The purpose of using the word “admit” is to create the false assumption that all Christians are thuper scared of being “authentic,” “real,” and “messy,” that all Christians promote a false image of themselves as “having everything figured out” and “having it all together,” so to speak. In opposition to this faux dilemma, here comes Pavlovitz to save the day! He will tell us everything wrong with our actions! He will expose our shallowness! He will save us from the crippling fear that all of us experience! He will courageously say what no one else has the guts to say! And…Well, what does he say? Not only does he start with this baseless assumption that Christians will not “admit” certain things about the Bible, his five examples are hilariously vacuous.

Who is reading this fluff? I cannot possibly comprehend the demographic that Relevant Magazine is writing for. Virtually all of the posts that I have seen from this site are trivial. Any organization that pretends to be Christian that has a name like “Relevant” is inevitably trendy, pretending to be profound while giving facile commentary. Half of their posts on God and Christianity are pathetic excuses for intellectual thought and aid in confusing its readers. A recent post that I read, written by John Pavlovitz called, “5 Things I Wish Christians Would Admit About the Bible” is a great example of my frustration with this magazine.

“Admit”

To “admit” something is to confess something reluctantly, something that you previously did not wish to acknowledge. Therefore, the title of the blog implies that Christians are generally reluctant to acknowledge the truth of five specific propositions about the Bible.

The purpose of using the word “admit” is to create the false assumption that all Christians are thuper scared of being “authentic,” “real,” and “messy,” that all Christians promote a false image of themselves as “having everything figured out” and “having it all together,” so to speak. In opposition to this faux dilemma, here comes Pavlovitz to save the day! He will tell us everything wrong with our actions! He will expose our shallowness! He will save us from the crippling fear that all of us experience! He will courageously say what no one else has the guts to say! And…Well, what does he say? Not only does he start with this baseless assumption that Christians will not “admit” certain things about the Bible, his five examples are hilariously vacuous.

1. “The Bible Isn’t a Magic Book”

This is Pavlovitz’s first proposition which he says Christians do not “admit” about the Bible. Brilliant. So Christians are thuper scared, trembling in our boots in fact, to admit that the Bible is not a “magic” book? This assumes that Christians assert that the Bible is a “magic” book; I would like to ask Johnny, who are the Christians who claim this? However, I am getting ahead of myself. “Magic” is a vague word to begin with, so clearly Pavlovitz must contextually define it. Once we know what he means by “magic,” we will know what he thinks Christians generally claim about the Bible.

Definition of “Magic”

The title of this first section is as bewildering as the definition he places upon the word “magic.” When one reads this section, the only main point that Pavlovitz gives is that the Bible is made up of 66 books, with a variety of authors, and written in different genres of literature:

“[The Bible] isn’t really a book at all. It’s a lot of books…Its 66 individual books run the diverse gamut of writing styles…diverse writers each had very different target audiences”

Essentially, the only thing that Pavlovitz means by Christians regarding the Bible as a “Magic Book” is regarding the Bible as a “Single Book.” All Pavlovitz has accomplished is using a silly word to criticize an imaginary demographic in order to convey a truth that is manifestly obvious. How Pavlovitz could possibly twist the definition of “magic” to mean “Christians wrongly view the Bible as a single book and not made up of many books” is absurd on its face. Even if Christians did view the Bible as a single book without taking its diversity into account, no one could seriously say that this is equivalent to viewing it as a “magic” book. I view George Orwell’s novel 1984 as a single book; does this mean that I regard it as a “magic” book? Of course not.

The other problem with his analysis, which I already implied, is assuming that Christians do not know that the Bible is made up of many books, written by various authors, in different writing styles and genres and languages. What “Christians” is he referring to? Who are these people who will not “admit” that the Bible is composed of 66 books? They do not exist.

2. “The Bible Isn’t as Clear as We’d Like It To Be”

The second proposition that Pavlovitz wants Christians to “admit” is that the Bible is not clear. He says that the Bible is unclear and complex, and then appeals to the fact that people disagree on various topics in order to prove this. This criticism is fallacious because it assumes that the foolishness and misunderstandings of people prove that the Bible is unclear. In reality this proves the total depravity of humanity, not Biblical incoherence; Pavlovitz’s own explanation contradicts his claim that the Bible is unclear:

“Often, (especially when arguing), Christians like to begin with the phrase, ‘The Bible clearly says…’ followed by their Scripture soundbite of choice. Those people aren’t always taking the entire Bible into account….the answer may not be as clear and straightforward as we like to pretend it is.”

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