The Authority of Scripture I

From about a week ago.

The Word of God, that by which we live our lives of faith. Good and proper living was biologically hardwired into us, in the beginning. But then we fell into sin. So what corrects us now? John 1:1 says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. That is one of the few specific examples of memory work I did from my days in Sunday School that has stuck with me without the reinforcement of weekly liturgical practice.

I wanted to talk about the authority of Scripture, not inerrancy, not inspiration, although they tie in, but the authority of this book we call the Word of God. It is the centerpiece of the Christian faith and praxis.

But it seems to me that the authority of the Bible rests on this more fundamental concept that the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is relatively easy to define, sixty six books of various lengths and genres, wrapped into two testaments, come down to us through the millennia.

But the Word of God is much more loaded as a concept.

According to John 1:1, the Word is God. That can be taken two ways. The general understanding is that the Word through John 1 refers to Jesus. Jesus, God the Son, and God the Father are being united in this passage. But God in God’s own existence is also the Word, something that was then manifest in the Second Person of the Trinity as Jesus, the Word of God.

We could split hairs here, but that is for another time. I want to make the point that the Word has divine origins, in both God and Jesus Christ. But now we run down this slope. Jesus is the Word of God. We have his words recorded in the next Word of God, the Bible itself. In the Reformed tradition, the sharing of the Word of God, its proclamation, is what makes me a Minister of the Word and Sacrament. And there is discussion of the Word of God proclaimed then becomes the Word of God received by those who hear it. So God, Bible, preacher, congregation, all of these are considered part of the defining of the Word of God.

Now, enter the Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit in our hearts and on our minds, we are not going to get the divine in the Word at any level. The bible becomes an interesting if anachronistic volume that lays down, at best, some good moral principles for living. So back to the question of the authority of Scripture. It ties into the sequence of the Word of God, it ties into the presence and work of the Holy Spirit, it forms a link in the chain from God to human. The inspiration of the Bible underpins and preserves its authority. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the Bible’s entire transmission, from its writing to its proclamation to its reception in the ears of the congregation, is a hallmark of its status as the Word of God.

The inerrancy of Scripture is a whole lot more controversial. Inerrancy in its fundamental definition states that every statement of the bible is true as fact. A fact is a scientific definition of what is. That is a late addition to the interpretation of Scripture, and not one I am real fond of.

To treat every word in the bible as fact is to lose the much richer literary treasure trove of truth that is contained in it. That presupposes that there are other truths besides facts. I assume the poetry of the Psalms or the pithiness of the Proverbs to contain as much relevant and uplifting truth for me in the form of poetic literature and wisdom literature as the historic truths found in, for example, the kings of Judah and Israel.

The authority of Scripture I believe to be damaged if a slavish fundamentalist inerrant approach is taken to interpret it. But that is an argument for another day.

The authority of Scripture is based on its place as the Word of God, received from Jesus, who is God and with God. This authority is confirmed by the real presence of the Holy Spirit who has guided and continues to guide the writing and interpretive process down through the centuries. And the argument is circular by design. The bible is authoritative because it is the Word of God. It is the Word of God because it is authoritative. We are people of faith, not of proof.

The blessings of God Almighty in our daily lives should be proof enough.

Shalom