Fiction Is Not Part of Good Bible Study

I have gotten a bit addicted to The History Channel with all of its specials. I have learned about amazing inventions, wars, bridges and so much more. It is interesting to watch television and actually be enriched. But am I really being enriched? The other day I was watching a special on Jesus’ life. Now that is some history that I have spent the last 15 years studying. My interest was peaked and I tuned in. The show was a bunch of garbage from a bunch of people who were adding to the historical record without merit. Even worse, as these “authorities” added their presumptions and assumptions, they spoke as if their fiction was fact. They had become convinced of their “conclusions” and it became “fact.”

There were other authorities in that documentary that at least recognized for the viewer that they were not sure of their conclusions or that many assumptions were being made. However, there was not one authority who said, “This is the historical record and this is what we know happened.” In another show about Christianity and Christ, the narrator/host purposed to communicate an entire show of “facts” that did not even match the historical record. I am left wondering whether what I learned about the inventions, wars, and bridges is fact or fiction.

There are two problems: first, the show's purported fiction as fact; and, my source was compromised by publishing at least two factually errant or questionable shows. When we are teaching fact, we need to make sure that our facts are correct. I caught myself teaching some “fiction fact” several times throughout my early years. Oh no, I did not mean to teach fiction as fact. I simply had not learned that even what I have been taught by others must be verified and tested. This was Jesus’ and the Holy Spirit’s direction to every teacher and believer. I once taught that our sins were tossed into the “crystal sea of forgetfulness” only to fail to find the Scripture (that I “knew” was there) when asked to find that miscellaneous cross reference by a student. I had been taught this “fiction fact” by a trusted leader so I passed it on. Wrong. We must know what we speak is fact.

Worse than intentionally, in delusion, or accidentally teaching fiction as fact is the second problem with the History Channel’s Jesus Documentary. The source was compromised and I no longer had a basis for believing anything that the History Channel served up as fact. When a teaching leader crosses the line into focusing on what “they think”, new students are derailed from learning the complete factual record before getting into the many questions about what we don’t know. The older student would be well served to make sure that he or she has studied well and completely the topic at hand before asking and supposing. Perhaps the factual answer lies in some fact not yet studied. I believe this to be one of the greatest ploys of our common enemy – that is, getting Christians to focus on the imaginative instead of consuming in entirety the full revealed facts of God. Fiction does not change lives but rather it is the “truth that sets people free.”

I am not saying that people should not think and stretch to grow. I am saying that fiction should never become a plausible answer to that which we do not know. Only in Christianity, politics and poetry class are unfounded and entirely subjective conclusions seen as truth. If I told you I was investing your money in XYZ because I was sure that they would make ABC profit because I thought that they were putting out a new Widget, would you give me money? Or would you ask for fact?

Many a religious leader is leading a pack of potentially intelligent followers on the basis of unproven fiction, presumption and passed on knowledge. This isn’t just for Bible Study Class. It is time for Christian Leaders, if no one else, to stand up and refuse to intentionally, in delusion, or accidentally teach fiction as fact. People are seeking real, concrete answers from their leaders. Don’t they deserve fact and Leaders who have taken time to learn the facts?