Lau's Time 

I’ve had a number of conversations about the Bible recently that made me think about one of my favourite films from back in the day… 

Sometimes we get hung up on a particular story or phrase from the Bible – in my experience it will have to do with someone sincerely trying to reconcile their faith in Jesus as the Son of God and all of his teaching about love and forgiveness, with what can seem to be at odds with that. You know, things like murder, invasion and some pretty brutal treatment of various persons and peoples in the Old Testament. 

We can get into difficulties when we try to square our belief in the Bible as the “word of God”, authored or at least inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore authoritative, unchanging and eternal, with modern-day culture and, more importantly, our understanding of Jesus as quite literally God in the flesh. 

Sometimes people ask, “How can the Bible say God did or allowed this, when Jesus seems to be teaching the opposite?” Often, the problem has to do with misunderstanding the genre and/or the context of the particular book or books of the Bible we are reading. Sometimes it has to do with a particular translation issue – remember, no matter who tells you that a particular translation of the Bible is the definitive one, it’s still a translation – 

unless you’re reading the original scrolls in Hebrew and Latin of course… 

I remember reading an article in which the author (Stephen Fry) pointed out the error of attributing a saying to, for example, Shakespeare, as if because it was Shakespeare it must therefore be wise or true. An example could be “I hate him, for he is a Christian…” Shakespeare, don’t you know! Well… it was indeed written by Shakespeare, but written for and uttered by the fictional “baddie” Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, so we can hardly take it that Shakespeare meant that Christians are to be hated! 

In the Old Testament there are indeed many awful acts, and they are contained within the story of God and humanity – that is, the Bible. That the Holy Spirit inspired these things being recorded, does not necessarily mean that all things said or done reflect God’s nature or character. Think of the supposedly good advice given by the friends of Job – all recorded in the Bible – and how God rebuked them for these utterances! 

For an understanding of God’s nature and character, wrestle with Old Testament books and their content as we might (and should), we need to look to Jesus, and try to understand, or at least come to terms with not understanding, the rest through the lens of Jesus. 

Here’s where that film I mentioned comes in. As a bit of a martial arts fan, I love the Bruce Lee film “Enter the Dragon”. There’s a funny little scene early on, in which Bruce Lee’s character (he’s called Mr. Lee, so it’s not much of a disguise!) breaks off from an important conversation to go and spend some time with his young Kung Fu student. He simply explains that “It is Lau’s time” and goes off to teach his young charge how to throw a kick correctly, with the right “emotional content”, as he puts it. Closing out his teaching, Lee points to the sky and says: “It is like a finger, pointing away to the moon…” at this point, Lau falls into the trap and stares intently at Lee’s finger. He immediately receives a sharp smack on the head as Lee scolds him: “Don’t concentrate on the finger, or you’ll miss all that heavenly glory!” 

I’m not for a moment suggesting that we should not concentrate on the Bible with all its books of various genres and contexts… but certainly we should not do so without appreciating, first and foremost, that which is it is pointing to, namely, Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. 

The Baptist Declaration of Principle, which has three parts, begins by affirming: “That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures…” 

I really like this because too often Christians act as if it is the Bible (rather than Jesus) that is the “sole and absolute authority”, whereas in this statement we can see that the Bible, inspired as it is by God, is given to us to reveal Jesus as that sole and absolute authority. In my movie analogy, the pointing finger directs our attention to the moon, so that we may look upon it in awe and wonder, in all its heavenly glory. I suggest this is a healthy and God-honouring way to see the Bible, which blesses us in revealing and directing us towards the heavenly King.