Problems with the Bible...

Here's something I've been thinking about and wanted to put it out here for discussion if it strikes a chord with anyone...

What is it about the Bible that allows people that start with a conclusion to search through the Bible and find backup for it? Generationally, I think this may be a bit of a post-modern issue, and let me explain why...Most of my theological discussions with Christians from an older generation break down into a logic argument, such as, If the Bible is 100% true, and if it says that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and if it also says that God desires to give his children good things, (instead of a stone if we ask for bread), THEREFORE, God must desire that Christians be financially secure. To me, however, that kind of proof does not even come close to settling the issue. (Now this blog is not about the financial security thing, its just an example...)

People have used the Bible to backup slavery, the avoidance of all pork products, etc. etc. and yet, the Bible is commonly called our instruction manual. If so, it would be difficult to say that it is a straight forward one (note the striking lack of diagrams for one thing)

I would like to consider, for a moment, whether the 'instruction manual' moniker is valid. What if the Bible is more like what I heard someone call a "love letter, with personalized notes to each of us that can only be really seen as the Holy Spirit shows them to us." That's closer to the way the Bible has been reading to me lately.

Not to deny the pervasive truth of the Bible, and not to detract from a single sentence contained therein, but the Bible, if divorced from the Holy Spirit, can mean quite a lot of different things. Stripped of the larger narrative, the text can be manipulated to suit someone's preconceived ideas. I suppose what I mean to say is similar to the interchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees, or Paul and the church, what starts as a God centered relationship, gears within gears, can become disengaged from the source and become off centered, man centered, and out of balance, and turn His gifts into obligations, or at the worst case, into plain wrong thinking. Its one of the reasons for church, for fellowship, for blogs, and why isolation doesn't work. Its like some of the science fiction/fantasy books I've read...where the books of magic never lie, but are just misunderstood by most..usually because its something they really hope to be true, or believe to be true already. (I like that kind of fiction what can I say)

And yet, just as the Bible can be selectively used for someone's pet ideas, it's the most powerful book in the world when combined with the Holy Spirit...so how is it possible for one collection of books from so many authors to be insightful at every level of the Christian maturity level/walk, and yet misused so easily by the sidetrack artists?