We cannot keep up with current events, or even have conversations with family and friends these days, without a pertinent topic coming up: What does the Bible teach and what does it not teach? Does the Bible Tell Me So? addresses this question by first examining how the Bible has been misinterpreted in the past regarding slavery and women’s suffrage (topics on which we now agree), and then asks if we are making the same mistakes in interpretation today regarding current issues (see Table of Contents).
To correctly interpret an inspired biblical author’s intended teaching, we must consider various contexts: the literary form of the biblical book, the shared presumptions of the author and audience, and the time in the 2,000 year process of revelation that is presented in the Bible when the author’s teaching appeared. When we fail to consider context, we often abuse texts to support what we already think. The result is that we use the Bible as our authority to act prejudicially toward other beloved children of God. In other words, we take God’s name in vain. How do I know this? The Bible tells me so.