Best of all, most people who claim that ignore most of what “the Word” actually says and pay more attention to what their particular tradition tells them “the Word” says.
I reckon he has hollowed out a section of his Bible and has in mobile hidden inside it - it’s just been so long since he last opened it that he has forgotten.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
In other words, the Bible tells the Christian everything he needs to know about God and how to live a Christian life. This is where “thoroughly equip” comes in.
The Bible does not contain all information about God - no book can do that. But what is in the Bible about God is sufficient for our needs.
And certainly the Bible does not contain all the answers about everything. That is one claim the Bible never makes about itself.
I think there is something about concrete thinkers. Whatever you are first told is theultimate authority you will adhere to without default. I had exactly the same experience with a colleague yesterday but in a different direction - everything you need to know is in the catechism.
BTW I also discovered that I am anathematised (protestant ).
I hate mobile phones. I concede that they do have usefulness. I have a cheapo Nokia that does all the basics. But invariably when people want to get in touch it’s either on silent or the battery has run down. In church there is always some prat whose phone goes off in the middle of the service. On Easter Sunday, I was in a strange church (strange as in unknown to us, not peculiar) with some members of my family. My brother-in-law is an Evertonian and his ring tone is the theme to Z-cars. For our younger contributors, that one of the first British police TV series and Everton FC, apparently, use it as their signature tune. Just as the organ was starting up for the first hymn, Mike’s phone goes off, dead loud! I thought it was a fancy accompaniment on the organ at first, but then the horrible truth dawned. The home congregation were all either sniggering or tutting. Embarrassing!!! Trust a bluenose!
So…the pastor clearly can’t find his phone because he’s put it on silent but he needs it because it contains the combination to the lock on his deluxe lockable bible.
My mobile phone is constantly having new ringtones applied to it (without my knowledge or permission) by my kids. Recently at the jail where I work a prisoner had come to see me for counselling. My phone went off and I couldn’t find it for ages. Meanwhile the “ringtone” was a sing-songy voice going “My friend’s calling me. My friend likes me. Ha ha. You haven’t got a friend. etc etc”. Prisoners of course are not allowed mobile phones. This could not have been more inappropriate! Thanks kids. And thanks Carole for asking that question #16 so I could get another embarrassing experience off my chest.
Ax
Jon is comically alluding to what some people call the encyclopedic assumption which some evangelical Christians are committed to. This view expects the guidance of Scripture to take the form of offering infallible information about virtually every subject under the sun. Some people call this biblicism.
This perspective completely ignores what some theologians call ‘general revelation’. We don’t find out about frogs by going to Scripture but by studying them in the light of the biblical story. The ‘light’ of Scripture should help us to understand the frog in ways that avoid reductionism, pantheism etc. This perspective allows us to be dead curious about the world around us which is enormous fun.
As I was explaining to year 9, Gen 1 tells us the wonderful poetic story of why we were created!! If you start to treat it as how you will come a little unstuck as the frog is not mentioned. Out of the frying pantheism and into the fire!!
good point Robb. Genesis is a story of creation not a physics textbook. If God wanted to give us the details of the ‘hows’ maybe the pentateuch would consist of The following books; Biochemisty, Geology, Cosmology, General Relativity and Quantum Physics. Good luck reading that lot. I mean, Deuteronomy and Numbers are pretty tough reads as it is…
My favorite are the people who insist that the ONLY bible to use is the KJV - as though JC spoke Shakespeare. They’re the same ones who shoot you if you suggest that Jesus wasn’t an anemic white dude. As NT Wright notes, the bible isn’t a guidebook for how to live but the unfolding of God’s saving grace throughout history.
How does everyone feel about ‘The Message’? I enjoy reading it so much and find it makes me feel excited rather than intimidated, which I have often felt when I read other translations (I know that The Message is not a translation as such, but you know what I mean).
Sometimes I don’t understand something, then I read it in The Message and it makes much more sense to me.
Some people feel the Bible is always there to guide them, but I find it easier to hear God in the love my family shows me or in the gentle nudges He gives me when I’m not being as kind as I should be! I’m not very good at turning to the Bible, as I still have trouble with exactly how I engage with it. I like Rob Bell’s book ‘Velvet Elvis’ - anyone read that? I am a worrier generally, and have often got all upset after reading the Bible. I know this says a lot more about me than it does about the Bible, but that worries me even more!
I like to read the Bible with other Christians who are at hand to ask the hundreds of questions I have when reading it! My friends get very fed up with me, but luckily for me they are lovely!
A lot of what I need to know about Life (not life) is indeed in the Bible. So I still read it daily, all of it over period of time, lost count of how many times; memorise small bits. I fill my heart with it in hope that out of the overflow of my heart my mouth will speak. We ignore it at our peril - but of course that’s not the point of the toon. When I left my Bible behind a friend chided me for “leaving my sword at home” NO, no, no. Idolatry is idolatry even when it’s the Bible that’s placed higher than anything else
Love the message Hayley - think Petterson has the mind of a theologian, linguist and poet all in one place - magic - if one can use such an expression!! dave
I think becky is right - Tom Wright is very helpful.The bible tells us the story of creation and recreation and the resurrection is the turning point in history which will take us into God’s new world..a renewed heaven and a renewed earth.
Hee hee, I like it - so much hyperbole around the role of scripture. If humour can help burst the bubble of this bibliolatory so much the better.
P
Comment by Paul Laughlin — April 3, 2008 @ 9:57 pm
Oh, if only there was such a thing as a book that would let me know where I’ve put my cell phone and keys. That would be fabulous
Comment by thevikingfru — April 4, 2008 @ 12:55 am
sorry i’ve been out of the discussions for the last couple of days… an all hours work load! should be back with you all and brimming with things to say at the weekend. missing it…
nice to see some new faces here… welcome y’all to asbo… enjoy your stay!
1, I love The Message. If i want to do a detailed theological word study I’ll use another translation but when i just want to spend time in God’s Word, the message is wonderfully accessible.
Think of it this way. we talk a lot about bible study. but when was the last time you made friends with someone by studying them? Do you build a relationship by learning as much as you can about a person? or do you spend time together, enjoy each other’s company and share life and journey together? There’s a place for studying the Bible but sometimes we spend so much time getting to know ABOUT God that we forget to just get to know God.
And Hayley, as for questions. questions are wonderful, hold onto those friends who are happy to discuss questions. ask more questions. I believe very firmly that God LOVES it when we question stuff.
Yes Hayley. you’re not alone in struggling with all this. I’m so glad God is too big for my puny brain to understand… but it doesn’t half drive me nuts at times!
and carole, my ringtone is a currently a very boring ‘ring’ which cuts of midway and then the phone turns off. or I answer it and the person on the other end can’t hear me so they start yelling thinking I can’t hear them either when in fact I’m holding my phone at arms length to avoid being deafened… d’you think it may be time for a new phone?
Tom C, I think you should scav an old phone from virtually anybody you know who is bound to upgrade their phone on an annual basis. It never fails for me.
I got bored of leaping for my phone everytime I heard some other Nokia user’s phone rang. So I recorded some random African drumming at Greenbelt two years ago to use as my ringtone. I’ve never heard anybody with the same tone. So if you had a session on the old djembe at GB06, you may well be my ringtone!
He just wants to call someone and tell ‘em about it.
Comment by Lori — April 3, 2008 @ 3:42 am
Ah, yes…deferring to “the Word” as the answer to everything…kinda like “the Word” has been downgraded from being God incarnate to a book.
Comment by shelly — April 3, 2008 @ 4:29 am
Best of all, most people who claim that ignore most of what “the Word” actually says and pay more attention to what their particular tradition tells them “the Word” says.
Good comic.
God’s Glory,
Lew
The Pursuit Online Store
Comment by Lew A — April 3, 2008 @ 4:43 am
Dont understand.
Comment by steve — April 3, 2008 @ 5:31 am
Maybe he doesn’t “need” to know where his mobile phone is.
Comment by steve — April 3, 2008 @ 6:10 am
how dull is the man who only knows what he needs to know.
Comment by su — April 3, 2008 @ 6:37 am
maybe he has a pocket PC and has pocketbible installed or if he is really cool like me has iBible.
Man doesn’t live on bread alone but from every word of his mobile phone.
Comment by dennis coburn — April 3, 2008 @ 6:37 am
a typical man, has no sense of urgency in finding out about ‘what women want!’ (sorry, couldn’t resist, don’t really think this)
Comment by su — April 3, 2008 @ 6:43 am
I reckon he has hollowed out a section of his Bible and has in mobile hidden inside it - it’s just been so long since he last opened it that he has forgotten.
Comment by marcus — April 3, 2008 @ 7:34 am
2 Timothy 3.16-17 is important here:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
In other words, the Bible tells the Christian everything he needs to know about God and how to live a Christian life. This is where “thoroughly equip” comes in.
The Bible does not contain all information about God - no book can do that. But what is in the Bible about God is sufficient for our needs.
And certainly the Bible does not contain all the answers about everything. That is one claim the Bible never makes about itself.
Comment by One Salient Oversight — April 3, 2008 @ 7:39 am
I think there is something about concrete thinkers. Whatever you are first told is theultimate authority you will adhere to without default. I had exactly the same experience with a colleague yesterday but in a different direction - everything you need to know is in the catechism.
BTW I also discovered that I am anathematised (protestant
).
Comment by Robb — April 3, 2008 @ 7:44 am
Oh yeah, the topic. Sometimes we forget that Jesus is The Word and that the Bible is the canonical record of Him.
Comment by Robb — April 3, 2008 @ 7:45 am
Hmmm - have you got God’s number then?
Comment by Slowburn — April 3, 2008 @ 8:04 am
Slowburn, didn’t they teach you this in Sunday school? God’s phone number is Jeremiah 333 (33:3) ‘call on me and I will answer you’ (NIV)
AH the good old days of naff proof texts and coarny jokes.
Comment by Catriona — April 3, 2008 @ 8:20 am
How does he choose which gas tarrif to go on? which ref for that?
Comment by Jonathan S — April 3, 2008 @ 8:51 am
I hate mobile phones. I concede that they do have usefulness. I have a cheapo Nokia that does all the basics. But invariably when people want to get in touch it’s either on silent or the battery has run down. In church there is always some prat whose phone goes off in the middle of the service. On Easter Sunday, I was in a strange church (strange as in unknown to us, not peculiar) with some members of my family. My brother-in-law is an Evertonian and his ring tone is the theme to Z-cars. For our younger contributors, that one of the first British police TV series and Everton FC, apparently, use it as their signature tune. Just as the organ was starting up for the first hymn, Mike’s phone goes off, dead loud! I thought it was a fancy accompaniment on the organ at first, but then the horrible truth dawned. The home congregation were all either sniggering or tutting. Embarrassing!!!
Trust a bluenose!
So…the pastor clearly can’t find his phone because he’s put it on silent but he needs it because it contains the combination to the lock on his deluxe lockable bible.
Parting shot, what’s your ringtone, guys?
Comment by Carole — April 3, 2008 @ 8:55 am
Theme tune to Spiderman and His mazing Friends.
Comment by Robb — April 3, 2008 @ 9:00 am
Damnit, I forgot my hyphen! Spider-man and his Amazing Friends.
Comment by Robb — April 3, 2008 @ 9:01 am
My mobile phone is constantly having new ringtones applied to it (without my knowledge or permission) by my kids. Recently at the jail where I work a prisoner had come to see me for counselling. My phone went off and I couldn’t find it for ages. Meanwhile the “ringtone” was a sing-songy voice going “My friend’s calling me. My friend likes me. Ha ha. You haven’t got a friend. etc etc”. Prisoners of course are not allowed mobile phones. This could not have been more inappropriate! Thanks kids. And thanks Carole for asking that question #16 so I could get another embarrassing experience off my chest.
Ax
Comment by AnneDroid — April 3, 2008 @ 12:28 pm
Maybe it does have the answer: “Seek and ye shall find.” Which being interpreted, is: Get off your buttocks and go look for it.
Comment by bishopdave — April 3, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
Anne, your kids are Gems!
Comment by Lori — April 3, 2008 @ 1:41 pm
Jon is comically alluding to what some people call the encyclopedic assumption which some evangelical Christians are committed to. This view expects the guidance of Scripture to take the form of offering infallible information about virtually every subject under the sun. Some people call this biblicism.
This perspective completely ignores what some theologians call ‘general revelation’. We don’t find out about frogs by going to Scripture but by studying them in the light of the biblical story. The ‘light’ of Scripture should help us to understand the frog in ways that avoid reductionism, pantheism etc. This perspective allows us to be dead curious about the world around us which is enormous fun.
rocky
Comment by Mark Roques — April 3, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
As I was explaining to year 9, Gen 1 tells us the wonderful poetic story of why we were created!! If you start to treat it as how you will come a little unstuck as the frog is not mentioned. Out of the frying pantheism and into the fire!!
Comment by Robb — April 3, 2008 @ 2:32 pm
good point Robb. Genesis is a story of creation not a physics textbook. If God wanted to give us the details of the ‘hows’ maybe the pentateuch would consist of The following books; Biochemisty, Geology, Cosmology, General Relativity and Quantum Physics. Good luck reading that lot. I mean, Deuteronomy and Numbers are pretty tough reads as it is…
Comment by Tom C — April 3, 2008 @ 3:17 pm
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Scripture - well my version of it anyway!! dave
Comment by Dave Wiles — April 3, 2008 @ 5:34 pm
My favorite are the people who insist that the ONLY bible to use is the KJV - as though JC spoke Shakespeare. They’re the same ones who shoot you if you suggest that Jesus wasn’t an anemic white dude. As NT Wright notes, the bible isn’t a guidebook for how to live but the unfolding of God’s saving grace throughout history.
Comment by becky — April 3, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
How does everyone feel about ‘The Message’? I enjoy reading it so much and find it makes me feel excited rather than intimidated, which I have often felt when I read other translations (I know that The Message is not a translation as such, but you know what I mean).
Sometimes I don’t understand something, then I read it in The Message and it makes much more sense to me.
Some people feel the Bible is always there to guide them, but I find it easier to hear God in the love my family shows me or in the gentle nudges He gives me when I’m not being as kind as I should be! I’m not very good at turning to the Bible, as I still have trouble with exactly how I engage with it. I like Rob Bell’s book ‘Velvet Elvis’ - anyone read that? I am a worrier generally, and have often got all upset after reading the Bible. I know this says a lot more about me than it does about the Bible, but that worries me even more!
I like to read the Bible with other Christians who are at hand to ask the hundreds of questions I have when reading it! My friends get very fed up with me, but luckily for me they are lovely!
Anyone else ever struggle with it all?
Comment by Hayley — April 3, 2008 @ 6:47 pm
A lot of what I need to know about Life (not life) is indeed in the Bible. So I still read it daily, all of it over period of time, lost count of how many times; memorise small bits. I fill my heart with it in hope that out of the overflow of my heart my mouth will speak. We ignore it at our peril - but of course that’s not the point of the toon. When I left my Bible behind a friend chided me for “leaving my sword at home” NO, no, no. Idolatry is idolatry even when it’s the Bible that’s placed higher than anything else
Comment by Chris F — April 3, 2008 @ 7:47 pm
Love the message Hayley - think Petterson has the mind of a theologian, linguist and poet all in one place - magic - if one can use such an expression!! dave
Comment by Dave Wiles — April 3, 2008 @ 8:08 pm
Personally I never leave home without my Vulgate…
Comment by Carole — April 3, 2008 @ 8:21 pm
I think becky is right - Tom Wright is very helpful.The bible tells us the story of creation and recreation and the resurrection is the turning point in history which will take us into God’s new world..a renewed heaven and a renewed earth.
Rocky
Comment by Mark Roques — April 3, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
My Bible is in my phone, effectively, I make this comic out to be true (hehehe).
Comment by arjwdotcom — April 3, 2008 @ 9:00 pm
Hee hee, I like it - so much hyperbole around the role of scripture. If humour can help burst the bubble of this bibliolatory so much the better.
P
Comment by Paul Laughlin — April 3, 2008 @ 9:57 pm
Oh, if only there was such a thing as a book that would let me know where I’ve put my cell phone and keys. That would be fabulous
Comment by thevikingfru — April 4, 2008 @ 12:55 am
sorry i’ve been out of the discussions for the last couple of days… an all hours work load! should be back with you all and brimming with things to say at the weekend. missing it…
nice to see some new faces here… welcome y’all to asbo… enjoy your stay!
Comment by jonbirch — April 4, 2008 @ 2:59 am
“All Scripture is God-breathed…”
Why do evangelicals insist on spouting this verse endlessly as if to make the Bib more innerrant than it already isn’t.
When Paul wrote this he could only possibly have been referring to the 39 books known as the OT, at best.
Stop misleading people please.
PS: do you think Paul regarded his own letters as scripture?
Comment by Joe — April 4, 2008 @ 12:04 pm
Marcion the Heretic did
Comment by Robb — April 4, 2008 @ 12:06 pm
Hayley. (comment #27) Welcome to the club!
1, I love The Message. If i want to do a detailed theological word study I’ll use another translation but when i just want to spend time in God’s Word, the message is wonderfully accessible.
Think of it this way. we talk a lot about bible study. but when was the last time you made friends with someone by studying them? Do you build a relationship by learning as much as you can about a person? or do you spend time together, enjoy each other’s company and share life and journey together? There’s a place for studying the Bible but sometimes we spend so much time getting to know ABOUT God that we forget to just get to know God.
And Hayley, as for questions. questions are wonderful, hold onto those friends who are happy to discuss questions. ask more questions. I believe very firmly that God LOVES it when we question stuff.
Yes Hayley. you’re not alone in struggling with all this. I’m so glad God is too big for my puny brain to understand… but it doesn’t half drive me nuts at times!
and carole, my ringtone is a currently a very boring ‘ring’ which cuts of midway and then the phone turns off. or I answer it and the person on the other end can’t hear me so they start yelling thinking I can’t hear them either when in fact I’m holding my phone at arms length to avoid being deafened… d’you think it may be time for a new phone?
Comment by Tom C — April 4, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
Tom C, I think you should scav an old phone from virtually anybody you know who is bound to upgrade their phone on an annual basis. It never fails for me.
I got bored of leaping for my phone everytime I heard some other Nokia user’s phone rang. So I recorded some random African drumming at Greenbelt two years ago to use as my ringtone. I’ve never heard anybody with the same tone. So if you had a session on the old djembe at GB06, you may well be my ringtone!
Comment by Carole — April 6, 2008 @ 4:24 pm