Theologically conservative Christians often give the impression that the Bible is completely uncontroversial, that the entirety of its truth can be unambiguously comprehended. At the extreme, the Christian faith is reduced to a list of unequivocal, categorical doctrines - accept them and you're in, doubt them and you're out. It may seem strange, then, that I've learned more from such folk about the mystery of the Bible than I have from anyone else.
The resolution of this paradox, I think, lies in the conservative approach to scripture. Whereas liberal believers are disposed to conflate mystery with relative truth, using it as a license to stray into erroneous territory, the conservative approach demands Biblical precision. By the same token however, if you really take the Bible seriously, you are confronted inescapably with mystery. The result is a difficult, beautiful, and authentic tension whereby we accept the Word as both inerrant and enigmatic.
To be sure, theological conservatives are inclined to sidestep this tension with apologetic acrobatics. While there is certainly a place for this kind of philosophy - as rational beings, we do have an urge to resolve conundrums, and as believers, we are called to defend to our faith against worldly argumentation (e.g. 1 Peter 3:15) - I would suggest it suffers from two inherent weaknesses.
Firstly, there are some mysteries that are explicitly identified as such in the Bible, and therefore cannot be 'explained away'. Considering the conservative fixation with systematic eschatology, perhaps the most pertinent example is found in Acts 1:7, where Jesus tells the apostles: "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority." In Matthew 24:36 (emphasis added), he goes further, relating to His disciples: "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." A significant amount of scripture is dedicated to the "day and hour" and "times and seasons" in question - namely, Jesus' own return - and yet we are told in no uncertain terms that it is essentially inscrutable!
Secondly, even when there is a way to escape a mystery, it might not behoove us to do so. The presence of mystery raises the question of why it is there in the first place; if we truly believe that all scripture is "God-breathed and useful" (2 Timothy 3:16), we must believe that inconvenient, incongruous, and seemingly incomprehensible scriptures are there for a reason other than to be 'explained away'. As I have suggested elsewhere, such passages can reveal higher truths, expose false dichotomies, and speak to the paradoxical nature of our day-to-day experience - precisely thanks to their mysteriousness.
The parables of Jesus are an especially relevant example. One would expect a parable to be used in order to make a truth easier to understand, yet Jesus tells us that their purpose is to conceal the truth, to ensure that only those who truly seek the truth will find it (e.g. Matthew 13:11-13). To truly seek the truth requires faith - faith to subject our beliefs, including our theology, to the scrutiny of scripture. This in turn requires humility, since we must never be so haughty to claim that we 'already know' what the Bible says. Only then can we 'let the Bible read us', as my theologically conservative pastor used to say.
Psychologists, philosophers, literary critics, and sociologists would tell you that this is impossible: not only do we have unconscious biases, they would aver, but meaning is itself subjective, a matter of a perspective and interpretation. Impossible for man, certainly; but certainly not for God (Luke 18:27; Colossians 1:17; cf. 1 Peter 1:20-21), whose Spirit we have received. With the Spirit, we can know the unknowable; but that requires us to set aside our earthly mode of understanding and accept that spiritual wisdom is "hidden in a mystery" (1 Corinthians 2:10-16). I, for one, am grateful that it is.
The resolution of this paradox, I think, lies in the conservative approach to scripture. Whereas liberal believers are disposed to conflate mystery with relative truth, using it as a license to stray into erroneous territory, the conservative approach demands Biblical precision. By the same token however, if you really take the Bible seriously, you are confronted inescapably with mystery. The result is a difficult, beautiful, and authentic tension whereby we accept the Word as both inerrant and enigmatic.
To be sure, theological conservatives are inclined to sidestep this tension with apologetic acrobatics. While there is certainly a place for this kind of philosophy - as rational beings, we do have an urge to resolve conundrums, and as believers, we are called to defend to our faith against worldly argumentation (e.g. 1 Peter 3:15) - I would suggest it suffers from two inherent weaknesses.
Firstly, there are some mysteries that are explicitly identified as such in the Bible, and therefore cannot be 'explained away'. Considering the conservative fixation with systematic eschatology, perhaps the most pertinent example is found in Acts 1:7, where Jesus tells the apostles: "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority." In Matthew 24:36 (emphasis added), he goes further, relating to His disciples: "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." A significant amount of scripture is dedicated to the "day and hour" and "times and seasons" in question - namely, Jesus' own return - and yet we are told in no uncertain terms that it is essentially inscrutable!
Secondly, even when there is a way to escape a mystery, it might not behoove us to do so. The presence of mystery raises the question of why it is there in the first place; if we truly believe that all scripture is "God-breathed and useful" (2 Timothy 3:16), we must believe that inconvenient, incongruous, and seemingly incomprehensible scriptures are there for a reason other than to be 'explained away'. As I have suggested elsewhere, such passages can reveal higher truths, expose false dichotomies, and speak to the paradoxical nature of our day-to-day experience - precisely thanks to their mysteriousness.
The parables of Jesus are an especially relevant example. One would expect a parable to be used in order to make a truth easier to understand, yet Jesus tells us that their purpose is to conceal the truth, to ensure that only those who truly seek the truth will find it (e.g. Matthew 13:11-13). To truly seek the truth requires faith - faith to subject our beliefs, including our theology, to the scrutiny of scripture. This in turn requires humility, since we must never be so haughty to claim that we 'already know' what the Bible says. Only then can we 'let the Bible read us', as my theologically conservative pastor used to say.
Psychologists, philosophers, literary critics, and sociologists would tell you that this is impossible: not only do we have unconscious biases, they would aver, but meaning is itself subjective, a matter of a perspective and interpretation. Impossible for man, certainly; but certainly not for God (Luke 18:27; Colossians 1:17; cf. 1 Peter 1:20-21), whose Spirit we have received. With the Spirit, we can know the unknowable; but that requires us to set aside our earthly mode of understanding and accept that spiritual wisdom is "hidden in a mystery" (1 Corinthians 2:10-16). I, for one, am grateful that it is.
