One of the best classes I took in grad school was a course entitled Scripture and Canon. It was a course surveying the issues surrounding the collection, development, and canonization of the scriptures. One of the discussions we had in class centered on various church statements of belief about the nature of the scriptures. It was fascinating to see the variety of ideas captured in such statements. We were struck with not only the diversity found in these statements, but also the views of what the scriptures are expressed in many of them.
A few weeks back a friend of mine pointed out this statement about the scriptures made by a church local to us:
We believe the Bible is the most important book anyone could ever read or study. No other book can successfully take a person into the heart of God. We affirm this based on our belief that the Bible, consisting of all 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, is the inspired, authoritative and inerrant Word of God. It is, down to the finest
detail, everything God intended to say as He inspired men to write it. As such, the Bible is the final word on relating to God, living with each other, and enjoying the life He intends. We preach and teach God's Word with complete confidence in its historic, scientific, and spiritual reliability (Psalm 19:7-11; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:20, 21; John 8:30-31; Hebrews 4:12).
Now perhaps maybe I'm too much the inquisitive type, but this particular statement made me ask a few questions:
Is the Bible the only place where we find truth? Are the scriptures the only way to the heart of God?
How do we know that the scriptures are exactly the way God intended them to be written? Is this an interpretation of something stated in the text, is this something external to the text that we bring to it as a way of elevating them? [Dare I say much like the term "inerrancy"...]
What do we mean by "God's Word?" Is everything written in the scriptures "God's Word," even the words attributed to pagans?
What do we make out about the historic reliability of the text? What does it mean that we see the text as being reliable in all things historic? What happens when historical portrayals are conflicting? And what about scientific reliability? Are to take the scientific world view of the scriptures as an accurate portrayal of the cosmos, as an example?
These questions are not asked as a skeptic. They are asked out of a desire to see us be more clear about the writings we call the scriptures. We tend to say a lot of things that perhaps make sense to those inside a particular Christian culture, but forget that those statements can often be quite unclear, or even easily dismissed, by those without a frame of reference. Additionally, I wonder if we always understand the implications of what we say we believe.
Any thoughts? What strikes you about this particular statement or others you have read?
Recent Comments