Making Sense Of The Bible:  Rediscovering The Power Of Scripture Today, by Adam Hamilton

After having read a variety of this sort of book [1], I have come to the conclusion that such a book is inevitably going to be disappointing for the sorts of reasons that this volume is disappointing.  If I wanted to ask those who were generally likeminded when it came to how they view scripture to me, and I asked them how it was that they would want to write a book that made sense of the Bible, it would be the sort of book that gave the biblical understanding of various issues that were of contemporary relevance.  It would be a tough-minded book that spoke out against both the politics of greed and exploitation as well as the politics of resentment and immorality that are popular on right and left.  It would likely not be a popular book, but it would be a book that discussed what the Bible itself actually said.  That is not what this book is, which is instead the sort of book that is written by a whiny “moderate” mainstream Christian who wants to make the Bible relevant to the contemporary age by trying to deny the aspects of the Bible that speak out against contemporary folly and rebellion against God.  And that is a disappointment, if not exactly a surprise.

This book of about 300 pages or so is made up of more than 30 short chapters that reveal the author’s thinking about the Bible, even if they do a terrible job at demonstrating the author’s faith in the Bible as it is written.  The author begins with an introduction and two chapters that discuss the nature of the Bible, talking about how it is disturbing but inspiring, and speculating some on what the Bible is not, and also providing some chronology and geography.  After that the author spends some time looking at the Old Testament, giving a brief overview, discussing its writers and canonization, and looking at prophecy and Christology in the Old Testament.  After that the author generally repeats this process with the New Testament, including discussing Paul and his letters and the canonization of the New Testament as well as  the writings of John.  There are a few chapters as well that deal with questions about the nature of scripture and the question of inspiration.  The second part of the book is a failed attempt by the author to make sense of the Bible’s challenging passages by judging the Bible by contemporary standards rather than judging contemporary behavior by the Bible’s eternal and unchanging standards.

It is this failure that is the most serious.  The Bible exists as a demonstration of God’s standards and a record of the standard by which we will be judged.  We do not stand in judgment on the Bible and on its relevance to us.  We stand at the bar before God and the Bible as a judge, seeking mercy where we fall short of the biblical standard.  This author is under the mistaken impression that he is a judge of the validity of scriptures that seem to him to be outdated and obsolete, rather than someone who is being faced with a bracing and tough standard from the past and is being called to repent of his rebellion against the biblical standard and his presumption to seek to judge scripture rather than to respect its judgment.  Judging by this book, it appears that not only is the author ill-equipped to point out the relevance of scripture to the contemporary generation, but he is also not disposed to accept its judgment of him and the sort of behavior he engages in and approves.

[1] See, for example:

Book Review: Taking God At His Word

Book Review: Commentary On John

Book Review: The Bible Is History

Book Review: The Bible As History