Am I “Picking and Choosing”?

My Story

A while back I visited a “Bible is inerrant” church. This kind of church is not unique, especially here in Texas. They claim that the Bible (the original manuscript) is error-free, authoritatively God’s word, and the one and only source for divine revelation.

Usually when I visit a new church I’m not the center of attention. Usually I can sit in the back, observe, and optionally participate. However, this time was different.

I came early for their Sunday School, introduced myself as a visitor, and was then led to a separate room apart from the normal Sunday School group. It was just me and a few dudes holding big ol’ Bibles. They asked questions and got to know me a bit. I shared my Mormon background and my spiritual journey of exploring a new church or religion each week to grow in my understanding. One of the guys started making a list on the whiteboard of some of the groups I had visited recently:

Mormon
Catholic
Episcopalian
Quaker
Sikh
Hindu
Baha’i
Jew
Muslim
etc

When I started mentioning Jews and Muslims they apparently had heard enough. “Hold on there, Mister Kevin. I think it’s about time we see what the Bible has to say about all this.”

They then proceeded to bash me over and over again with the Bible (metaphorically of course).

They tried to convince me that each of the other denominations and religions was wrong using the Bible as evidence.

For example, they’d say “the Bible says thou shalt have no other Gods before me. Which means the Hindus are wrong…” and then they literally crossed out the Hindus.

~~Hindus~~

I could see where this was going and I wasn’t excited to hear them denounce each and every religion except their own, so I tried to stop the train.

I explained that I respect them for believing that the Bible is inerrant but I don’t believe the same way. I believe the Bible was written by fallible human authors and contains God’s words mixed with our own. I specifically mentioned Paul’s sexist writings as something I consider to be his own opinion and not God’s words.

“Let your women keep silence in the churches… for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”
1 Cor 14:34-35

They pushed back on me. “Am I hearing you right, Kevin? You think you can pick and choose what you want to believe from the Bible?” I hesitated because I didn’t quite agree with his wording, but I nodded anyway.

That led to more preaching, more convincing, and more crossing off of religions on the whiteboard –all while using Bible verses, in the name of Jesus, to back up their truth claims.

Discerning

Thinking back to the phrase he used to describe my beliefs as “picking and choosing”, I realize I would have explained this differently. I would have described this as “discerning”, because I believe God’s words are in the Bible, but just like other holy books, they are conveyed through imperfect human authors and human language.

God’s message to us in the Bible must be discerned. This is true for many reasons. For example:

There are inconsistencies and contradictions throughout.
The Bible was copied by hand for centuries which caused human error.
Language translation is messy and imperfect.
Stories in the Bible and our understanding of science often conflict.
Everyone interprets the text differently (even among similar “Bible is inerrant” groups).

We’re all negotiating with the text one way or another. Each of us must wrestle with and discern God’s message in the Bible.

How to Discern

How you discern God’s message from holy books of scripture is important.

Sometimes we confuse our comfortable or uncomfortable feelings as the Spirit telling us something is true or not true respectively. Everyone is most comfortable when their norms are not challenged. However, real growth and understanding only comes when we stretch ourselves, ask the hard questions, and challenge what we think we know as fact.

We need to be curious, not dogmatic.

The Bible says the Spirit will help us discern, and the Spirit has certain fruits that come with it.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”
Galations 5:22-23

So, if you are interpreting a message from scripture that doesn’t result in one of these fruits, then maybe consider a different interpretation instead.

Remember, God doesn’t work through fear. He only works through love. He is love.

“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love… There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear”
1 John 4:8 and 18

I should point out that what I’m explaining above might be an overly simplistic approach.

The truth is, it takes a lifetime to recognize what God is telling you. It’s not easy, and we often get it wrong. And that’s okay! In fact, it’s expected. God wants you engaged in the work of discernment. He wants you to study, wrestle, explore, question, experiment, learn, and grow 🙂.

Finishing My Story

I spent the first half of the Sunday School meeting arguing with those guys, which I realized was silly. But half way through, I remembered the reason I was there in the first place: to understand and experience a different way to worship. Once I remembered that, I let down my guard and started listening to them without pushing back. Despite our disagreements, I could at least respect the fact that they were so well-versed in the Bible.

After Sunday School, I attended the main worship service which turned out to be really nice. It was open communion, so I partook. The pastor’s message was edifying. The hymns were sung a cappella style (allegedly the Bible is against the use of any instruments during worship 😅) and it was beautiful.

Even though we disagree about the inerrancy of the Bible, that didn’t stop us from sitting in the same worship service and praising God together ⛪️ 🕊️ 🙏.