Two a Week
It seems as though my blogging is bogging. It's not that I don't sit down at the computer as often during the summer as during the school year. It's not even that I don't have as many thoughts swirling around in my brain this time of year. Right now, the problem is that most of those thoughts aren't ready for public broadcast yet. Changes are a'comin' and I'm way excited about them.I read something by Barclay the other day and it put into words my thoughts about authority.
"The trouble about the Bible is that no sooner have we quoted one text on one side than it is so often possible to quote another text on the other side. We could find authority in the Bible for destroying our enemies and for forgiving our enemies, depending on which part of it we use. We could find authority for arguing that there is no life after death and for arguing that life after death is the very center of Christian belief, depending on whether we choose to quote the Old or the New Testament.
"No man alive accepts every word of the Bible as authoritative. He is bound to select, and he uses some other principle to guide his selection.
"There is no such thing as a final authority which can be externally imposed on any man. It is God's method that man is compelled to use his own mind, his own heart and his own judgment. And for the Christian there is only one authority, and that authority is Jesus Christ interpreted by the Holy Spirit."
I know a few people who truly believe that their beliefs are based solely on scripture and not through any interpretation of their own. How they can believe this is beyond me. We all bring our own traditions, experiences, and biases to our understanding of the Word. The very act of reading it is interpretation. It is filtered through our own unique lens. Yet, many would say, "This is right because the Bible says so." No it doesn't. You say so, based on what you think it says!
And yet we can all be in accord over those things that truly matter. The Spirit is, indeed, one. When we all look to the Father and focus on the Son, the Spirit guides us into all truth. And knowing what is really important becomes child's play. Today, I am thankful for the ultimate authority.
posted by Thurman8er @ 3:53 PM
4 Comments:
Those proclaiming perfect interpretation surely must have huge egos!
Whether by education, lifetime impressions, or pure circumstance we will always see scripture in different lights at different times...and that's just us; imagine agreeing 100% with anyone over a course of a lifetime.
I have ran into folks who claim, "We just do what the Bible tells us to do." If we only examine the history of our own movement in this century we can see that "we've" changed our positions on a number of topics. As one preacher once said, "All God's children "gots" baggage."
I once did a needlework thingy with a "fish" on it, and the words were, "God Said It, I Believe It, That Settles It"
Uh...I can't find it...I've NO idea what I did with it.
Right ON, Steve - my sentiments exactly! (You too, Larry)
Oh Randy, that's funny! (What a concept...) Everytime I study something, and maybe get cross-referenced somewhere new, I have to "re-study". I did that for my curious study of the apocalypse...Revelation to Daniel..to other places, and even more unfamiliar places (was I in the same book? Where did THIS come from?) And some conclusion was reached about the anti-christ...I got scared and hid my Bible for a while...
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