Scripture was never meant to be read as static words on a page but as a living revelation designed to awaken, reshape, and renew the human soul. The Bible is not only the record of God’s redemptive acts—it is itself a continuation of His creative work, bringing order to our inner chaos and restoring relational harmony with God, others, and ourselves. xx
Reading Scripture Through the Lens of God’s Design for Transformation
When read through the lens of how God designed the brain and relationships to transform us, the text reveals a more profound truth: divine revelation and neuroscience were never separate. The same God who spoke light into the darkness continues to illuminate the neural and relational pathways of the heart, forming Christ within us. This way of reading Scripture moves us beyond information toward participation in God’s ongoing act of creation.
This understanding also recognizes that God’s revelation follows the same progressive pattern seen in creation itself. When God formed the cosmos, He moved from the physical to the personal, from the material to the relational, and ultimately to the spiritual. Each level presupposed and integrated the one beneath it. In the same way, the truths of Scripture operate on multiple levels of explanation: biological, psychological, relational, and spiritual. The spiritual realities revealed in Scripture do not negate these other dimensions—they include and transcend them. God’s Word speaks to the whole person because it was written by the same Creator who designed the human nervous system, emotional life, and capacity for connection. While these psychological and relational principles are rarely stated outright, they are woven into the fabric of the text, waiting to be seen by those who read with both spiritual discernment and scientific understanding. To interpret Scripture this way is to witness God’s divine architecture at work—truth layered upon truth, creation upon creation—until the whole person is restored in Christ, who is both the Word made flesh and the final revelation of what it means to be fully human.
When Scripture is read through this creation-ordered lens, it becomes more than divine instruction—it becomes divine participation. Truth is not simply meant to be believed; it is intended to be embodied, experienced, and integrated across every level of our being. Through relational connection, emotional attunement, and spiritual renewal, the Word of God activates the very processes He designed for transformation—the processes modern neuroscience now describes as memory reconsolidation, corrective relational experiences, dyadic affect regulation, and evocative memories. In this way, the study of Scripture becomes an encounter with the living God who continues His creative work in us. Each passage offers not only revelation but restoration, not only information but incarnation. As we receive the Word through the full relational and neurological capacities God created, we are progressively reshaped into the image of Christ—the ultimate integration of divine truth and human wholeness.
Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible
Within evangelical Christianity, the doctrine of Scripture has often been summarized in terms of inspiration and inerrancy. Inspiration refers to the belief that the Bible is God-breathed (from 2 Timothy 3:16), meaning that while human authors wrote the words, they were guided by the Spirit so that Scripture communicates God’s truth. Inerrancy, a term emphasized particularly in the 20th century, asserts that the Bible, in its original manuscripts, is without error in all that it affirms—whether in matters of theology, morality, or, for many evangelicals, even historical and factual claims. This has been a cornerstone of evangelical identity, particularly as articulated in documents like the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.
For many evangelicals, inerrancy is not simply about factual correctness but about trustworthiness: the conviction that God does not deceive, and therefore His Word is reliable in every respect. Inspiration and inerrancy together form a safeguard, ensuring that Scripture remains the authoritative foundation for faith and practice. At the same time, evangelical theologians have differed on whether inerrancy applies only to matters of faith and practice (limited inerrancy) or to every historical and scientific detail as well (comprehensive inerrancy).
N. T. Wright, however, has approached the question differently. While affirming Scripture’s authority, he has critiqued the way inerrancy debates often reduce the Bible to a set of propositions to be proven or defended. For Wright, the authority of Scripture is not about abstract correctness but about its role in God’s ongoing drama of redemption. He emphasizes that inspiration points to the Spirit’s work in shaping the narrative of God’s people and that authority is exercised through the story Scripture tells, culminating in Jesus Christ. Rather than focusing on “inerrancy” as a modern category, Wright prefers to ask: What is the Bible for? His answer: It is God’s instrument to equip His people for their mission in the world.
In this sense, Wright affirms that the Bible is inspired and trustworthy but reframes the discussion away from defending factual precision toward embracing Scripture as the Spirit-inspired story that calls the church into faithful participation. For evangelicals shaped by his perspective, the authority of the Bible rests not primarily on proving its error-free status but on recognizing and submitting to the narrative through which God reveals His purposes for creation, covenant, and new creation.
How Scripture Continues the Creation Process
- God spoke form into the formless void in creation, His Word continues that creative process in human hearts and history. Through Scripture, God gives structure to chaos, clarity to confusion, and meaning to mystery. In Genesis, we see this order taking shape as Adam names the animals—an act of bringing definition and coherence to creation.
- Likewise, the inspired writers recorded the truths of God’s work so humanity could discern reality and live in alignment with it. The written Word transforms the “void” of human ignorance and distortion into the ordered reality of divine wisdom.
- Scripture not only defines truth but also prescribes the relational experiences, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that most reflect God’s image and produce spiritual growth. These relational patterns mirror the fruit of the Spirit and embody Christlikeness. As Paul wrote, “We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began” (1 Cor 2:7).
- When we live by this revealed truth, we participate in God’s ongoing creation—bringing order out of chaos, light out of darkness, and love out of fear. Yet, as Paul reminds us, our understanding is still partial: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). One day, all truth will be fully revealed, and we will see reality exactly as God intended.
All Truth is God’s Truth
- There is truth that is discoverable outside the Bible, in natural revelation. This is not a lesser truth but equal to the truth discovered in the Bible – special revelation. Order
- Every truth in the Bible is an “interprafact, “there is no such thing as a raw truth, obvious to everyone. It depends on your worldview and your personality. There is no truth that is “obvious” to everyone.
- That is why we have so many denominations.
- See Norman Geisler’s Christian Apologetics and Kirk Farnsworth, Wholehearted integration: Harmonizing psychology and christianity through word and deed.
Primary Purpose of the Bible
- It is not a manual for counseling or coaching, even though it contains many principles related to these fields.
- Its primary purpose is to tell God’s story of how he is making all things new through the church as we bring heaven to earth now in bits and pieces and eventually, bringing all of the new heaven down to the new earth so all of his creation can be one again, just like it was in the Garden of Eden.
- God’s story is more than us going to heaven when we die. It is we, the church, making things right “on earth as it is in heaven.”
- Additionally, its focus is not on rules and regulations (morality) that we must follow. It is experiencing how much God loves us, and out of that internalized love, we love others so that they can join God’s family in making all things new.
Most Truths in the Bible are Prescriptive
- Most truths give what it should look like, but not how to get there. We assume that knowing the end goal will be strong enough to change. Neuroscience easily confirms that it isn’t correct. Paul confirms it too, “I know what to do, but I don’t do it.” (Romans 7:15)
- One reason it doesn’t tell us how is because it is very dependent on which CCT is in deficit and which level you are on. What works for Separation deficit will not work for Integration deficit. Therefore, it would take thousands of pages to spell out all that.
We Need to Examine All of the Bible
- We often proof-text certain principles, which means we don’t examine the entirety of the Bible.
- The Bible may address a specific issue and offer guidance on how to handle it. However, other passages present a different perspective that modifies the initial principle.
- Here is an example with anger. “But I tell you that anyone angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” (Matt. 5:22) VS “In your anger do not sin, Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (Eph. 4:26)
- See N.T. Wright’s view on this.
We Need to Look Deeper into the Truth if Our Earthly Experience Differs
- We need to re-examine a Biblical principle more deeply when our earthly experiences differ significantly from what it states.
- Example: Psalm 12:7 – “You, Lord, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked.” From this and similar verses, people feel God will protect them.
- However, I know quite a few people who were godly men and women who were killed a lot earlier than their life expectancy. While this verse appears to offer protection, we must consider this harsh reality.
Theology Presupposes Psychology: Levels of Explanation
- The Bible refers to human beings in various ways: soul, spirit, body, mind, and heart.
- Jesus refers to an internal state that determines the external (behaviors). Mt. 15:19 – Out of the heart flow thoughts and behaviors. Mt. 23:26 – Clean the inside of the cup first, then the outside will be clean.
- Kirwan (1984, p.33): “The individual must always be perceived with that triad of interdependent laws [spiritual, psychological, and physical] in mind, or else incomplete and false conclusions will result.”
- When God created the heavens and the earth out of formless chaos, he “introduced multiplicity, intricacy, and order. Scientific laws are our attempt to describe the relationships and complexities” (Kirwan, 1984, p.35).
- God progressively created the world in three steps: 1. the cosmos, land, vegetation; 2. animals, birds, sea life; 3. human persons.
- Each of these has subcategories: 1. physics, chemistry, geology, biology; 2. zoology, anatomy, physiology; 3. sociology, logic, philosophy, psychology, and theology. (Kirwan, 1984)
- The uniqueness of why God created the world in this way is its progression. “The laws of a creation category presuppose the laws of the category(ies) beneath it” (Kirwan, 1984, p. 36).
- Kirwan (1984, pp. 36, 37) states: “The three categories and their subcategories are distinct from one another. To overlook that categorical distinctiveness leads to confusion because it fails to take into account God’s order of creation. For example, the laws of geology or chemistry cannot be forced into the laws of sociology. Sociology and biology apply equally to human beings, but are separate approaches… Psychology …. is a God-created category … Essential to the definition and understanding of human personality.”
- This is where we get the different academic disciplines.
- THEREFORE, the spiritual laws are not equated with psychological laws. Still, they include them by PRESUPPOSING them, even though most of the time in the Bible, these are not explicitly stated, because that wasn’t the purpose of the Bible.
- “The Bible never denies the importance of the physical and biological dimensions of the human person. Jesus’ need for sleep and Paul’s concern for Timothy’s ailment (1 Tim 5) reflect biological realities. The Old Testament prohibition against eating pork, which may carry disease-causing parasites, and the warning against touching the dead bodies of animals and humans are other examples of biblical reflection of biological realities… In like fashion, the Bible reflects psychological realities … the importance of interpersonal relationships.” (Kirwan, 1984, p. 36).
- Many psychological principles are presupposed in biblical principles.
- “The more of God’s psychological truths we are able to discover, the more understanding we will have of great biblical truths and their application to the whole person.” (Kirwan, 1984, p. 41)
- YET – “It is clear that psychology as a science can never instruct us concerning a human being’s meaning or value, so the church must learn to distinguish between a valid psychological finding and an unwarranted (perhaps even anti-Christian) philosophical interpretation of it. “ (Kirwan, 1984, p. 41)
- If we don’t integrate psychological truths this way, it could lead to “harming many Christians whose suffering could be greatly alleviated… We may also, to some extent, be misrepresenting God’s message of redemption, for distortions of the human psyche are part of that which was redeemed by Christ’s death on the cross. Christ came to heal and redeem our damaged emotions as well as our souls.” (Kirwan, 1984, p. 41).
A Fun Application Exercise:
What psychological truths are being assumed in these passages?
- John 15:14-15 – You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father, I have made known to you.
- Mark 3:31-35 – Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
- 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 – Therefore, to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. When I am weak, I am strong.
- I John 4:18 – There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.
- Luke 9 and 10 – Sent out the 12 and 72 without much training.
- I John 4:12 – No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us.
