My freedom filter

From the beginning, people have projected their own personal and cultural bias on the Bible, and claimed it to be the one-and-only correct and infallible interpretation. They often pride themselves in taking the Bible “literally.”

In the 1860s, Southern preachers defending slavery also took the Bible literally. They asked who could question the Word of God when it said, “slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling” (Ephesians 6:5), or “tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect” (Titus 2:9). Christians who wanted to preserve slavery had the words of the Bible to back them up.

One of the big questions I came to on the journey was whose interpretation of scripture is right and who’s to say? This question never really occurred to me during my 25-year odyssey through evangelicalism. Back then, there was no other interpretation. It was understood that there was only one interpretation―the right one, which was ours. Outside of my particular Christian sub-culture, I discovered many different views and interpretations of the Bible, stretching all the way back to the earliest days of Christianity.

In Wide Open Spaces I wrote about discovering for myself a reliable way to discern and determine truth. Jesus taught that the distinguishing characteristic of truth is that it brings freedom. I found this thing deep inside my gut that would tell me so. You’ve heard the phrase of how something can have “a ring of truth to it.” What part of you detects or experiences that “ring?”

I dubbed it as my “freedom filter.” Here’s how it worked for me. Whenever I was presented with an opinion or view of interpretation about God, my “freedom filter” would test it by asking, “Will this lead to freedom?” If the answer was “yes,” I went with it. If the answer was “no,” I didn’t.”