But the Bible is not something with a power of its own. It is a tool. We use it to shed light on our faith, on the person of Jesus, who is the true Word of God. Using the Bible for other purposes is misusing it.
Can you remember what happened to Galileo? He published a book that suggested that the earth rotated on its own axis. He suggested that the earth was not the centre of the universe, but revolved round the sun. This was not a new idea, but Galileo published his book at an unfortunate time - during a period of what we would call "conservative fundamentalism." And influential people were able to point out that, according to the Bible, the earth does not move, but the sun does. "Thou didst set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken." (Ps 104:5). "The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place whence it arises." (Eccl. 1:5).
We laugh at the church that condemned Galileo - and thank God we can do so! We have inherited the traditions of 17th century radicalism. But every so often, movements begin that take us back to the time of Galileo.
One of these movements in the 19th century was Adventism. Adventists believed that Jesus would soon return, and that the world would soon end. They did not base their beliefs on Jesus' words so much as on some of Paul's writings - especially to the Thessalonians, and on the prophecies in the books of Daniel, in the Old Testament, and Revelation, in the New.
Daniel and Revelation are wonderful books. They were written to give comfort to people who were suffering for their faith. The stories about Daniel were written some 150 years before Jesus was born, to reassure people whose faith was threatened by the culture brought by the Greeks. And Revelation is a book in the same tradition, to reassure the early church in a time of persecution. If we read them in this light, they can give comfort to us too.
But the Adventists believed that these (and other) books were recipes for predicting the end of the world. Throughout the last century, some people tried to find the date when Jesus would come again (as he said he would). In 1831, William Miller founded the "Evangelical Adventists", who proclaimed that the world would end in 1843. As 1843 passed, he said it could have been 1844. And so with a series of groups, all analyzing, calculating, failing to see the wood for the trees.
Most of these groups died out after their calculations had been proved wrong. A few (the Seventh Day Adventists, and the Plymouth Brethren) realized that mathematics and the Old Testament did not mix! One group persisted in its beliefs: they call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses.
The early Jehovah's Witnesses were led by Charles Russell. He believed that Jesus would return in 1874, and that the world would end in 1914. Neither event happened, but when war broke out in 1914, he was able to use the fact to gain support, even though the world didn't end. His followers and successors spent their time (and still do) refining his calculations. At one time they believed that measurements of the passages in the Pyramids could predict the future, but today they are more concerned with parallels between present-day events and prophecies in Daniel and Revelation.
Their magazine, The Watchtower, echoes this. Its name comes from Isaiah 21:8: we should watch out for signs of God's coming. For the Witnesses do not believe that in Jesus, God has already come. And they do not realize that God will come again "like a thief in the night, at an hour you do not expect" (Mt 24:43-4)
People who call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses are still very active. We should beware of them - indeed, we should beware of anyone who relies on a small and restricted selection of Bible texts to explain a viewpoint.
The sect's name gives a hint of what they believe. It echoes the powerful words of Isaiah: "You are my witnesses, and the servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am." (Is.43:10) But they use the Old Testament name of God, Jehovah, and Old Testament ways of thinking, of waiting for a Messiah who is to come at the end of the world.
For them Jesus was a good man sent by God. They read the New Testament, but say that nobody until the time of Russell understood its meaning. Belief in God as a trinity of persons, Three in One, they say is an invention of "Christendom" - to which the Witnesses do not belong. "Christendom", they say, is wrong to believe that Jesus, in his love, died for our sins, and rose again so that we might share eternal life. For them, only the 144000 "sealed" elect of Rev.7:4 will be members of the Messianic Kingdom.
If you are given a copy of the Watchtower, treat it with suspicion. The Bible lies at the root of our belief, but Jesus is the true source of our faith. A recent issue of the Watchtower explained how birth control was evil, because Jehovah had told us to "be fruitful and multiply" and because Paul had told us that "our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit". But, even taken out of context, this has nothing to say to the poor, the exploited, the disadvantaged, or even to the prudent. As Christians, we would ask ourselves how Jesus would have responded in particular situations. For it is Jesus who guides us, and to whom we in the church witness.
HD