I think one of the things I found hardest to bear was to hear speakers questioning the infallibility of the Bible, especially over things like women and homosexuals.
Now I am very much not a quiet woman who sits in the background but do believe what the Bible says about wives submitting to their husbands, and have watched some really impressive woman who I know do so much more when they do it under the covering of their husbands. Hey God put it there for a reason!!
And when it came to what the Bible says about homosexuals then very much it was in the wrong. Now I do not think we should go back to condemning homosexuals and stoning them. Hardly a love and grace thing and one thing Jesus was clear on was that we are to love our neighbour as our selves. (Amazing talk on this by Simon Neal today at Bath City Chuch that I am plugging everywhere. Check out www.bathcitychurch.org.uk and find this Sunday's streaming!)
We are to love and we are to be there and we are to be Jesus to everyone. Hey you cant take that out of the Bible. But I do wonder if we ok same sex relationships, which then means they start living and sleeping together what do we say to our highly charged hetrosexual teens, who very much are committed to each other - at that moment. How can it be ok for same sexes to be sleeping together and not opposite sexes??
Interestingly Carla came up with a good point on this - that we nowadays see sex as a human right, to be had whenever we want, with no restraint, no self control, and if we cannot have it the way we like best when we want it then we are being repressed!!
The Bible has to be the true living word of God, all of it, even the bits we don't like. I've got more to say on the bits we seem to not like later but I will leave this for now, quoting from a discussion forum I follow from Andy Varley:
"I think belief that the bible is the "living word" or God doesn;t come from tangible proff though archeology will confirm some details of bible statements such as location of towns etc. Instead knowing the bible is infallible is about first coming to know God. In simple terms you wouldn;t be lost and unable to encounter God if all the bibles in the whole world were somehow lost and couldn;t be found. So, knowing God then gives you some kind of an idea of His nature, His will, His values and the bible is a good offering of examples of these things. I think at the risk fo sounding contraversial I'd say that the bible could well be challenged in worldly terms and without a relationship with God, truly encountering Him, honestly listening and hearing Him (in which ever way you do) then you'd be at risk of turning it all into an academic exercise about whether the bible is a good read or not. Let's face it, if we do believe in God, the star maker, galaxy shaper, the one who rides the wind etc etc then a bunch of men meeting several hundred years ago to choose which books to include int he modern bible isn;t really going to be much of a challeneg to Him is it??? I think there's more to this than meets the eye. God is an interesting fellow not least because of the way He gets things done."
Ok long quote but says what I want to say and so why waste it!
Diane,
ReplyDeleteSome great points :) When we lose our Biblical foundations we start on a slippery slope that questions values and ends up denying evangelical positions outright.
The infallibility of the Bible must be questioned if we wish to push our agendas rather than God's. Which is why finding out exactly what view of the Bible someone holds is a very good way to find out what they believe about God ...
In this day and age when it's seemingly popular to question authority the Bible can come into the cross-hairs of many people who a few generations ago wouldn't have thought of it. I sometimes wonder if we don't suffer more casualties from 'friendly fire' than from objective criticisms from non-believers.
I should also say that I'm not so sure Mr. Varley is correct in his assertions:
"I think at the risk fo sounding contraversial I'd say that the bible could well be challenged in worldly terms and without a relationship with God"
This sounds a little too gnostic to me. It don't think it fits with the classic view of infallibility, and the argument wouldn't stand up to intellectual scrutiny (whereas classical view of Scripture do).
With all that, we need more people like you objectively listening to what we hear and saying, 'Hang on, I'm not so sure this is right.' Will we be bold enough to stick our necks on the line and fight for the truth?
Good stuff :)
Thanks for that Jonathon. Must admit I did have a bit of a panic afterwards that I might upset people, but I do think its time to take a stand.
ReplyDeleteI am coming across lots of people who want to reach out to new age people who are ok to have the infalibility of the Bible challenged.
Also for me I think Andy Varley was saying that people who do not know God would/could challenge the Bible but can we really do that as Christians.