Mend Your Relationship With Scripture
Returning to the Bible After Leaving the Charismatic Movement
Growing up, I would often see my mother studying her Bible. I could find her taking notes while sitting in the living room or laying outside for hours on a blanket in the grass, underlining things as she read from her Bible. I admired her spiritual life, and I knew that the Scripture played an important role in it.
When I was thirteen I began my own relationship with the Good Book. I asked my mom if I could get a Bible, and she excitedly got me a purple Extreme Teen edition of the NKJV.
I remember sitting in my bedroom and listening to Christian radio with my Bible and a pen for taking notes.
Around this time, I became very convicted of my own sin and my need for God’s joy and peace in my life. I gave away all of my secular CDs and stopped listening to the popular music of the day, in addition to making adjustments in my heart and life that I hoped would please the Lord. Soon, I would become the “religious one” in my friend group.
As well intentioned as I was, I would go down a path of poor theology. I would find for myself teachers to scratch my itching ears. I would buy into man-made doctrines that emphasized hyper-mysticism and emotionalism over the truth found in the Bible.
Fast forward twenty years. I’m only now learning the Bible study basics that could have helped me avoid a lot of misunderstanding. Things that my favorite Bible teachers didn’t teach me.
Since leaving the Charismatic movement, I have had to embark on a journey of mending my relationship with Scripture.
It is not unusual to have a complicated relationship with Scripture after leaving the Charismatic movement, or any group that misuses the Bible.
It’s not unusual to find that you can’t approach Scripture without reliving some form of trauma, as you bump into Scriptures that were misinterpreted, and maybe even weaponized against you, by people you thought you could trust.
If you’re in the same boat, let’s row out together and see if we can gain some perspective.
The following are 5 Bible basics I wish I knew when I was young.
I will also share some advice from others who are in this boat with us…
1) Context, Context, Context
My favorite Charismatic Bible teachers all loved to pick verses out of the Bible and build a sermon around them. They used these verses to prove their point, but they were pulled out of their proper context far too often.
Phrases stolen from sentences.
Sentences stolen from paragraphs.
Paragraphs stolen from discourses.
No sense of the original speaker or the intended audience were included in these Bible teachings. I was commanded to do things that the Apostles were exclusively given authority to do. I was taught that I ought to be doing the works that the Prophets said would uniquely identify Christ… I was asked to fulfill the calling of many a Bible character.
I recently ran across this quote:
“Lack of context is a pretext for proof text.”
In other words, if we get into the habit of stealing quotes and phrases from the Bible apart from their larger context, we are setting ourselves up for confirmation bias- We will see what we want to see in the Word.
2) Scripture Interprets Scripture
This is such a simple idea that it makes me want to smack my own forehead. Duh! Of course, Scripture interprets Scripture.
Simply stated: There are straightforward passages that can teach us what the less clear passages in the Bible mean.
God doesn’t hide His meaning from us in Scripture. Even the parables, which were meant to veil truth from those without ears to hear, are explained in the Bible for us to understand.
We live in a time after Christ has revealed Himself to the world, and His truth is meant to be available to all people.
I am reminded of John 18, when Jesus is confronted by the mob. As he is about to be taken to the authorities to stand trial for things he allegedly said against God and government, he tells them:
“I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.”
The Bible isn’t like a Tarot deck, tea leaves, or some other magical medium. We don’t need mystics to interpret the Scriptures for us. We have the Holy Spirit who opens our hearts to His truth, and it is made plain in the Scriptures for our minds to understand.
Anyone who says, “I was reading this scripture and God showed me…” and proceeds to interpret the Scripture with their private revelation from God, is treading on thin ice. How many times have you survived an apocalypse prophecy that was gained this way? Probably more times than you realize!
If you get a high quality Bible with footnotes, you will notice that there are tons of cross-references noted on each page. This is because God’s Word proves itself out as it goes along; concepts are expounded upon as the Scriptures unfold.
3) It’s Jesus-Centered
The Charismatic hermeneutic tends to make every story a parable for our personal lives. We try to see what God is saying about us in characters like Esther, Joseph, and Daniel.
The truth is, all of Scripture is preparing for, prophesying about, and pointing to Christ. He is the center. He is the point. He is the promised Redeemer, prophesied from the Garden of Eden as the One to crush the serpent, and revealed in the divine revelation given to John on the Isle of Patmos.
As Matt Chandler said, somewhat infamously:
“You’re not David!”
4) Making the Law & Gospel Distinction
The Law of God refers to the commandments and ordinances that are required to be holy, like God. The Gospel refers to the gracious gift of salvation which releases us from the impossible task of obtaining holiness through our own works.
I think it is important to note that often Charismatic and Pentecostal expressions of faith devolve into systems of performance-based religion.
We are trying to be holy, because we are told that the pure in heart see God. Our ultimate aim as Charismatics is to see Him, to experience the moments that bring us spiritual ecstasy and a sense of closeness with God.
Likewise, we are told that blessings, healing, and prosperity of all kinds are reserved for those who have enough faith to receive them. Having a flawed idea of what faith is- thinking it is a substance we must store up or a muscle we must work out, we begin doing all of the spiritual practices we think will build our faith in order to attain what we want from God’s hand.
All the while, faith the size of a mustard seed is all that Jesus said was needed for the greatest of feats. Why? Because faith is not a measure of our strength; faith is confidence & trust in God.
It is the message of the Gospel that takes the yoke of slavery to the Law off of our shoulders. While we strive to live in a way that pleases God, we do not have the fear of His wrath when we fall short.
Instead, we know that the joy of the fullness of His grace & righteousness manifest in us is the end we have to look forward to at the end of our earthly lives.
5) Commentaries, Creeds & Councils
Here is a hard pill to swallow, perhaps:
All of your questions about Scripture and theology have been discussed by people smarter than you.
Commentaries are written by scholars and theologians and are meant to help provide context and meaning to the passages of Scripture. I especially love learning cultural and historical things that may not be obvious to me as a modern person in a time and place that is almost alien to that of the Biblical timelines.
Creeds are statements meant to help people understand and articulate their faith in a way that brings clarity and accuracy to what they believe. For example, in Romans, we see the Apostle Paul encouraging Christians to confess “Jesus is Lord.”
Councils are gatherings of church leaders where matters of faith are discussed and, sometimes, disputed about. There have been several important church councils that have affected Christianity as we know it today. The subject matter, participants, and historical ramifications of these councils is pretty interesting- and sometimes legendary- Did you hear about the one where St Nicholas (yeah, that St Nick) slapped someone he considered to be a heretic?
A disordered relationship with God’s Word is able to be restored.
I feel as though I can now approach Scripture without apprehension. It took some time, though, if I’m honest. After pulling on the thread that unraveled my Charismatic expression of faith, I found myself questioning my own eyes. I knew that my hermeneutic (method of interpretation) was skewed, but I didn’t know how to fix it.
I found that it helped to listen to someone who could critique my way of seeing things in a knowledgeable, biblical way. It was like detoxing. It was like hearing a child shout out in a crowd that the emperor is naked, when nobody else can see it past their own fear.
I found that the content produced by Chris Roseborough, Justin Peters, The Messed Up Church, and others not afraid to give their critique of Charismatic theology, helped me immensely.
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Recently, I asked a group online for their thoughts on the subject of mending a broken relationship with Scripture. (Thank you to everyone who shared!) A few great pieces of advice stood out to me…
Get a new Bible, especially if your old one has notes and highlighting in it.
Listen to an audio version of the Bible.
Pray and repent for wrong beliefs. Pray when you are confused.
Study the “laws of logic” to help you better process information and divide truth from deception.
Make your goal to enjoy the Word, rather than making it a duty.
Find a church with expositional preaching, going through each book and covering each verse.
Remember that the Holy Spirit is with you to help illuminate the Word.
“When I was a son with my father,
tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.
Get wisdom; get insight;
do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever you get, get insight.
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
She will place on your head a graceful garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.””
Proverbs 4:3–9, ESV
Below are a few links to resources for further learning. God bless!
