Tim Mackie: Why the Bible's So CONFUSING | Pastor Reacts

The challenge is that if something is not designed as a reference book, you're eventually going to be lost among pages and pages of detail.

And you're like, this isn't relevant to my question. This isn't relevant to any question I've ever had in my life. So I'm just not ever going to read that part in the first place.

That probably describes the first several years of me being a Christian. It's not a dictionary. It's not an encyclopedia.

It's actually a story. The Bible is the story of all of reality. And the moment that sinks into your bones, you're going to realize that the

Bible is also your story. That means you need to know what this story is. What is the

Bible? Is it a dictionary? Is it an encyclopedia or is it so much more? Maybe you've answered this question incorrectly your whole life, which has caused you so much needless confusion.

Tim Mackey, co -founder of The Bible Project, suggests that a lot of us just don't fully appreciate what we're holding in our hands.

But is he right? Is he characterizing the Bible correctly? We're about to get into it. But first, welcome to Wise Disciple.

My name is Nate Sala, and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you were meant to be. That includes understanding what the

Bible actually is and how it affects our lives. Amen. Make sure to like and subscribe. And if you think this video is helpful, share this with somebody else.

It just helps me to get the word out about this ministry. Three good intuitions about scripture. Scripture is designed to teach us about what is true.

Scripture is meant to give us wisdom about what is good. Scripture is the place where we learn to hear from God.

I like these descriptions. These don't represent everyone's thoughts about the Bible, but these are meant to represent some good intuitions about the

Bible. I agree with these. By the way, do you? Are we so far so good here? But wait a second.

If scripture is designed this way, why do people get confused about it? Let's see what

Mackey has to say. Scripture is designed to teach us about what is true. This really goes back to Jesus's own conviction about this collection of texts, namely that they were about him and that the

God, the one who is had been so trustworthy throughout the long family history that if that God were to speak to his people, those words would be trustworthy as well.

It's a good intuition that scripture is designed to teach us about what is true. However, because again of that cultural gap, what at least in my experience is that many followers of Jesus end up relating to the

Bible because it's so big and so complicated. We end up relating to it as a source of truth the way we relate to many other sources of truth.

So if you have a question about yourself or the world or whatever, how what's the tallest peak in the

Lake District? We have ways to answer these questions. We have these things called encyclopedias. We have things called dictionaries.

Now, in the age long ago, like my childhood, these were in the form of books, like big multi -series books at your library.

Maybe your family like bought a set from a traveling salesman or something like that. But you guys remember encyclopedias? Yeah, these are fantastic.

Yeah. Your weird uncle that you barely spoke to had tons of them that were left unread in his house.

And you would go and visit and there was nothing to do. There was no television, but there were all these encyclopedias.

And so you would sit in a room and you would read if you're me. And so the way they're organized is not to be read from front to back.

You need to know how to find what you're looking for. And then you find the page and the entry, the paragraph and the sentence that answers your question as directly as it's addressed within the encyclopedia.

Are you guys with me? So nowadays we ask our devices, you know, in our pockets where we type in on the mighty

Google, you know, what is the tallest peak in the Lake District? And then it spits out your answer right there on your screen, delivered to you by AI, right?

That's how that's where we are now, unfortunately. So that's how we find information and answers to our questions in our world here today.

And so we end up treating the Bible like that, like a dictionary. The Bible is not a dictionary.

So so let's go ahead. So hopefully that's where he's going with this. But let me just go ahead and state it for the record in case he doesn't.

The Bible is one grand, overarching story told through the lives of many people that God has chosen to have relationship with and to use for his purposes throughout history.

So so there's your kind of, I don't know, super quick sketch of the Bible. I think Mackie would agree with that characterization, but let's see.

And so where's what's the question that I have about God or myself or the world or people, their sin or good or bad?

And then, well, what's the page? What's the place on the page, the paragraph and then the sentence? And then you read the sentence.

Maybe, maybe you read the sentences around it. Wow. You're really working hard at that point. And then there you go.

You have the answer. Maybe you'll memorize that and you're good to go. And so many people end up developing a relationship to the

Bible that's like that, like a reference book. But the challenge is that if something is not designed as a reference book, you're eventually going to be lost among pages and pages of detail.

And you're like, this isn't relevant to my question. This isn't relevant to any question I've ever had in my life. So I'm just not ever going to read that part in the first place.

Anybody? No one's ever had this experience. That probably describes the first several years of me being a Christian.

Anybody like me? Did Mackie hit close to home for you? You read

Genesis and Exodus, and then you go, great, what's next? And then you open Leviticus and you jump on over to Matthew, right?

Appearance while reading the Bible. So whole parts of the Bible end up being just totally irrelevant to us because it's answering a question that we've never thought was important in the first place, which is back to our hammer problem.

We're more than likely to misunderstand or take out of context like the little bit that we think that we've understood.

And we're going to miss out on the full potential of what this whole story and the poems and the letters and the narratives are trying to tell us in the first place.

Because what this story is about is the things that you actually are thinking about all of the time anyway.

The big questions that humans are wrestling with all of the time, whether you're conscious of it or not, are questions like, who are we?

Where are we? Why are we even here? It's a common question. Humans ask, what's the problem if you think that there is one?

And what's the solution if you think that it is one? This is so great. And it cannot be overstated because I think the breakdown for a lot of people, which keeps them from actually understanding the

Bible on a deeper level, is that they don't understand what the Bible actually is. That's the whole point of this video.

It's not a dictionary. It's not an encyclopedia. It's actually a story. But it's not any old story.

The Bible is the story of all of reality. And the moment that sinks into your bones, you're going to realize that the

Bible is also your story. If it's the story of all of reality, well, then you're involved in this story, whether you realize it or not.

That means you need to know what this story is. Why? Well, because the worst thing that can happen to you is that you're ignorant to the greater narrative that is being told all around you.

You know, at best, this makes you a what? My sons would call you like an

MPC, right? You're like free guy before he puts the glasses on. You know, you're stuck because you don't know that there's a greater story out there that is unfolding all around you.

That makes the Bible more than a story. Now it's like a pair of glasses that you put on like Ryan Reynolds.

I don't know why this illustration keeps popping up in my mind. And when you put the glasses on, now you can see what's really happening around you that you were blind to before.

This is where Mackey is headed. And it both sets up the problem, which is why is the

Bible so confusing and the solution as well? So let's see where he goes with this. And if you don't know how the flow of the story works and the context of every one of those sentences, how they fit into the larger works and where they fit into the larger story, you're going to come across these surface level contradictions in the

Bible all of the time. So Mackey just got done reading through various passages of the Bible, encouraging folks to drink wine and also discouraging folks to drink wine, which leads to seeming contradictions if you treat the

Bible as if it's merely a behavior manual. This is Mackey's greater argument.

And I encourage you to watch the whole sermon for reference because we don't have the time for that. And I'm going to leave the link in the description. But this was all lead up to the point that he's about to make.

So pay close attention. Here it is. What is so interesting is that the same Paul, who said two very different things about wine, said this when he talked about the purpose of the

Bible, writing to that same protege who had stomach problems. Apparently, he also said this.

He said, Timothy, you from infancy have known the sacred scriptures that they're able to give you wisdom about the rescue that comes through trusting in the

Messiah, who is Jesus. All scripture is God breathed. It's useful for teaching, for challenging, for correcting and training in what is right so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for doing every kind of good.

It's a great passage of the scripture. And it's about the true intent, the true through line of the message of the

Bible, as opposed to how the false teachers in Timothy's day are characterizing it. Paul mentions those false teachers earlier in the same chapter there.

And it's really all about how the Bible enlightens someone to the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ.

That's way bigger than Emanuel on how to behave. What's really interesting here is that the first word that comes to Paul's mind when he thinks about how the scriptures should influence our behavior is the word wisdom.

Do you see that? The purpose of scripture is to give you wisdom. Wisdom about what? Well, wisdom about a story.

Do you notice he summarizes the story of the Bible in a really compact way. It's a story about a rescue. Apparently, we all need to be rescued and we need to be rescued by someone who he calls the

Messiah. That is this divine and human one who can do for us what none of us seem to be able to do for ourselves.

And how is it that you go about being rescued by this one? It's interesting how Mackey characterizes it.

Take a look at my translation. By the way, some of you asked me, Nate, what app are you using to read the Bible?

It's called Logos Bible Software. It's an amazing app. The features are so helpful, particularly Logos search and fact book.

It's really leveled up my knowledge of God's word. I encourage you to take a look at some of the awesome discounts that Logos has extended to my audience.

Just go to Logos .com forward slash wise disciple and start using Logos today. Look at verse 16 here.

OK, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for proof, for correction and for training in righteousness.

OK, take a look at verse 15. And so this is Paul talking to Timothy and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

So the word in the Greek means salvation, but it also can mean deliverance.

So so maybe that's where Mackey is getting the concept of rescue from. I personally wouldn't use the word rescue unless I, you know, went a bit deeper and defined what people are being rescued from.

Salvation is just it's a much more specific term that everyone knows is attached to sin and the consequences of sin.

But then again, you know, maybe Mackey is using the term because he's sensitive to folks who are more unchurched and don't have a background in what that means.

But that's why it's important to talk about what God rescues us from and for what purpose.

So I just repeated myself here. So anyway, well, actually, what you need primarily to do is stop. Stop doing most of the things that you're doing and just trust.

Learn how to trust this one who wants to rescue you. That's all summary of the story of the

Bible. And apparently, if you meditate on that story from a million, not a million, but hundreds of different stories and poems and letters in this marvelous collection, then that will give you wisdom.

And what's so interesting is it goes on to say, if you have that wisdom in you, it will teach you things that you've never thought to think before.

It will correct you. Right. It'll point out ways that you're living and thinking that are. So this is interesting. I don't want to I don't want to skip over this too fast.

Mackey is suggesting that this idea of gaining wisdom about things also includes stuff you'd never thought of before.

That's what he just said. This is an important detail because it plays right into the title of this video.

So listen, close, listen, close, look again in verse 15, just to where precise about the verse and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Do you see the concept of wisdom about things you've never thought before? Is that is that in the passage?

Not explicitly, right? So if it's there, it must be there implicitly or it's not there at all.

Right. I guess it depends on what Mackey means by things that we've never thought before, because the good works down here, verse 17, that we should be equipped for can often it can often be a surprise.

I mean, it's true that those things tend to surprise us. How do I know that? We'll take a look at, you know, verse 17 here.

The man of God is the man of God. That turn of phrase. Did you know that it can also be understood as God's man?

It's it's God's man who may be equipped for every good work, and it's scripture that is meant to be profitable and given to God's man for good works.

And who is God's man? Well, it's Timothy, right? It's actually anybody who is

God's servant, right? OK, well, watch this. What work does God's servant perform?

The answer must be whatever God wants him to do, right? Whatever God gives this person to do.

And that often comes out of nowhere for the Christian. Amen. I can't tell you how many times

God has given me work to do that I never planned for, that I never took into consideration.

That was not on my radar at all. It just dropped out of the sky, essentially.

And it invaded my calendar. Have you ever felt that way? Like you two, like and so how do we stay prepared and ready for these providential moments that we never planned for?

And the answer is we know God's word so well that it makes us wise to the story that he's telling.

That is what Paul is getting at in this passage, because whatever God is going to give us to do with regard to good work.

OK, it's going to be a part of that ultimate story. Amen. Like if this were a soccer game and you see a ball roll by, what are you going to do?

We're going to look for your team, right? You're going to look for the other team's goal, and you're going to hopefully dribble the ball down the field and kick it into the net.

Amen. Like once you see the soccer ball and you see the goals, you know you're at a soccer game, right?

That's what I'm getting at. If you know the major components of the story and how the story is being told, you'll know what your role is as part of that story.

And maybe that's actually what Mackie is getting at here. But I'm trying to be very gracious and I'm probably putting a lot of words in his mouth.

So let's hear him out. Hurting yourself and other people. And then it will correct you and say, like, man, you probably should stop living and thinking that way.

Like start living and thinking this way and things will go much better for you and your friends and your family members. And then it trains you.

It actually helps you form new habits of mind and life and moral thinking and ethical decision making that actually point you towards what is good so that you can actually contribute good into the world instead of the opposite.

And it's about wisdom. So here's what's interesting. Our intuition that scripture is meant to give us wisdom about what is good.

We end up treating the Bible like a rule book, but rules can actually only help you make one decision in one type of situation.

Wisdom can help you begin to work out how you should respond in any time and circumstance, in any situation.

Wisdom is about the formation of the core of your values, what you think is most important, what you think is good, what you think you're even here for in the first place.

And what are the other people around you here for? And when you are shaped to see the world through the eyes of God's wisdom, you don't need a rule book, though it's occasionally helpful to be reminded of the rules.

But mostly what you need to be reminded of is who you are and who God is and who God is towards you.

It's about a framework. So here's the answer to the video, right?

What is the Bible? It's a framework. If I can borrow a debate term, the

Bible gives you a framework through which you should understand the events that are happening all around you.

This framework comes out of the great story that God is telling and has been telling from the very beginning of creation, a story that answers all of those deep questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What's wrong with the world? And how can what's wrong be made right?

That's where wisdom comes in. This also helps us to understand the difference between intelligence and wisdom.

Intelligence is a word that describes your capacity to know things. But wisdom describes how you use the knowledge you have.

The way you use your knowledge is within the framework of the Bible. That's biblical wisdom.

And that's what God's word invites you to have. I think I think

Mackey's right. If you don't understand what this book really is, that it's actually a framework told through a great narrative.

And it's this framework that gives the kind of guide you so that you can live your life in the most deep and meaningful way, according to your design as God's creation.

If you don't understand that, you're either going to gloss over a lot of it because it won't make sense to you, or you're going to scratch your head in confusion as to why a lot of these particular things are in the

Bible. That's why it's so important, friends. Oh, my goodness. Hear me on this, please.

That you do not isolate yourself in the pursuit of knowing God and reading his word.

You have to find yourself an excellent church community that can help your understanding of what

God's word really is so that you'll know what you're supposed to do and how you should live your life to its fullest.

Amen. And I know, you know, for a lot of you right now, that's a very tall order, and I get it.

For a lot of reasons, that's probably true. But let me assure you, God's people are out there, friends.

They're pursuing God just like you are, and they love him with all their heart and will help you.

You just need to go find them. That's my prayer for you as I close, that all of us, brothers and sisters, love

God with all of our heart and we know and love his word together. Amen. All right.

Well, now it's your turn to sound off. What do you think? Is the Bible confusing? Why is it so confusing?

Is Tim Mackey right? Does it come down to understanding what this book really is? Let me know in the comments below.

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