The way for a secular agnostic bothered by a gnawing emptiness to move off dead center regarding Bible skepticism

Great piece at The Resurgent today by Peter Heck, on the subject of a particular internal within the findings of the Pew Research poll on contemporary Americans' spiritual and / or religious views and beliefs.

He cautions that before we find too much encouragement in the stat that roughly 50 percent of those polled believe in the God of the Bible, we should consider something:

many of those same folks don’t regularly read or study the Bible and often know very little about it. That leads to a phenomenon of Burger King Christianity where adherents literally “have it their way,” taking out the parts of Scripture or the faith that runs afoul of their social, cultural, political, or philosophical preferences.

For Biblical Christians that might seem to be a sobering reality, but it is also highly motivating. The American church has unquestionably slipped into a complacency where we “do church” on our terms, often reducing the power of the transformative gospel to a feel-good, do-good self-help social club. We shape it so that it conforms to our beliefs rather than shaping our beliefs to conform to its truth. We water down its doctrine and rub off its sharp edges to make it palatable and comfortable for our lives. There’s no struggle, there’s no transformation, merely assurance and affirmation.

People cannot be saved by a false Jesus, and they can’t be changed by a false gospel. That means Bible believers should recognize we are living the words of Scripture where, “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” 

The comment thread below it is worth a look as well. It's refreshingly free of the snark and vitriol that characterizes most exchanges in such forums. In fact, its a lively exchange of viewpoints worth considering.

I've been thinking about this one in particular:

Certainly our culture is full of "salad bar Christians" who are quick to adapt moral positions to fit the times. Being non-judgmental seems to be the highest biblical virtue to some. 

But, there is no absolute science to interpreting the Bible as evidenced by the number of Christian denominations and the squabbles over doctrine and dogma. How much literalism should be applied to the Bible? How much allegory? What does a relationship with Jesus really mean...are the implications clear? I do agree that there are a whole lot of distractions today that impede or distract people from evolving their understanding of what they believe and how they should live. For some, religion is largely social...for others it is very personal....others are not at all comfortable with evangelizing....since faith is something one must come to in his/her own way. It's tough selling a supernatural Bible to a culture that needs visual evidence. 

Such questions make for handy excuses for the secular agnostic to dismiss study of scripture on the grounds that it's just too full of vague metaphor and gaping holes in historical accounts to be worth much more than serving as a balm for the existentially desperate.

I've even recently, in the course of being pestered on social media by a hardcore leftist atheist, seen the Bible characterized as "a compilation heavily edited by an all-male group 300 years after the last event documented in it occurred."

It's clear to me, though, that there is a certain type of person - or rather, person at a certain point of ontological inquiry - who is not that far gone, who indeed doesn't ever crack a Bible, much less go to church, but who harbors a growing, gnawing sense that his secular agnosticism is utterly incapable of addressing his moments of darkness - and who, furthermore, understands that it's impossible to press on with his existence if living with that darkness is the best that can be done. I know, because that person was me once, and not so long ago.

The exact right words have to be found for each particular situation, or course, but it seems to me a general - and appropriately respectful - way to proceed goes something like this:

I invite you to suspend your cynicism and ask yourself a purely historical question. Why has the Bible come to assume such an authoritative role in the development of our civilization? Why do we number our years from the birth of Jesus? Why were universities traditionally church-affiliated? Why have Biblical names been so common throughout the centuries? 

Just set your preconceptions aside momentarily, even if you pick them back up immediately after a bit of exploration. Just approach the Bible from the standpoint that a whole lot of people and institutions made it central to their missions, even if they were wrong. 

Then just start into reading somewhere. The late Billy Graham recommends starting with the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, rather than with Genesis. That may be the most effective.

Read it with an unclouded curiosity. Who was this Jesus? What, indeed, are some ways one might interpret his parables? Why did he undergo the savage torture, humiliation and execution he experienced that grim Friday, knowing that it could all end in an instant if he'd tell the authorities what they wanted to hear? How are you with four accounts of the empty tomb?

I submit that if you really permit yourself some humble inquiry, you'll start to be touched by the humility of Jesus, and then the other figures you encounter: his apostles, and then, going backwards, Abraham, Moses, Esther, David, the prophets.

You'll notice something - and this is a most non-empirical thing for me to say - a stirring in your heart. You'll get little glimpses of light intruding onto your darkness, even if they're fleeting. 

Take it at your own pace. Put it down if the "yeah-but-what-about-this-angle" voice in your head won't leave you alone. 

But if you approach it with a willingness to meet it on its own terms, there's a good chance you'll keep picking it up, and your curiosity will grow into hunger.

What I've posted here is my first foray in a direction that I'm hoping will lead to an essay for another website. I may share some more preliminary thoughts here as I develop that. Then again, I may leap right into that essay. Inspiration can be like that.

Blessings.