UMC Pastor, Democrat candidate Adam Hamilton's 3 controversial Bible takes
2. Christians don't believe the Bible was ‘dictated by God’
Hamilton also appeared to exalt the Islamic belief in the divine origin of the Quran over the supremacy of the Bible with his claim that “Christians do not hold, as Muslims do, that our holy book was dictated by God.”
He downplayed arguments that passages such as 2 Timothy 3:16 indicate the Bible is “inspired by God,” claiming such titles are mere metaphors and shouldn't be taken literally.
“Christians often assume they know what this means, but Paul seems to have created the word ‘inspired.’ It does not appear in the Greek language before this and is used nowhere else in the Bible,” said Hamilton. “It literally means ‘God-breathed’ but Paul doesn’t go on to explain precisely what he means. It is a metaphor, and metaphors are not precise. Push them too far and they break down.”
Instead, he said, Christians should understand “inspired” as “God-influenced,” which, added Hamilton, “leaves open a variety of ways in which the biblical authors were influenced by God.”
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ian.giatti@christianpost.com.
