Uncensored: Daring To Embrace The Entire BibleSample

Three Types of Pickers

To use the metaphor of cherry-picking, we may identify three types of “pickers” who extract feel-good Bible verses while leaving behind the rest. First, there are liberal Christians who make man (or “human species” in certain politically correct circles) the measure of all things and reduce the Bible to some nice, moralistic exhortations—like a garnish around the main course of Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Buddha, or their favorite poet. Self-professing liberal Christians abandon the Christ of Scripture altogether except perhaps for His moral example to serve the poor and the outcast. However, while they may look to their 1990s bracelet and ask, “What would Jesus do?” they certainly wouldn’t make a whip of cords and drive out the high rollers funding their political activism or tell a set-up prostitute, “From now on sin no more” (John 8:11). You see, even liberals cherry-pick the Scriptures.

A second type of cherry picker associates himself with evangelicalism but, ironically, refuses to affirm the whole counsel of God. He proclaims his belief in Scripture but his disbelief in certain portions of it. We see this schizophrenic faith played out in the public square by celebrity pastors.

Several years ago, a prominent megachurch evangelical pastor (now ex-pastor) who produced a popular video series and enjoyed bestseller status wrote an entire book challenging the existence of hell. For years, evangelicals flocked to sit at the feet of his preaching, teaching, and writing ministry. But his submarine secret finally breached the surface in 2011 with his attempt to erase hell in the name of love. With the sun at his back, he cruised out of the evangelical bay.

A third type of cherry picker might live closer to home: those who cherry-pick the Scriptures for a feel-good faith without realizing they’re doing it. Here’s where I must raise my hand and say, “Yep, that’s me.” This type of churchgoing, John 3:16-affirming picker is oftentimes “functionally embarrassed” by the Bible. We’re not openly or blatantly embarrassed by Scripture, but we functionally reveal our embarrassment of the truth of the Bible by affirming, discussing, quoting, and preaching only certain passages while overlooking many others. Or we might have a subconscious angel on our shoulder telling us that something doesn’t add up with how we handle the Bible, but we can’t quite put our finger on it.