Memorization for Broader Understanding

In my first post on this topic I stated that the act of memorizing Scripture gives the rational mind something to focus on (the difficulty of memorizing) so that it doesn’t out-shout the text with its own biases and logic. I failed to mention that Dave Finnegan, juggling teacher extraordinaire, uses a similar trick. When I was struggling to learn five-ball juggling he told me to sing the “Magdalena Spagdalena” backwards… in German. I told him I didn’t know the song nor German, and he said, “You don’t need to know either. You just have to occupy your conscious mind with something so it doesn’t start thinking about juggling.” He said our rational mind is too slow for what the body has to do, so if that part of the brain can “take a hike” the body more quickly learns the reflexes it needs to juggle. I think memorizing similarly preoccupies the rational mind, but this time rather than benefiting the reflexes, it benefits a deeper, more intuitive and complex part of the mind itself. 

Here’s the new thought. Memorization not only helps us connect the various parts within a challenging passage, it also helps us connect the passage with other issues in the Bible, or even the events of daily life. I can’t memorize a long piece in less than several weeks. I work on it while I’m walking. Two benefits: no interruptions, and increased blood-flow to my decrepit brain. So, as the days pass, I keep walking and reciting. Life continues to happen, and bits and pieces of my broader life get mixed into the thoughts of the passage. That makes a rich source for new insights, both in my personal life, and also in my understanding of God and His Word. Here’s a current example.

We hired a contractor to do some work, and he quickly let us know he is an active Christian. Nice surprise. He mentioned that he would quit believing in hell if the Bible made that allowance, but since it is so clearly taught in the Bible, he has to continue believing in eternal torment event though the thought is totally repugnant and seems to go against the character of God. I told him I was sure the Bible did not teach eternal torment. I know that Revelation 20:10 talks of Satan, the Beast, and the False Prophet being thrown into the lake of fire and says, “They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” But there are many more verses throughout the Bible that say the wicked will perish, will fade away, and the dead know nothing.

I plunged into a personal study on the topic and read much. I have found that when it comes to beliefs on hell there is definitely “more heat than light.” One flaming fragment of the debate is “Can you take the Bible literally?” No one wants to weaken belief in the Bible as the Word of God, nor do the serious scholars want to leave the Bible open to each person’s private interpretation. Some scholars are comfortable with flames licking up flesh that will char but never turn to ash. They accuse the others with refusing to take God at His word. Other scholars cannot reconcile eternal torture with a God who gave His own life for us, even “while we were yet sinners.” They take God’s word seriously, but they don’t want to let a few texts paint a picture of a monstrous God. What to do?

So here I am on my merry memorization walk, reciting the words of Romans 8; not a word of hell in sight. But in the back of my mind, hang many things: my to do list for the day, the plants around me, how many miles left to walk, and this burning argument over whether the Bible is to be taken literally. It seems disloyal and dangerous to say we can “explain away” certain texts by saying they are not to be taken literally. I run through the words of Romans 8:18-23. I’ll retain the verse numbering so you can get the full effect.

“18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Of course, I am breaking it up into bite-sized pieces and “imaging” the phrases to help them stick. Paul had just said that we are co-heirs with Christ if we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. So, in this passage he quickly dismisses the sufferings and begins to focus on the glory, and apparently a major part of that glory will be the miracle of bodies that won’t die; bodies that will be righteous and will live, just as our spirits live now because God is leading us.

If I were reading for “understanding” that’s all I would get, and in fact, that does seem to be the main point. However, as I keep repeating the phrases, I see all of creation—the animals, the trees, the rocks, the lakes, even the breeze—waiting. Waiting how? They are all standing there with bated breath! They are hoping against hope that soon the children of God will be finally saved so that they, too, can be saved into a non-death state.

I’m fine with that—with the thought that when God saves us people, He will make a new heaven and a new earth—but notice, this is not about the current natural world being replaced. It’s about all of our current creation hoping for its own salvation. What do you notice? Not just salvation, but hoping! All the animals, plants, rocks, and elements of the creation are thinking! They all have expectation. Hmm… maybe the pantheists are on to something. Maybe there is a soul in even the rocks and water. Maybe there are nymphs, naiads, and dryads—the spirits of trees, meadows, and rivers. Maybe the pagans, the Wiccans, and the Native Americans were very perceptive to notice the consciousness of even the dirt we walk on.

Or maybe Paul is personifying nature; referring to it with the feelings we have about it. I’m trying to memorize, but suddenly, my conscious mind erupts with, “What would a literalist have to say about this!? If they insist that all Scripture is to be taken literally—even rare verses that seem to contradict the ideas found elsewhere in the Bible—wouldn’t they have to be pantheists, or animists, or at least pagans? Even if they said, ‘Well, all creation just means the physical part of our createdness, that is, our bodies,’ they’d be straying from a straightforward reading of this text. And they’d still have to explain how our bodies, separate from our minds, have the ability to expect things, even with eagerness.

What do you think? Is Paul saying the whole creation is groaning? Can we hear that? Literally? Or do you think Paul is saying that we groan for the restoration of creation the way the Holy Spirit (appearing in the following verses) groans for us as He petitions God for our restoration? What fits best with the rest of Scripture? And if Paul is writing figuratively, is there any room for figurative language about hell? Or is hell so needed by a paganized Christianity that all of the verses about eternal torment must be taken literally, but this one about rocks that hope and groan, doesn’t have to be?

Amazing what richness there is to Bible writing when we slow down, reread and reread, and allow a non-judgmental mind simply soak in what the Bible is and isn’t saying.

Now here’s another unexpected bonus. In trying to make sense of the ideas, my mind stumbled on verse 20 which suggests that the one who caused sin to enter this world did it in hope! In hope of what?! What possible good could come from introducing sin? Does this mean that Adam actually believed that the knowledge of good and evil would be a good thing for the natural world? Oops. Read on to verse 21 and see that the first translators to add verse numbering made a mistake. Pure and simple. Not all verse numbering works. There are places where a new chapter begins in the middle of a thought. Even the punctuation has been added for modern readers. Are all those things also inspired? Apparently not, because in this case, the phrase “in hope” doesn’t refer to what comes just before it in the same verse. It doesn’t refer to “the one” nor even to what is farther before it “subjected to frustration.” Instead, it points way back to “waits in eager expectation.” The creation is waiting in hope.

I make a big deal out of this not to weaken the place of the Bible in my life, but to strengthen it. Sometimes people see discrepancies between a presumed teaching of the Bible and simple human decency; for instance, that a loving God would keep sinners alive forever so He could torture them forever. Even Corrie Ten Boom is moral enough not to wish eternal torment on her Nazi persecutors, and in doing that she is following Jesus’ own advice. Why wouldn’t Jesus live by His own advice? Once this kind of discrepancy is discovered, they rightly ask, “Isn’t God as moral as people?” And some Christians who are well-intentioned but misinformed thunder back with “Who are YOU to judge a holy God?!!” It was an honest question, but the literalist can’t see through the flames, so they make it a test of loyalty, and they insist that we swallow erroneous views of God. Why? Because they have read the Bible for proofs of things rather than allowing it to wash over them and cleanse them with a living, breathing presence.

By being very attentive to how the Bible actually works—how the writers wrote, how the Spirit seems to have allowed them to express themselves, even how the Spirit today impresses us as we read—I am freed from these false conflicts. I don’t get stuck trying to defend the indefensible. Instead, I am free to see the beauty of the whole book and let colorful speech be colorful, not necessarily measurable.

That lets the Bible sing and dance and preach and thunder as a reflection of a merciful God who has pursued His children for thousands of years and has used every emotion to capture our attention and to gain our cooperation. I can’t let a literalist take one of those images and artificially use it to tear the other images apart.