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When David Koresh's compound in Waco, Texas was set on fire, the real issue was how the Bible was read. To get spiritual, you need to read the Bible.  Yet,  how it is interpreted by a faith community makes all the difference in your spiritual life.

David Koresh was a leader of a group of people called the "Branch Davidians".  They believed that David Koresh was the incarnation of Jesus Christ who had come back to lead a violent end to the world and redemption for all who followed him.  The government had a stand off with Koresh in his compound in Waco, Texas.  This stand off has lead to retaliation by anti-government groups.  It has been reported that the bombing of the Edward P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, OK was motivated by the Koresh event.

The reason I picked this example is that David Koresh used the Bible to "prove" that he was the "Messiah".

There have been others who have done the same.  No doubt there will be more in the years to come.  The reason why is because the Holy Scriptures, called the Bible, are a compilation of the poetry, letters, history and commandments of God and his people. With them come the chance that someone will take it upon themselves to interpret the Scriptures.  This leads me to my first point in how to listen to God:

God has come to speak to his people through a written word that is interpreted by his community of people.

Article Highlights

Much like a manual for architects is useless or uninformative unless an architect interprets the manual for us, the faith specific terms of the scriptures need interpretation within a community that understands the faith language it contains.  And it is dangerous for people outside the community of faith to think that they can interpret them without a community of faith.

Every church, whether Catholic, United Methodist, Baptist, Missionary, Mennonite, etc. has a way to interpret the Scriptures.    The one thing they all agree on is what is said by St. Paul to St. Timothy, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (RSV, 2 Timothy 3.16)

This passage tells us that the Scriptures were inspired by God to speak to people.  The theme is to be spiritual: being in relationship and conversation with God.  And there is no denomination of Christianity which denies that in some way the Scriptures are the Word of God.

Those of the Anglican and Methodist persuasion say that the Bible is the Word of God in that "all things necessary to salvation are contained therein."  Others, such as Baptists and fundamentalists often claim that it is the inerrant word of God that has been handed to us.  Catholics believe that "In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God." (Catechism, para. 104).  The belief is commonly held that the Bible is God's communication to us.

To remain in contact with God, we "stay spiritual" by reading the Scriptures within a community of faith.

Some churches deny the ability of the faith community to interpret the Scriptures over an individual's right to interpret them on their own.  But, ironically, these communities often have a strict understanding of what the Scriptures say and will not tolerate individual deviation from the communal interpretation.

My understanding of how the community is needed to interpret scripture comes from the passage in Acts 8 which will be covered below.

We read the Bible within a faith community to understand what the word of God is saying to us.  And each community of faith has its guidelines for interpreting the Scriptures.  And they are remarkably similar.

Click Here to Go to Assignment.

In Acts 8, while Philip was going to Jerusalem from Gaza, as directed by an angel of the Lord, he encounters an Ethiopian Eunuch who is reading a passage from the prophet Isaiah.  When Philip approached the chariot in which the Eunuch was riding, he asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

The Ethiopian replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?"  Here the guidance of the community of faith is needed to understand the Scriptures.  This is important because it is the community of faith that compiled these Scriptures into a "Bible."  The Apostle St. Philip is the member of the faith community who guides the Ethiopian Eunuch.

Over time there were any number of "scriptures" that were floating around Christianity.  And some were more beneficial than others.   Bishops met to choose which ones were really the inspired word of God.  It was the community of faith in the beginning which understood that God was speaking through the selected letters and books to the Community.

And these books were to be considered as a whole.  That is why they were compiled into one source.  It seems too simple to think of this, but it is true.  The books of the Bible were compiled so that they would be considered as a whole.

Some churches pay homage to the Gospels a little more than the others because they contain the words of Jesus Christ, but for the most part, they are considered with equal weight.  

It would be unfair to a piece of literature to open it up in the middle read a sentence or two and say you understand the whole story, wouldn't it?  So why do we do it to the Bible?  The Bible is a story which heads to a conclusion.  And like a story, we look back on the whole story and gain a fuller understanding of the story when we are done by knowing the conclusion. 

The Bible concludes with the coming of Jesus Christ.  And so, like a good novel, we understand the ending better with Jesus Christ as the interpretive key.  That understanding of Jesus Christ is at the heart of how a community interprets Scripture.

The other day, a Jehovah's Witness gave me one of their Bible's as a going away present.  I opened it up to the Gospel of St. John and it said that "the Word was a god."  I was horrified.  If this is true, it means that Jesus Christ did not really save humanity because he was just another creation.  We are really not incorporated into God if this is true because the divinity of the God-man Jesus is what makes us part of God when we are baptized into him.

My understanding of who the living Jesus Christ is, my spiritual understanding, helped me know that this interpretation of the Scriptures was wrong.   And I know this is true because I have lived in communities of faith where Jesus Christ has made himself known through the breaking of the Bread and sharing of the Cup.

What does your church or former church say about the reading and understanding of the Scriptures?  You need to know.  What a faith-filled community has to say is more important than what an individual has to say.  Check it out.  That is your assignment for this week.

Scripture Reading Assignment:

Call your local church and ask them to send you an official copy of how your church says you ought to read and understand the Bible.

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