5 of the Most Common Misconceptions about the Bible

In one sense the Bible is mystical — it ought to inspire awe, mystery and even fascination. But what I mean by mystical is that it takes upon a quality different than its intention. It’s treating the Bible almost like a magical book — where you can open it up, point to a random verse, and therein hear the voice of God. The Bible doesn’t work that way, nor is it meant to.

This misconception about the Bible is what causes us to cherry-pick certain verses. It detaches the words in the Bible from their context and makes them a special message just for us. A mystical view of the Scripture might look something like this:

“I am an athlete. I was trying out for the basketball team, but there was a play that I just couldn’t seem to master. I don’t know if it was mental or physical, but I simply kept failing on executing this play. I knew for sure if I couldn’t get this, I’d be cut from the team. Now, I’m not much of a Christian really, but I do pray and on occasion I read the Bible. Well, I decided to pray and then I opened up my Bible to Philippians 4:13, ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength,’ and I just knew that the next time I tried, with Jesus by my side, I was going to be able to run that play.”

While it is certainly true that the Lord is with us and that He is our helper, such an understanding of the Bible doesn’t do justice to the text. Philippians 4:13 has a meaning to its original audience. And that meaning doesn’t have to do with basketball.

You’ve perhaps heard it said before that the Bible is like God’s love letter written just to you. This is, I believe, true in part. We don’t ever want to miss out on this glorious truth that God personally and individually loves you (singular). But there is a danger in letting our egocentrism impact our understanding of the Scriptures. It isn’t written to me, it’s written to us.

This misconception can also keep us from forgetting to think about the original audience. When Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthians it meant something very specific to them and to their situation. It is rooted in actual history and culture. If we want to discern its meaning and apply it properly, we need to understand what it meant to the original audience.

Furthermore, we need to understand that a majority of the “you’s” in the Bible are plural. It’d be helpful if we had a little bit of Southwest Missouri in our Bible translations. As I tell our congregation, most of these “you’s” are “y’all’s” and that helps us to know that we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves.

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There is an error on the other side of mysticism, and that is to view the book as a static or stale book – as if God’s Word isn’t living and active. This means that the Bible is able to speak directly to individuals and communities in various life situations and cultural contexts. It also means that the Bible is progressive in nature. There is development of story.

Consider the way the New Testament writers used passages within the Old Testament. How in the world does the “out of Egypt I called my Son” in Hosea 11:1 point to “out of Egypt I called my Son” when describing Jesus’ family fleeing to Egypt when Herod is coming after them? The answer is in the nature of the Bible.

There is much more that could be said here, but I’ll summarize with potentially putting a pebble in your shoe. Your view of the Bible, the word of God, needs to have space for what happens in Numbers 27 and the daughters of Zelophehad. God spoke to Moses establishing a law. The daughters essentially said, “That’s going to be harmful for us.” And God told Moses to put in an amendment. We need to reckon with that.

I’ll give one more example. You know those lists in 1 Timothy and Titus about pastoral qualifications? Have you ever noticed what is missing in the Titus list? “Not a recent convert.” Why might that be? Because Titus is ministering in Crete where the gospel has only just been established. Timothy is in a place where the gospel has been a bit longer. In other words, Titus had nothing but new converts. Again, we need to reckon with this.

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The word literal has, oddly enough, taken upon almost a metaphorical meaning. Literal seems to no longer mean literal. Historically it has meant “representing the exact words of the original text.” And so it might seem surprising that only 20% of Americans now say the Bible is the literal word of God. Yet, I have to wonder if some of this might not be our expanding definition of the word literal.

Back in the 1980’s when people spoke of the Bible being the literal word of God, I think they meant something like, “It’s actually what God said.” Today, I think we mean something a little different. Literal slowly meant “wooden.” And when you read the Bible, it becomes clear that there are many times in which the Bible is not to be taken literally. Hopefully, we can all agree that Jesus isn’t literally a gate (John 10:7). Glenn Stanton says it well:

“First, we must understand that the phrase ‘take the Bible literally’ is primarily a litmus test — and a silly one at that — for ‘do you really believe the Bible?’ This is why so many Christians hold to this myth — they want to be counted among the Bible-believers. But this is not faithful to God’s Word. I know of no serious, Bible-believing Christian who actually takes the Bible literally. I doubt you do either. And if there were any at our Bible-studies or Sunday schools, all would look at them as either an uninformed simpleton or mentally unstable.”

We must read the Bible as it asks to be read. When it speaks metaphorically, we need to read it as such. It is important to read it within the rules of the genre that it presents itself. Otherwise, we aren’t taking the Bible seriously.

4. The Bible Is a Rulebook

This one might be one of the deadliest misconceptions of Scripture. Have you ever heard the little acronym B.I.B.L.E., Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth? While the Bible certainly gives us instructions on how to live a life pleasing to God, it is so much more than this.

Why are movie theaters filled on the weekends? Why are Netflix and other streaming services a multi-billion-dollar industry? Because people love a story. And the Bible is the greatest story ever told. It is the story of all of us. It’s the story which holds together all other stories. And yet we have presented it as if it’s a refrigerator manual. No wonder people don’t have a passion to read God’s Word. I don’t like to read instruction manuals either — unless something gets broken.

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One of the critiques that is often given of the Bible is that it is full of mistakes and contradictions. It’s a stock phrase that those who want to argue about the Bible like to pull out. I like to challenge this by asking them for specifics. The reality is that when we think the Bible is contradicting itself, it’s usually that we have a simple misunderstanding. We are often falling for one of these other misconceptions.

As an example, some like to point out Proverbs 26:4-5. It sure does seem like a direct contradiction. “Answer not a fool according to his folly…” and then “Answer a fool according to his folly.” Now, we can call that a contradiction or we can stop assuming that the original author is a complete moron and realize that this might be a teaching tool.

Let’s think about this for a moment. I’m not a massive Harry Potter nerd, so my illustration might have some gaps. But a simple Google search shows that some major fans of the work have pointed out a few contradictions in the plot. If this community wanted to make the claim, albeit a false one, that there are no mistakes or contradictions in the work, what would they do? They’d clean up all the supposed contradictions. Do you not think that if the biblical community was attempting to do the same thing, that they’d not clear up some of these supposed contradictions? Of course, they would. Might it not be a better argument to say that they believed this was the actual word of God and that any supposed contradictions were intentional, artistic, or teaching devices?

The reality is that there are some places in Scripture which might be difficult to square with other places in Scripture. But with further study and better consideration of the message it is actually presenting, we realize that the claim that the Scriptures are filled with mistakes and contradictions really doesn’t stand up under scrutiny.

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There are many other misconceptions about the Bible. But the reality is that it is God’s Word, spoken to us and for us. It is a unified story which points to finished work of Jesus Christ. It is a grand story about where we came from, why things are so messed up, how God is fixing it, and where we are going. It answers all of the fundamental questions which humanity is asking. And it does so within a specific cultural context, written to a specific people at a specific time.

But the dynamic nature of the Bible also means that the Spirit uses this word and continues to speak to us even today. By recognizing the Bible's multifaceted nature and embracing its intended meanings, individuals can discover its enduring trustworthiness as a guide for faith and life. But more than this, it is here where we are able to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. And that is the fundamental reality of the Bible.

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