I have been spending a fair amount of time of late chewing over the issues of scripture, hermeneutics and authority. Because I don’t want to get anything wrong I wont say much until I have it sorted :)
I’ll update this when I have had a chance to cohere some of my thoughts…
Update:
So the process of my thinking goes:
- The bible is the word of God
- Evangelicalism would say sola scriptura ie Scripture alone
- Further, we often state that the Bible is our authority
Reasonable. Then the questions come:
- Jesus is the Word of God. So, is one or both the word?
- Jesus states that “all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me” in Matt 28 . So, again, Jesus or the bible or both?
- If the Bible is authoritative, which version? ESV? NIV? A bunch claim the KJV. What about the original Hebrew/Greek?
- Sola Scriptura was a phrase developed by the Reformers – could they in any way be wrong? Or we misunderstand the term and its meaning?
Some “danger” areas here… but there is are two more important questions that I think point toward working through some of these issues:
(1) How is the bible authoritative?
(2) How has the triune God been involved in bringing what we know as the Scriptures to us, here, now?
I think in answering the second, we begin to see an answer to the first and that changes the nature of the responses to the first set of questions.
God speaks, the Spirit gifts and inspires, Jesus embodies and enacts.
Further, given what Jesus has achieved and the outpouring of the Spirit, I as a reader of the book am able to be led, by the Spirit, into the truth about Jesus as the revelation of the Father.
The authority of that which I hear and speak and read is the way in which they all line up.
Law and authority, i tend to
Law and authority, i tend to relate stories in the bible as case studies, like history, it reflect wisdom and authority applied in biblical time, as would now, context doesn’t change but time and age does, for example, eve pick apple – adam ate – kick out of eden, the in between doesn’t count, they break the law! however, whats interesting is the reflection of the grace and mercifulness of the CREATOR, GOD did not destroy them ( I know – I’ve side tracked) Yet he allowed his creations to destroy his own son, Some would think the price of absolute authority is death, but only on earth, triune GOD transcend all that is worldly, thus death to world release us (not free us) from laws and authorities of the world, the spiritual capacity is limitless.
Jesus is it!(he was here, flesh/blood), What he said goes, however scriptures were account of testimonies written by someone close/personal -of course spirit lead/inspired, Thus quote “ GOD speaks-spirit lead-jesus, how many others, could claim such perfect authority with grace without controvercies, none but GOD’s only son. God is divine, the bible is just a fraction of HIS BIG plan, thats why we are here.
I suppose "because the Bible
I suppose “because the Bible says so” won’t cut it in this discussion! I am a firm believer in Sola Scriptura, and the traditions and history of the church from the very earliest days lends great credence to the truthfulness and accurateness of the Bible. I suppose one can rely on the accurateness of translation, especially since the best modern translations are a collaborative effort, which (just like Wikipedia!) tend to eliminate biases.
Jesus IS the Word, but the Bible contains the words of God. It contains all that we need for training and encouragement, unfortunately for the modern day prophets. And for those with an experiential bias, the impact of the words of God, through the actions of the Spirit, continue to change lives all over the world!
Thanks for another thought provoking thread – I am waiting for more thoughts to come.
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