearable Tension, tension that comes from being a member of two communities anchored in two different and incompatible stories.
The Bible provides us with an overarching narrative in which all other narratives of the world are nested. The significance of understanding the Bible as one, unfolding story emerges when we focus on how the Bible shapes our lives.
Both stories:
- Claim to be normative (establishing, relating to, or deriving from a standard or norm, especially of behavior) -- true for all
- Claim to be overarching (comprehensive, all-embracing) -- all of life
- Are communal -- embodied by a community
- Are religious -- centered in ultimate commitments
Idolatry has twisted the dominant, cultural story of the secular, Western world. If, as believers, we allow this story, rather than the Biblical Story to become the foundation of our thoughts and actions, then our lives with manifest (display or show (a quality or feeling) by one's acts or appearance; demonstrate) not the truths of Scripture, but the lies of an idolatrous culture.
Hence, the unity of Scripture is no minor matter. A fragmented Bible may produce theologically orthodox, morally upright, warmly pious idol worshipers.
VII. Questions to Ask and Seek Answers to During This Series
- Who are we?
- Where are we?
- What is wrong?
- What is the solution?
- What time is it? Because the Biblical Story is not timeless. There is a beginning, a middle and there will be an end.
I love movie trailers. They provide snippets of a movie with the hope that they will get the audience excited enough about the movie that they eagerly anticipate its release and will pay for that theater ticket.
If we allow the Biblical Story to become our fundamental story, we become previews... previews of the Kingdom. We tend to think of mission as something external that we do (like going on a mission trip). Mission as understood in the Biblical Story is the sending of the whole church into the world to bear witness to the gospel in life, word and deed. If we embrace the Biblical Story, then every minute of our lives will become previews of the Kingdom.
The Biblical Story is omnivorous; it teaches one, universal kingdom history that encompasses all of created reality. The question becomes... will you let it?
Teaser for Next Class:
While the origin and authority of the Humanist Story is encapsulated in the phrase 'I discovered,' the Biblical Story finds it origins and authority in 'God has spoken.'
Other Links about Humanism and its Unbearable Tension with the Biblical Story
- What is Humanism by Fred Edwords, on the American Humanist Association website
- Christianity and Humanism by Bert Thompson, PhD, on the Apologetics Press website
- Humanism vs. Christianity: The Greatest Battle Of Our Times by Robert L. Waggoner
- Understanding Our Cultural Story: Our Life Through a Lens, a PowerPoint presentation by Michael W. Goheen, Geneva Professor of Worldview and Religious Studies at Trinity Western University.
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