It is not uncommon to hear the complaint by non-Christians that the Bible is offensive. We who believe shouldn’t dismiss this. There are places in the Bible (mostly, but not exclusively in the Old Testament) where what appears to be held up as good offends modern sensibilities. Everything from sexism to slavery to genocide appears in the Bible. Addressing each issue satisfactorily would take an entire book. David Lamb did a good job in God Behaving Badly. But can we at least create a point of contact with modern doubters without enrolling them in semester-long course?
Paul famously addressed the men of Athens at the Areopagus, creating a point of contact by using the very idols of their pagan culture! (See Acts 17:22.) Our task is no less daunting today. Educated people today have become critics of their own culture. They readily see problems in their own society, as well as others. They know there are no perfect cultures to be found. If they can then for the sake of argument say that the Bible is in fact inspired by God, then would it not be logical that it would at some point offend all cultures?
It’s not a defense to say, but it offends me personally. Like it or not, we are all products of our culture. We are formed by it, and are in many ways blind to it, as a fish would be to the water that surrounds it. So if the Bible offends you, that is most likely because it offends your culture as a whole.
If the Bible were the word of God to mankind, and it failed to offend at least somewhere, then something would be wrong! If my culture is broken, and yet the Bible doesn’t offend me in all that it says, then the Bible must also be broken. Two parallel lines never meet. In order to intersect, they cannot be parallel. If our culture is at least partially broken, then the Bible must offend at some point in order to be the inspired word of God. As Rev. Timothy Keller wrote in his book Preaching, the offensiveness of the Bible to non-believers is not a closed case for faith, but it can be turned into a point of contact to continued dialogue and an openness to hear what the Bible has to say.
