Is all the Bible "Scripture"? The Riddled Riddle.

When I was in High School, I had a friend named Dave. I'd love to be able to describe to you what type of high school student Dave was, but I'm not sure how to classify him. He wasn't a "Jock", but the Jock's all knew him. He didn't party, but the "Stoners" all thought he was hilarious. He could discuss quantum theories in the morning, help an awkward Freshman avoid social foibles at lunch, and chat up the Home Coming Queen before the end of the day.


Dave did not fit into any social structure, but was liked and respected by all


I am not Dave.


In some ways, although I am not Dave, I am a little like Dave... only a little... the not fitting into any social structure part. But, that's where the similarities end.


All the Super Human abilities to effortlessly maneuver the minefield of High School angst belonged to Dave alone. He made it look so easy. Easy smile. Lots of genuine laughter. Comfortable with the ladies.


I hate him still.


In the 20 plus years since I've graduated from High School, I can say with full confidence that I have gotten no better at this at all. I just can't seem to fit in. It's not that it bothers me, exactly. I know that it's healthy to have your own opinions. You don't know how many times I've quoted, "That warm comfortable feeling is the body temperature of the middle of the pack."


I know that, ultimately, it's good to not follow the status quo. To not believe something just because everybody else believes it. 


I just spend a lot of time feeling... alone.


I spent most of my life in the church. Going to church. Working for the church. Cleaning the church. Setting up and tearing down at church. Teaching at church. Loving the church. Hating the church. Vowing to never step foot again in a church. Returning anyways to church.


And let me tell you first hand. Do you know what I feel most often when I'm around church people? Do you want to know?


Alone.


I feel alone. Isolated. Separated. Like there's nobody who understands me. Nobody who thinks like me. Nobody like me.


Everybody else seems to laugh and joke... worship and weep... sing and clap... given and take. But me, I feel like I'm always just watching. When the worship gets loud and boisterous... yeah, I'm not really very charismatic. When the offering plate comes around... yeah, I'd love to be an extravagant giver, but most times, giving anything at all is an extravagance.  


I just don't feel like I'm a very good Christian.  Maybe you understand.


I can't figure out how David did it. He made High School look easy. Like Michael Jordan graciously playing basketball with innocent children.


In life, I often feel like the 3-eyed half-brother who wasn't allowed to play basketball with gracious Michael Jordan lest my clumsiness cause him to tumble and fracture his spleen.


In Christianity (where I've spent so much of my life and time), when I am allowed onto the court, I feel I must have learned basketball from another planet, because what they're all doing makes no sense to me.


It's not that I don't pray. But, that my prayers are not bold and triumphant, they're more like "Hey God, can you help me not be such a jerk to my wife and kids. They don't deserve me being such a grump."


It's not that I don't read and study. That's probably the only thing I do well. 


It's just that the things I learn when I read and study seem to disagree with a lot of what I hear around me.  


Now, I don't claim to have any special knowledge. No secret code. No ancient sect. 


But since I was a little kid, I couldn't jive with the typical. It's not that I didn't want to follow their drumbeat, it just didn't sound like rhythm to me.


I'm 40 now. It's not getting better.


Someone asks me a question... wants to know my thoughts on an issue...  I'm in a dilema.


Do they really want to know what I think? 


Or, do they want the neatly wrapped answer that most believe? The answer handed down from our father's father?. That the church has been teaching for 200 years? I mean, that answer has to be right... right? If it's widely accepted, and widely believed, then it has to be right... right?


The dance begins, and I am just a God-Awful dancer. I want to answer their question honestly, but I don't want to tie them up in a 2-hour long conversation explaining how I think the political environment in the church hundreds of years ago fostered an environment where someone twisted the interpretation to support an ideology which became doctrine handed down from pulpit to pulpit... from lectern to lectern... till it became unquantifiable fact.


I could give the patent answer, or engage in a miserable and thoroughly un-enjoyable review of the sordid underbelly of church history and doctrine.


Or, I could choose neither. Be vague. Dancing like a feather-weight boxer. Ducking and diving, tripping and stumbling lest I accidentally engage in the unpleasant, and thoroughly exhausting. 


I hate it. I freaking hate it.


Maybe if I was smarter. Maybe if I was cleverer. Maybe I could come up with some smooth answer that reassures my troubled confidant without being untrue to my understanding. Maybe if I was smart.


It's not that I think I've got some kind of super-power vision giving me the ability to see invisible truth. No gamma ray induced green transformation with requisite whisper,  "You wouldn't like me when I'm truthful..." (cue ominous music).


C'mon. I'm a screw up. Barely able to type and think at the same time.


Let me give you an example of my dilema. Let me give you an example of what I feel is an often-quoted scripture that consistently makes me uneasy. And then you tell me what you think...


First the setting, Second Book of Timothy, Chapter Three. Paul is instructing his understudy. He's warning him. Paul tells him there are people he can trust, and people he can't. Teachings he can trust, and teachings he can't. He talks about how Timothy knows Paul, and what Paul teaches. How Timothy has seen the persecution that Paul has gone through. How Timothy has treasured these teachings that he (1) learned, then (2) embraced as the truth. Because he (3) knows the life of the person who taught it to him. 


So, Paul tells him that having (1) learned something, (2) embraced it as the truth, and (3) paid attention to the lives of the people you learned it from; having done all that, (4) look at it in light of the wisdom of the "scripture" you've been studying since childhood.


Specifically in 2 Timothy 3:14-15, he says...



[14] But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, [15] and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. - 2Ti 3:14-15 NIV


Paul goes on in verse 16...


[16] All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, - 2Ti 3:16 NIV


He's saying, this scripture that you learned as a young Jewish boy, it still applies. It came from the same God. The same God who breathed into Adam, breathed into those Scriptures and made it useful. Useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness...


[17] so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. - 2Ti 3:17 NIV


Awesome! Beautiful! I love it! Ancient wisdom, handed down from celestial minds. It trains us in righteousness and thoroughtly equips us for every good work.


Here's the rub. Here is where I start to wish that I wasn't me. Here's where I start to major on the minors.


Here's what bothers me. What qualifies something as "Scripture"?


Obviously, Paul is talking about the books of Moses and other ancient books that Timothy studied as a boy. No problem for me there.


But, my whole problem here, and the reason I often flinch when I hear this passage referenced, is because this verse is often quoted as though it were referring to the entire work that is now our modern Bible. Including, the letter in which this idea is contained.


It is used as "proof" that anything within the pages of your Bible is on a higher-plain than mere mortal books. Thus, making everything written therein, the decisive factor in any moral argument. 


My question is this. Did Paul consider everything in our Modern Bible to be scripture (understanding that some of it had yet to be written when He made this argument)


When Paul said that all "Scripture" is God breathed, was he referring to the letters he himself had written? Was he referring to the letter that he was dictating even then to Timothy?


I can't fathom that was Paul's intent.


Let me be clear, I'm not saying God didn't breathe life into what Paul wrote. I'm not saying that it is clearly not "Scripture". 


I am only saying that Paul was talking here about the "Scripture" Timothy studied as a child, not the letter Timothy was presently holding in his hand reading.


If Paul didn't consider the letter he was writing to be "Scripture", and wasn't trying to claim it was "Scripture"... should we be using his statement to say that it is "Scripture"?


Even more importantly, if we can't use his statement to prove his letter is "Scripture". Does that mean his letter to Timothy is not "Scripture"?


My high-school buddy Dave isn't around to help me out here. So, instead I pray, "Hey, God. Can you please pound some wisdom into this thick stubborn head of mine?"


Maybe, He's planted some wisdom specifically for me inside of you. Do you have some insight? 


What do you think?