It is a common notion today, offered by skeptics and Christians alike. From the far left to the near right, lots of people tell us, "You can't take the Bible at face value." There are, of course, degrees of that claim. Some discard it altogether. Some think it's sort of a "nice book," as it were, with some good ideas in it, but certainly not truth. Moving up this ladder, there are those who believe that the Bible contains God's word but is not itself God's word. Some point to actual quotes of God in the Bible and argue that those are the only actual "God's word" contents. Others stretch it further and say that, sure, it's in there; you just have to figure out what is and is not God's word. Accumulating these notions, you find that the largest number of people, whether they utterly disregard it or have some respect for it, still hold that the Bible is not completely reliable and you're a fool if you think otherwise.
We believe otherwise. We believe that, as the Bible claims, the Bible is "God-breathed" -- the actual word used in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. "Inspired" is okay, but the idea conveyed in the word is that God actually "exhaled" it in a sense. Authors of the Bible claim divine direction. Peter assured his readers that Scripture is not a matter of one's own interpretation, nor was it produced by the will of man, "but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:20-21) So we believe that God breathed His word to the authors and God has superintended it since, so that, if God is to be trusted at all, we can be absolutely confident that what we have today in our Bibles is genuinely God's reliable word.
But, you knew that. I mean, you knew that this is what we believe. If you count yourselves among "we," that's what you believe. We're not "bibliolaters," worshiping a book. We don't regard the Bible as "holy" like Islam does. But as worshipers of God, we have absolute respect for His word commensurate with our respect for God. If you do not count yourselves among "we," you at least know that's what we believe.
So, what if you place yourself in the "Christian" category but not in the "we believe the Bible is God's word" category? So what? On the face of it you might be tempted to think it's a mere disagreement over which we can disagree without division. Like Paul's "whether or not to eat meat sacrificed to idols." I would argue that this is not that. If the Bible is accurate in its claim to be God-breathed -- if Jesus was right when He said, "Your word is truth" (John 17:17) -- and you deny that, you've managed to "pull an Aaron." What's that? Well, after God gave Israel His word (Exo 20), Moses went up to talk with God and the people demanded an idol. Aaron, like the fabled rabbit-out-of-the-hat trick, pulled one out of their gold (Exo 32:1-5; Exo 32:24). He created an image for them to worship instead of God Himself. If you disregard God's word as genuine truth, you've set yourself up as the image to be worshiped. You've set yourself as the ultimate arbiter of truth. You've made an idol of yourself. "No, it's not actual truth. I'll tell you what is and is not." I would argue that this is not trivial and it's not a safe place to stand.
5 comments:
I don't understand why people constantly want to claim a belief system when they don't believe in the source of that system. If you don't believe in it, find another religion, stop co-opting mine.
My jaw dropped when an Episcopalian fellow I carpooled with airily claimed, "The bible is a book of fables." He also insisted, "Muslims talk to the same God we do, they just use a different phone number."
Poor David. You're confused. The Bible is not the source of the system. Jesus is. Oh, but wait, all that we know about Jesus comes from the Bible. And the Bible says the foundation of the church is the Apostles and the Prophets ... which we get from the Bible. All we know about the Christian faith comes from the Bible. Well, that sure throws a wrench in the "The Bible is not the source of the system" idea.
Anonymous, I once talked to a guy that told me, "That book is all myth and legend." "Oh, you've read it?" I asked. "Well, no, not really." "Don't you think you ought to read it before you criticize it?" Funny thing. He did. Most of the detractors I know do it on the basis of other detractors and not first hand examination.
"All we know about the Christian faith comes from the Bible."
I would submit what most of the world knows about morality comes from the Bible. Even "good" atheists are influenced by Scripture. It's inescapable having been born in and among those who were likewise influenced by Scripture. It goes back generations.
One fellow once told me even without the Bible, he would still be a believer in God. He claimed...paraphrasing a bit...even the heavens proclaim the glory of God. But where did he learn this? From Scripture. To suggest that we'd know the God of the Bible if there was no Bible is rather absurd....OR, and incredible example of word-of-mouth continuing through the centuries.
Paul is clear that God has revealed Himself in what He made. Obviously people believed in God long before Scriptures existed. So belief in God without Scriptures isn't impossible. (In fact, Paul says it's a given and the only way not to do so is to lie (Rom 1:18-20).) But what we know about God through nature is not sufficient to, for instance, have saving faith in Christ.
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