As I was finishing up a snack in the basement of the sub a young man walked up and asked if I would like to participate in a survey. Now, I was one step ahead. The other day I overheard a young woman giving a survey to someone about religion, sin, and the bible. This afternoon was my turn.
This young man was very friendly, respectful, and passionate about what he was doing and so I was more than willing to help him with his survey. He told me he was from Montana Bible College, ‘right across the street,’ working on a final project. The first question, “Do you believe humans were created or are a product of evolution? My quick answer, “Evolution.” I immediately saw his hand start to tremble as he wrote down my response. He now knew he was dealing with someone who did not live biblically, and was proud of it. But he kept charging on to the next question, which I was impressed with. He asked me a number of questions about sin, “do I believe all humans sin?” “Yes.” “Do I believe some sins are worse than others?” “Yes.” In a way I was even surprised with my answers sometimes. I figured he meant sin in the context of the bible, but I answered to sin in a critical, literary context, a context more relaxed, less authoritative. I would define this critical sin similarly to traditional sin but without the reference to faith or the bible, simply an immoral act. He also asked, “Do you believe there is a consequence for sin?” And I said, after a quick pause, “Yes, a sort of karma consequence, what goes around come around.” He nodded a couple times and jotted down my answer.
His next questions turned to the topic of salvation. He asked, “Do I believe humans need to achieve salvation.” Again, I answered quickly, “No.” This shook him up a bit, his hand started trembling bad and as he read the next question, he answered it for me, “uh, this would have to be no, since you answered no to the first salvation question. Okay.” His last question was, “Do people need God?” to which I paused, thought about it for a minute, and said, “Yes, some people need God and faith. It answers those hard, scary questions that people are often afraid to ponder.” And I think he liked that answer. He wrote it down and nodded his head a few times.
Then he asked me if I’d like to hear what he thought of sin, salvation and the bible. And I knew where he was going with this before he started, he was going to give me a mini sermon. But I wanted to hear it. He kind of got all excited, too, when I said I’d listen. He sat up and forward in his chair and started rattling off the typical, traditional belief the bible instills for Christians, ‘Jesus died on the cross for all of man’s sins and so we’re able to live a sin free life, and so on.’ Now that I think about it he did a really good job describing his belief and approach to the bible. However, it was after we finished his survey that the conversation got juicy.
He asked me if I had any questions, to which I said, “Yeah, now you’re a Christian?” “Yes,” he replied. “And, so what I’m curious about is how much of the bible you read and live by, only the New Testament?” (I asked this because I really was curious, and ignorant, as to which denominations of Christianity live by and believe which parts of the bible. He quickly answered, excited, “Oh, the whole thing! The Old and New Testament.” I butted in, “the Apocrypha too?” “Nooo,” he said, “not the Apocrypha.” And of course I asked why, to which he responded, “umm, because I don’t believe it’s inspired, by the Holy Spirit, God.” I thought to myself, ahh yes, the Holy Spirit, as in the Book of Acts. I also thought he was being a little ignorant and prejudice to the Apocrypha but I didn’t bring that up.
Somehow our discussion turned to the author, and authors, of the bible. To my surprise this young man started babbling on about there being multiple authors of the bible. However, he thinks there upwards of 40 authors, which I was surprised to hear. When he took a breath I butted in and brought up the documentary hypothesis, which he had not heard of. I told him about how the documentary hypothesis also suggests there are multiple authors of the bible, but not 40 or more, only about 4. I mentioned how even in the same book in the bible its noticeable there are different writers using prose (J) or lists (P). He was respectful enough to listen to me but I got the feeling he wasn’t going to think about my view of the bible over his evening prayer. But he did listen. I mentioned Frye, stages in the bible and typology but I’m sure it went right over his head – as my jabbering did in my term paper presentation for the class. He said he’d never heard of Frye, and after he left I thought to myself how I should have mentioned that Frye was a minister and a literary critic. Next time.
And, as the literature nerd I’ve become, halfway through his survey I was thinking to myself, what a coincidence, what irony, I’m currently in a biblical lit class, know a little about ‘the good book,” and can have a lively discussion with someone about the bible who has wildly different beliefs towards it that I. Wow, I better blog about this, asap!
