FROM THE MANUSCRIPT
In the author’s words
That is recklessness. Many people do not believe the Bible. They believe the interpretation of the Bible they inherited. They believe the sermon they heard. They believe the emotional meaning a verse was given in childhood. They believe the translation their church preferred. They believe the doctrine their denomination organized around. They believe the explanation their pastor repeated. They believe the cultural mood surrounding the text. They believe the fear attached to the verse. They believe the way the Bible was used before they ever learned how to read it deeply. Then they call that “what the Bible says.” But there is a difference between scripture and what someone told you scripture means. There is a difference between the text and the tradition built around the text. There is a difference between reading and repeating. There is a difference between interpretation and God. Translation is not God. Doctrine is not God. A sermon is not God. A pastor’s explanation is not God. A denomination’s emphasis is not God. A cultural habit of reading the Bible is not God. Even the most sincere interpretation is still an interpretation.
The God They Inherited, manuscript p. 97. Transcribed from the supplied manuscript; line breaks normalized.
The definition above is an editorial summary of this chapter, not a separately named theory or a claim of scientific proof.