Article February 2, 1987 Issue

Seeing the Bible in a new light

Is the Bible really a practical guide to life? Can we bring our toughest questions to it and get satisfying answers?

John Lindsay Rennie

As a youngster trained in the Sunday School of another denomination, I was left with the impression that the Bible was no more than a book which taught that if one lived a good life, he went to heaven, and if he did not, he went to hell. So when I left my parents' home and influence, I told myself that I had no need of church and what it taught. I reasoned that if I did something wrong, my conscience would tell me so, and I did not need the church to tell me.

Though I didn't fully realize it at the time, I was rebelling against God. My conscience was my guide for many years, and I often rebelled against it also. I seldom went to church, even after I had married a very loving Christian Scientist, in whose life I witnessed many proofs of the healing efficacy of Christian Science. I could not accept it for myself. I was a career soldier, and Christian Science did not fit my macho image of what a soldier should be.

My wife and I had been married only two and a half months when I was shipped to Britain in December 1939 at the start of World War II. I did not see my wife again for just over five years. That was a long, hard separation, but I now realize that it was her prayers that sustained and cemented our relationship, since I did not attend any church services unless I was marched into them.

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