Historically and globally, people have different roles and different social obligations at different times and in different places. The Bible is replete with stories that focus on age, gender, race, or socio-economic status. In antiquity, slavery was commonplace; now it is illegal. Before the technological age, brute force set the parameters for warfare and agriculture; now, machines empower the weakest to do the heaviest tasks. Women used to be confined to knowledge of domestic duties; social revolutions have since burst the halls of education open to all members of society. Thus, context is crucial in understanding what is a universal mandate of God, and what is a community or cultural identification. In a postmodern world, where multiculturalism is promoted and mandated, where cynicism and skepticism are encouraged and rewarded above any fideism, how does a follower of Jesus be an obedient citizen of God’s kingdom while respectfully obeying earthly leaders, as the New Testament instructs?
These and other issues challenge readers as they seek to correctly understand God’s Word—His divine messages to humankind—from our limited and personal perspectives. Issues of injustice, inequality, disunity, suffering, divisions, hate, unfairness, and others have long troubled the human mind and spirit. Living in a world where everything exists in the immediate—Now!—waiting and working for an answer seems unbearable, but the biblical solution is to trust in God and cling to the mystery until such a time when the divine solution will be made crystal clear. Until that occurs, biblical readers are exhorted to trust in God’s ways, to carefully study and learn His word, to be unconditional in leaning upon the Word of God for instruction and advice, and in all things, to have the holy, righteous love of God be the guide for all human choices.
There are many approaches that scholars and theologians can take when writing about the Old and New Testament texts in the Bible. Our respective academic backgrounds lend themselves to a personal-but-pragmatic method that incorporates the biblical and the theological with the historical and the sociological. Ultimately, though, the Bible is the redemptive story of God and His people. This story begins in the early chapters of Genesis but continues on through the Old Testament books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ruth, and Esther. The tales within them are tantalizing and often terrible, with soap opera scripts, cliff-hanger endings, and last moment interventions by a God who delights in rescues and reconciliations.
Because of my great passion for Church History and the Bible, I frequently find myself pulled into watching a Bible or Church History documentary on the History Channel or Discovery (See your local listings). They always have such awesome titles—"UFOs in the Bible," "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho," "Samson and Delilah," "David and Bathsheba," 'Solomon and Sheba," and the list goes on. Unfortunately, they mostly offer an interesting but unfaithful view of the Scriptures, biblical characters, and the facts—pandering to the masses with no biblical or Church History understanding.
Watching these movies becomes a lesson in patience and self-control. It’s a good thing that no bricks are laying about in arm's reach. I must look like a zombie with my eyes perpetually rolled up into my head with all the false deconstructionist proclamations being spewed out like promises from a politician. "The Bible writers never believed in the One God." "Most scholars think David was mythic figure." "No historical evidence exists for Joshua." "For the Prophets, their revelation was never about the end of the world." "None of the Historical books were actually written by their purported authors." Their deviances from traditional understanding go on and on. Truly, we have entered an age of "Mediapostasy."
Departing from truth accepted for nearly 2,000 years, these are movie and television screens filled with the false teachings that Paul warns about in 1 Timothy 6—
"If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain."
Their perspective is limited and darkened, and they want others to join in with them in ignorance.
The media outlets suggest something quite different than biblical truth. They offer postmodern society an unassertive, watered-down version of the heroic men and women in the Old Testament, a mythic/fairytale view of Yahweh, and a convoluted, corrupt composition of the Bible. This is not unexpected considering key Biblical prophecies. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:3,
"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
The media’s version is not "Good News" and hardly something that people would turn their lives upside-down for (or die) if it meant as little as media makes it out to be. The Way would not have caught on as an international, inclusive, indelible faith and spread like wild-fire through a withered, self-centered society consumed with its own greatness, and lacking in mercy, truth, and love. In the darkness, people are drawn to the light.
For the early Christians, the Biblical message of God's plan of salvation through Jesus was the "Good News" because it offered a truthful, dependable, refreshing take on life with God and each other. It allowed them to be human, affirmed God’s love despite their faults, and promoted a positive but realistic outlook on life that benefitted everyone. For them, it wasn't one way to the divine; it was the only way. John 17:3 states, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Orthodoxy was not a political position. Something was "orthodox" because it was true, not artificial nor fraudulent, and it had to be a powerful truth.
The Bible (including the New Testament) calls people to live Godly, holy lives fighting against their destructive human instincts. It requires Christians to take the righteous path and bravely suggest that others do likewise for a better, healthier relationship with each other and God. It suggests that each believer “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people." ~ Jude 1:3
Why? Because the accounts are true. Because there really is a God. Because Jesus really died for the sins of the world. Because Moses and the Hebrews really crossed the Red Sea. Because David really did slay a giant. Because this really is one incredible 6,000–year story worth learning about.