Of course “being open” can mean different things. In the context of this article, I mean, are you open to new spiritual ideas? This could be new religions, new doctrines, different interpretations, etc.
Before really thinking about this, I would have said “absolutely yes!” This is because I share my spiritual ideas, have Bible studies with people, and invite people to church; so I figure I need to be at least as open as I hope those whom I invite are. But thinking about this a bit more deeply, can one really be open to all new ideas?
By “open to new spiritual ideas,” by no means do I mean that you will definitely accept a new idea, but that you will listen to the idea, try to understand it, and then accept it if it is Biblical. But how does one determine if something is Biblical or not? That’s the million dollar question, right?
Typically “Biblical” means it fits into your current spiritual paradigm. If one has no spiritual paradigm and yet is open to listening to someone teach them the Bible, then this is the quintessential open person. In America at least, it seems like these kinds of folks are hard to come by! These folks are also in quite a precarious position. If the person with whom they are studying the Bible has a relatively sound and logical argument, they basically will end up accepting whatever they are taught.
When I first studied the Bible, I had grown up Catholic and barely knew the Bible, but I did have a strong belief in the existence of God and the authenticity of the Bible. Now that I’m much more studied in the Bible, I don’t agree with everything I was taught, but I would not be where I am today were it not for those guys who studied with me (not even remotely). Life is a journey—we never know how God is going to work.
Going back to the question, “Can one really be open to every teaching?” I have studied just a bit about Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism and Islam, but definitely not enough to directly rule them out as the truth. (I have studied about and with Jehovah’s Witnesses a great deal, who are the perfect example of how not to interpret the Bible, and so I feel justified in hiding in our back room sometimes when they come by!)
I don’t have time to commit myself to Christianity and yet give the required amount of time to study out other major religions. I have “by default” ruled them out by proving to myself that the Bible is God’s inspired word which claims itself exclusively as the truth. But what if the spiritual books of the other religions also make such claims and are able to convince their readers that they are exclusively the truth? I haven’t read them but I wouldn’t be surprised by that.
So what am I asking of those who read this? It’s something much simpler and less invasive than accepting my beliefs or learning a new religion. It’s an interpretational paradigm or method—one which should be true of all spiritual books really. Namely, the reader should seek to understand the historical and cultural context of every passage before applying the passages to their own modern cultural reality. Furthermore, those who seek to create, correct, or modify doctrines must have an even deeper understanding of this context.
Does it sound daunting? It needn’t be. In her book, Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg says, “You might think that you need to master whole textbooks before this kind of study starts to enrich your Bible reading, but I’ve been amazed at how the smallest details can help connect the dots.” Take for instance just knowing that the Jews believed the fig tree to be symbolic of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This one piece of knowledge brings depth and understanding to many passages that refer to a fig tree, like when Jesus withered one (Mat 21:16, Mk 11:12), and when Jesus saw Philip under one (John 1:48), and several other places like Luke 13:6 and Luke 21:29.
Are you open to this? I hope so, because to me it’s very logical and reasonable. Of course being open to it means more than just the thought, “sure that’s sounds like a good idea.” It means being open to seeing Scriptures in new ways. Even with my limited knowledge, I’ve being totally amazed at how even the most straightforward-sounding passages take on new meanings when cultural context is applied.