By Jan-Carl Resurreccion

“This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” So ask the followers of Jesus in the Gospel of John, Chapter 6, verse 60. The followers of Jesus back then found his teachings too unpleasant to believe. And many today would be inclined to agree. It is hard to accept the Bible’s stance on homosexuality, that there is a hell or that there is only one way to God. This is a hard teaching, indeed. Who can accept it?

Many of his followers walked away at those words then, and many of his followers are walking away now. Indeed, identifying Christians are a shrinking part of the United States, and the United States is on average less religious than it used to be. It would be easy to conclude the Bible is an outdated book. For those who do not believe the Bible is the divine revelation of God, it may seem unnecessary to read to read a book almost two thousand years old.

However, I’d like to suggest the opposite. As the nation moves forward, it will be important that non-Christians understand what the Bible says, even if they don’t agree with what it says.

First, while the proportion of Christians is shrinking, the proportion of traditional, conservative and orthodox Christians to the entire United States is holding steady.
Other factors, such as praying daily or attending church weekly, also remain firmly constant. Yes, there are fewer nominal Christians in America, but the Christians that remain are still firm in their older-fashioned beliefs.

Second – and I say this with great shame – Christians have not done a great job of conveying what they believe. The reasons are perhaps legion; we need not go into them all now. But the end result has been that nebulous concepts and out-of-context verses have floated into the American culture’s perception of Christianity without understanding.

For example, there is a general perception that the Bible is a big book of laws. However, even a cursory reading of the Bible will quickly reveal that there are far more stories, songs and even letters than there are laws. Indeed, there is an entire book (a short one, granted, but nevertheless an entire book) dedicated to a husband-to-be and wife-to-be describing how sexually attractive the other is!

There is an injunction against murder because it is wrong to destroy someone else’s body, given as a gift of God, and there is an injunction against suicide because it is wrong to destroy your own body, just as much a gift of God.

It will not be enough to dismiss the range of Christian positions on sex and sexuality, from abstinence before marriage to the injunction against homosexuality and transgenderism, as outdated and prudish.

One must address the fundamental Christian claim that the body is sacred, and to engage in those behaviors is not freeing, but instead denudes and devalues the self, one’s own existence. For supporters of the LGBT rights and pro-choice movements, the road ahead is not getting easier. The percentage of firmly orthodox Christians in the United States is not going down.

Therefore, it is doubly important that those who support movements opposed by orthodox Christians read the Bible to understand the foundations of Christian belief, so that they may better argue against it.

It will not do to oppose strawmen and shallow understandings of Christianity, and then believe that orthodox Christians have seen their beliefs refuted. The alternative of examining the truth claims of the Bible is, frankly, impractical. That is a subject which spans multiplied disciplines and can consume a lifetime of study. Besides, most Christians aren’t directly guided by the kalam cosmological argument or if the Shroud of Turin really is the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. They are directly guided by the fundamental foundations and outworkings of the Bible, and that is what is at stake when social ideologies clash.

Now, no one likes more work. Most of us struggle with heavy enough workloads. I do not want the reading of the Bible to be a burden to anyone. A pastor once told me that reading conversationally – not speedreading, nor laboring over every word – one could finish the entire Bible in a year reading only twelve minutes a day.

Consider reading the Bible instead of checking your social media for the umpteenth when you know nothing new has come in. So with that in mind, a few tips for getting the most out of reading the Bible as a non-Christian.

First, get a smooth translation. I would suggest a New International Version (NIV) or Christian Standard Bible (CSB). There is a place for more direct translations like the New American Standard Bible (NASB) and New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), and if you’re willing to labor over the text a little more, more power to you.

Second, get a study bible. You will be tempted to get a five dollar King James Version (KJV) that comes without notes. I happen to have one because it was five dollars and I needed a physical bible on the cheap at the time. But for someone unfamiliar with the Bible, it will do you good to have a set of notes right alongside you as you read, both to get you familiar with the Bible itself, and what in most cases is a mainstream interpretation of the Bible for most Christians.

If you are unable or unwilling to get a study Bible, this step is extra-important. Whenever you find a passage you find difficult, uncomfortable, or disagreeable, do not stop there. Go find a Christian and ask them about that passage.

Better yet, go to a pastor and ask them about that passage. We have a church on campus; it cannot be that hard. You will almost certainly find that Christians struggle with that passage too, and you may find in their response an angle you hadn’t considered before.

Yes, the teaching is hard. But until non-Christians, particularly those supporting social movements orthodox Christians oppose, understand why Christians continue to cling to those hard teachings, no progress can be made.

There may never be a satisfying compromise – compromising on the words of eternal life has never been a wise proposition. But perhaps we can de-vilify each other, and understand that while it may be hurtful and sorrowful at times, we are truly trying our best to love our neighbor.

Jan-Carl Resurreccion, GSB’18, is an accounting information systems major from Bergenfield, New Jersey.