Dear Garrett Seminary Student,

Thank you for asking me for my thoughts on the meaning of the phrase Biblical obedience.

When you wrote that we would talk and you would listen I was quite beside myself - as you might imagine.

I’d considered recording my voice and sending you an MP3 and I have not ruled that out at this moment.

It occurred to me that I might not be as ‘composed’ as I would like during a vocal presentation and I would have to organize my thoughts - which means write them down - so, I might as well write them down.

My first thought hearing about obedience of any kind is to look around the room and see who is talking to whom. Usually a self-appointed authoritarian is wielding a sharp edge of truth as a weapon under which one is made to scrape and bow.

More often than not the self-appointed authoritarian indicates two basic things; he is merely acting as an agent for a higher authority, or there is one truth, he knows it and you don’t.  Rather than bring himself under the rule, he will find someone he can subjugate, or at least be made to feel guilty.

That would be an easy-to-find working principle of external obedience. And external brings to mind internal obedience. That simply speaks to which rules one imposes on oneself. Ah, but who’s voice is it?

Let’s look at the biblical component of your chosen phrase.

In your mind, go to the bookstore or library and pick out 77 or more books and pile them on a sturdy table. Pick some creation stories, mythology, poetry, songs, histories, children's books, futuristic fantasy, some how-to instruction types and plenty of religion and spiritual books. They can be any size, have different fonts, colors, and languages.

Next, pick out 66 or the 77 or more of those books, hiding the unused books wherever you wish.

Now, using a band saw or mechanical knife blade, cut off the bindings and stack your 66 selections in any order you see fit.

There we have approximately what we had before binding was invented.
Gutenberg is usually credited for printing the first Bible. And he might have done just that. However, the most incredible thing he did was create movable type, making it possible to mass produce so many pages without hand carving each letter for each page/plate ... unless the Chinese beat him to it.

But, without binding a varied collection into a single collection with consistent and common elements, we would not have the singular book we call the Bible. And we have only called it that less than 600 years.

So, given that the original collections included songs, poems, prayers, fiction, fantasy, mythology, creation stories, how-to instructional rules, etc. I wonder if it is possible or even desirable to be obedient to all of it.

I think we, individually and collectively, choose what parts we believe to be true, or take what has been drilled into us and wrestle with that.

Finally, we have readers and writers. Whoever authored the books, God or Man, in the ever-ongoing editions in dozens and dozens of languages, is less important than this; if there is not an inspired and inquiring reader, the rest of it matters little.

Here resides the Holy Spirit; in the inquiry, inspiration and interaction. Be obedient to that.

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Now that I am finished with this writing session I see plainly that I might have said this: The Bible is a book. Believing in and being obedient to a book is missing the point.

Also, now that I have about 600 words here, I am entirely uninspired with the notion of reading them out loud so that I can send you an MP3.

Thank you once again. Good luck with your project.
Blessings,
David White