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I recently stumbled across an organization called The Life in the Bible Institute, and being someone with a high regard and great interest in the Bible I wanted to see what they were all about. I expected some sort of seminary, but this was not the case, and their mission statement took me by surprise:

"The Life in the Bible Institute's mission is to educate the general public about the value and importance of reading the Bible and using it as the primary textbook for knowledge and study. Its purpose is to broaden perspective of the Bible from what is commonly thought of as a textbook used in Sunday school, to a scientific text on all subject matter."

A scientific text on all subject matter? Wow, that's a leap even a limber Pentecostal wouldn't make, and I think it points out another problem, which is the attempt by some to make the Bible something it's not.

As I see it, the Bible is a religious, social, and historical chronicle of God's work in the lives of a specific group of people during a specific period of history, but it's not science. The teachings and message of the Bible are just as valid for us today as at any time in history, but it was not intended to be a scientific textbook. To quote from the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message (the first creed/confession I found online that dealt specifically with the Bible):

"The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. It reveals the principles by which God judges us; and therefore is ... the true center of Christian union and the standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried."

Even the Baptists see the Bible as a book of divine instruction, not scientific knowledge. While many (myself included) accept the Creation account in Genesis as both literal and true, that does not make the Bible scientific literature. Genesis explained to the Israelites how the world began, but the focus was on man's Fall and God's work of redemption as a result. It's certainly not a text you can prop up next to a beaker and test tubes in a lab and expect to receive guidance.

To use a different book as an example, the Bible cannot be used as scientific literature any more than Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" can be used as a history of France. Neither was intended for that purpose.

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