WHO WANTS TO BE CRITICAL? The word “critical” often has a negative connotation in people’s minds. To be “critical” can mean “to criticize severely and unfavorably, to be excessively judgmental, to be inclined to find fault.” But the word “critical” also carries a positive connotation, meaning “to exercise careful evaluation and skillful judgment of a matter.” If you take your car into the mechanic because there is a strange noise happening in the engine, and they tell you that they’re going to do a “critical diagnostic test,” that’s a good thing because they’re going to look very carefully at the results of the tests to try to determine what’s wrong. It is this sort of careful investigation and attention to detail that we mean with the phrase “reading the Bible critically.” It’s about not just reading the Bible on a superficial level but developing a keen sense for how to […]