Integrating Biblical Truth Without Quoting Bible Verses
Douglas Osborne, President— Biblical Integration Resources

When I was a teenager, I distinctly remember being taught to memorize and quote Bible verses whenever I had the opportunity to share my faith with non-Christians. “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void:” (Isaiah 55:11) was the verse that was quoted to me as a promise. If I quoted Bible verses to pagans, it may result in their salvation. When I implemented this approach to sharing my faith, it most often resulted in strange looks or comments like, “Don’t force your religion on me.”

One master teacher in the New Testament gives us a fantastic example of how to teach biblical truth without quoting Bible verses. In fact, he quotes two pagan Greek poets in his address to the leading intellectuals at the Areopagus in order to communicate Christian truth about God and man. Greatly distressed by the rampant worship of idols throughout the city of Athens, Paul begins addressing these people by praising their religious devotion (Acts 17:22). Rather than condemning their idolatry by quoting Bible verses such as, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” and “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth . . .” (Exodus 20:3-4), he quotes to them truths from their own culture. In his Mars Hill address, Paul quotes maxims from two pagan Greek poets. In support of his teaching about man’s dependence on God (Acts 17:28), he quotes a line (italicized) from the Cretan poet Epimenides (c. 600 B.C.) in his poem “Cretica.” Minos, Zeus’s son, in honor of his father, proclaims:

They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one-
The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!
But thou art not dead; thou livest and abidest for ever,
For in thee we live and move and have our being

Paul then notes in the latter part of Acts 17:28 that some of their own poets have said, “We are his offspring” (Cilician poet Aratus c. 315-240 B.C. “It is with Zeus that every one of us in every way has to do, for we are also his offspring”)

Bits of truth are embedded throughout creation, culture, and literature. God is truth. Truth is anything that reflects the reality of God’s nature, His word, and His creation. God is the unifying factor of all. Truth is truth wherever it is found whether it is in the Bible, in nature, in textbooks (both Christian and secular), in pagan poetry, or in movies and television shows.

Years ago when I first attempted to develop biblically integrated lessons, I worked hard to make sure that I was quoting at least one Bible verse in each lesson. The result was that my Christian students would occasionally give me those same strange looks I received as a teenager quoting scripture to unbelievers. The looks told me that I was trying to force the Bible into the topic. I do believe that when the Bible addresses a topic, it does so authoritatively, but God did not intend the Bible to be used as the exhaustive textbook for all subject areas. Knowing that the Creator of the universe is also the author of all truth, we can rest in the fact that whether truth is embedded in His creation, discovered by pagan philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, or directly communicated through the Bible, all truth glorifies its Author. Biblically integrated teaching seeks to help students understand how all truth fits together in the context of a comprehensive Christian worldview.