Column by Robyn Honeycut

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Columns | Send mail to The Voice The Bible is more than fantasy The Bible inspires fairy tales. Each person who reads it creates from his or her own experience a personal fairy tale to live by. As a dear friend of mine explained this to me over breakfast the other day, his creative theory of eisegesis sent my mind spinning with ideas. My thought wandered into a fantasy world that I had left behind as a child. Suddenly, I was sitting under the tall, swaying cedars behind our farmhouse in Oklahoma, whispering my secrets to Bessie. Of course, I was the only one who could see or hear her, but that didn't keep me from swearing her existence was real. Reality was mine to create. And why not? Don't our imaginations create harmless diversions from the real world in which we survive? We go from sitting on Santa's lap to sitting in theaters watching adult-sized fairy tales. "The Matrix," "Lord of the Rings," and "Harry Potter" are not tales for the wee but box-office hits attracting adult audiences. These modern tales offer custom-fit saviors -- Neo, Frodo and Harry. Can we approach the Bible like that, too? Do feel-good messages and pat answers mask the hopelessness we feel when we don't understand the Bible's message? How can Christians place their lives, belief systems and eternities in the message of a "book"? How can we understand, let alone trust, such a complicated and oft-translated compilation of letters written thousands of years ago? After watching the "Lord of the Rings" 30-plus times, am I more able to detect Tolkien's authorial intent? Without fluency in Elvish, can I possibly trust the translators providing the English subtitles? If there is no hope in understanding the words of Tolkien's trilogy, what hope is there in trying to understand the words of the triune almighty God? The fact is the Bible is not fiction. Man didn't make it up to entertain audiences as Tolkien did. The Bible is on a different level. God provided it for us in order to understand his Word. The danger is not realizing that. A more subtle danger is how we weave our lives into the Bible. The two combine until they are an interlocked mess. There is no telling where our own biases stop and God's word truly begins. I no longer talk to my imaginary friend, Bessie. Sometimes I'll entertain the latest fairy tale, discussing it at dinner parties and even occasionally drawing upon its theological parallels. However, my life has never been transformed by a fairy tale. Today our postmodern culture allows even Bible school graduates to explore ideas beyond the belief of many saints who believed that there is authorial intent. Is the Bible God's Word to us, or is it just stories? According to my friend, the question left to ask is, "What do you think?" Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Columns | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2003 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.