Understanding the Bible

[Gregory Matthews]

"To experience God, we must embrace imagination and wonder" as we read the biblical narratives. When we read them, we should "not just understand them, but enjoy them, Dr. Lawrence Turner, a noted theologian from Newbold College, England, stated with conviction on the opening night, May 20, of the inaugural Sanitas Lectureship at Boulder Seventh-day Adventist Church.

    When read with imagination and wonder, "biblical stories are irresistibly persuasive," said Turner. The opening lecture considered the question, "Why does the Bible tell stories?" Turner proposed that they are a product of Semitic culture, which explains the works of God in all of life, and to understand it, one must invoke imagination.

    Turner prefers to speak of the Old Testament as the First Testament, and explained that, "[the] Bible is a product of [the] Semitic mind." Turner said that, "when you want to talk about profound matters, you tell a story . . . Through stories, we communicate the human aspect of our relationship with God."

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Dr. Turner's lectures are available on the Boulder Church website:

    See them in video at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/boulder-church-video-podcast/id1097171598?mt=2 or hear them in audio at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/boulder-church-audio-podcast/id1097173519?mt=2 [Text and photo by Rajmund Dabrowski]

NOTE:  The above was copied from the current RMC NEWS NUGGETS.