Imagine being in a cinema and you suddenly find yourself inside the movie set. You hear the director giving direction and you see the actors. You get to see things through the eyes of both the director and the actors. There are thus two views of reality: the director’s view and that of the actors.
In the same vein there are two perspectives to scriptures. The first is the perspective from above – God’s viewpoint. We generally struggle with this perspective because we can’t cope with God’s exacting standard.
But there’s a second point of view – the perspective of men and women from the street level. Because humans are limited in knowledge and are hemmed in by the level of advancement of society their narrative often contains mistakes. The Bible permits these mistakes. It’s why the Bible records Joshua telling the sun to stand still. From Joshua’s perspective the sun moves. But we know from cosmology the sun doesn’t move, it’s the earth that moves. These are not Bible mistakes. It’s the concept of the Bible. The literary style of the Bible tolerates the ignorance and imperfections of her contributors. For the most the Bible is not a dictation. The men and women who contributed editorially were inspired. There’s a big difference.
The amazing thing is, the human imperfections bring the Bible home to us. We can see ourselves in the ignorance of Joshua, the lust of David, the recklessness of Samson, the denial of Peter, the doubts of Thomas. Bible characters were not perfect. They were human like us, and they made mistakes, did stupid stuff, had fears… By the strict standards of God none of these Old Testament stars would have made it. But God is not looking for perfect beings, he’s looking for perfect hearts – hearts that are humble and teachable. None of us will arrive at Heaven’s gate sinless. The only way we’ll ever get into Heaven is by grace. That ought to humble some of us.That ought to humble some of us.
Aphorism CITY 