I wrote this week about how we don't get to pick our religion. What I mean is, if a particular faith is from God, then that particular faith needs to follow God and not popular opinion or prevailing wisdom. I warned that "a church body that reforms their beliefs by going against the sole authority on matters of faith and practice -- God's Word -- has nothing on which to stand but opinion and public sentiment." To which the obvious response is, "Well ... that's your opinion."
Is that where we stand? Is that all we've got? Those who oppose Scripture as the sole authority on matters of faith and practice have to affirm that it is. "No it isn't," they will likely claim, but without an authority over our opinions, there is nothing higher ... than "me." "No, no," they will tell you, "God tells us what to do and we do it." So how does that work? Because God tells this guy that homosexual behavior is a sin and they say, "No, that's not right," and God tells that guy that we're free to have sex at any time with anything and they say, "No, that's not right either," and then this other guy says that God told him to kill a congressman. Well, now, we're all pretty sure that that isn't God. Almost all. But without a higher authority than "my opinion," you have nothing but ... your opinion. And most of this category of people -- "Scripture is not the sole authority on matters of faith and practice" -- feel perfectly justified in taking their own version of "God told me" and pressing it onto everyone else. Well, those who disagree in particular.
The Bible claims to be "God breathed" (2 Tim 3:16-17). That is certainly a claim that, if true, gives it the authority of God. Jesus declared, "Your word is truth" and declared that truth as God's means of sanctifying His people (John 17:17). That gives Scripture the authority of God. Besides that, even the skeptics rely on Scripture to get their information, say, about Jesus all while they're denying the reliability of Scripture. Look, if Scripture is generally reliable and Scripture declares itself to be God's Word, then arguing against it is nonsense. But, of course, those hostile to God (Rom 8:7) have no problem with that obvious contradiction.
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Postscript: I wrote this entry a few days ago and Thursday I came across this little piece which tells of how a pagan philosopher became convinced of the Scriptures' truthfulness by reading the Scriptures. Similar to what I said above.
4 comments:
Dan, just so you know, this was not intended as an answer to you. It's really NOT all about you.
Great post as usual.
I was thinking along this topic when I heard that the Church of England will now be blessing same-sex unions, but not required to officiate them. If we accept that we need to adjust our theology to the times, then that is tantamount to admitting that all theology is man-made, and thus is really rather pointless. If the prime authority of a faith and practice is the surrounding culture, then no religion could stand thr test of time. No religion would look the same from age to age. If we allow our culture to dictate our doctrine, we may as well give up on our religion, because it had no value outside of its alignment with culture.
Yes, David, it was that story that got me thinking along these lines.
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