We are God's people

Richard raised a question regarding the authority of the church when it speaks within the context of what God has said and the importance of ensuring that what we are relying on is actually God's word.

It reminded me of a discussion I have just been part of in our housegroup where we were looking at John 3 and considering the question of why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. We considered many options:

• it was so he wouldn't be seen
• he was a representative of the ruling council and they didn't want it known they were speaking with Jesus
• it was the only time they could meet

We eventually concluded that we didn't know but the strong feeling was that he didn't want to be seen. In that context the discussion was fine - if we were to base church doctrine on this it could be a problem!

A trivial example but it does demonstrate the point that we need to be absolutely clear and certain of the basis on which we are saying "Thus says the Lord!"

It is difficult, though, to get away from human failings when we consider how much 'the church' speaks with God's authority. One of the problems that Protestantism has with Catholicism is that the Pope is able to speak with the authority of God - in this case it is adding to what God has said / or maybe interpreting it.

The question must be as to where the line should be drawn.

I do believe that the church should be a powerful voice representing God in this world. The reason that the world has stopped listening - in many cases - may well be that we have stopped speaking in a clear voice the message of God.

What are we?

I've just returned from the DTC Bible study, and something in Exodus 16:8 struck me and brought me back to thinking about the authority of Scripture. The Israelites are grumbling to Moses that they have no food and Moses answers, "the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him - what are we? Your grumbling is not against us bug against the LORD". The Israelites thought they were just grumbling to Moses, but as he was God's prophet they were really grumbling to God.

When we were talking about authority, we referred to Grudem's line: "disbelieving or disobeying any word of scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God". But we can take that a step further which I just hadn't thought of. Where the church is in line with the Bible, grumbling against the church is grumbling against God. When people slate the church for being arrogant, exclusive, outdated, boring, irrelevant, anti-women, anti-gay or anything else, they're actually going up against God and calling him those things. (I need to stress here that this is only true when the church is in line with Scripture - there are groups calling themselves Christians who are all of these things and should be called for it.)

I found the 'next step' of this doctrine to be an encouragement for when we end up fighting culture - we have the authority of God himself with us. But it's also a reminder how important it is for the church's teaching to only ever be in line with what we've received, and also how serious a thing it is when people ignore what they hear in church or from Christians. (Again, with the above proviso!)

I don't know, it just got me thinking. What are we? I guess when we get it right, we're speaking only God's words, with God's authority.

Am I close, do you reckon?

Authority

Still dealing with the word of God, now we're looking at it's authority. I had to laugh, because just after reading the chapter in Systematic Theology I took a break and opened my internet feed reader which had just one item - the manuscript of a talk on 2 Timothy 3:14-4:4 titled The Authority of the Bible! It's a pretty good talk, I think.

Back to the book and, like Dad, the main thing that struck me about this chapter was a lot of encouragement about how great the Bible is and how privileged we are to have it. In no particular order, then:

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is able to give his own considerations (v12) the same weight as instructions that Jesus gave while he was on earth (v10, see Matthew 5:32) - also in v25. This shows the authority of the apostles (and the parts of the Bible they wrote) that what they said was true and authoritative even where it didn't come directly from Jesus' lips. I say 'directly', because of course it still came from Jesus who promised in John 14:25 and John 16:13-15 that the Father would send the Holy Spirit who would remind the apostles of what Jesus said, and teach them things that Jesus didn't say while on earth but which the Holy Spirit has received from Jesus.

As Christians read the Bible, the Holy Spirit convinces us that they are the words of God, and we recognise Jesus' own voice in them (John 10:27). Indeed, the only possible source of the claim that Scripture is our highest authority must come from Scripture itself (as the Spirit works through it) or we are making the source of our claim a higher authority (p78).

"To disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disobey or disbelieve God" (p81). This is a chilling thought in many ways - as I think of the ways I'm inclined to disbelieve the Bible (see below) - but it's also incredibly gracious of God to have spoken so clearly and directly to us on what we are to believe and obey. Grudem ends this section by saying:

"Throughout the history of the church the greatest preachers have been those who have recognized that they have no authority in themselves and have seen their task as being to explain the words of Scriptures and apply them clearly to the lives of their hearers... Only the written words of Scriptures can give this kind of authority to preaching." (p82)

God's word is truth (John 17:17). It is not merely true, it is truth. My maths text book may be entirely true but it is not truth. The Bible is our final standard of truth.

Scripture as it is written is authoritative. The fact that Jesus' words have been translated to Greek when written isn't a problem - nor that different gospels say slightly different things. Nor were the writers ever confused, mistaken or unclear in what they wrote. That would be to say that the words of written Scripture have less authority than what those men thought or said. Not only does this give us confidence in the text we have, but it surely leads into the sufficiency of Scripture (chapter 6). While better understanding the circumstances and contexts the books of the Bible were written into (through archaeology, extra-biblical accounts, etc.) is certainly useful, all we need to know the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) is a decent translation of the Bible. That makes me happy, but also reminds me that we should be fearful (awe-full) when we come to the Bible, fully expecting that God will speak and will expect us to change our thoughts and our lives after hearing him.

Grudem asks "questions for personal reflection", and thinking about the first two gave me further encouragement. I'm going to share (briefly!) my thoughts and see what you think...

The first question is what would you want someone to read in order to persuade them that the Bible is God's word. Intellectually it's a no-brainer (you don't have to read the chapter, just the title, to guess the answer is the Bible itself!) but practically it can be easier to rely on other things. I was struck by this a few months ago when I was looking for a copy of Luke's gospel to give to a (non-Christian) friend who I thought would like the fact Luke made sure he'd spoken to as many eye-witnesses as possible before writing (Luke 1:1-4). I could only find John and asked a (more mature and godly) friend. He is someone who knows all sorts of theology and apologetics and answers and can argue very well. If anyone would be qualified to persuade my friend that the Bible is God's word then it would be him. His response was "just get him reading the Bible". He knew and lived out that the Bible has transforming power in itself and (through the work of the Spirit) is the only thing that will persuade people of the gospel. It was a challenge to value the Bible more highly in evangelism.

The second question is what would make people want to disbelieve or disobey something in Scripture, and what's a good approach to deal with this? Speaking personally I can think of three 'categories' of things I have been tempted with. There are intellectual things, such as the Trinity which I know many people who feel they have to accept but would prefer if it went away. There are things that don't 'feel' right, such as judgment and punishment which I sometimes want to not believe because I don't like. There are lifestyle things, where I wonder is life really better God's way, or would this or that sin make my life better? I can't think of anything outside of those, but there might be. Again, the obvious (and the biblical) answer to how to deal with them is "the Bible", and I can attest to this in a couple of examples from my life. Last year, I went to a week long conference on the Trinity last year where everything the Bible said on the relationships between Father, Son and Spirit were pulled out and explained and applied. I came away not only fully convinced of the Trinity, but praising God for the loving relationship that has existed since before time and with a new desire to live in community with other Christians. Last week (and I'm still ashamed of this) in church while we were singing I suddenly couldn't believe that a God who created people who he knew were going to be punished for rejecting their maker was loving. I don't know what happened - I just couldn't believe it any more. Throughout that time, the verse "The LORD is gracious and compassionate" (from the Psalms, though I can't even remember where!) was my anchor. I knew that that was true because my Bible said so, so I knew that my objections and disbelief could take a seat. (It wasn't long before I was reminded of Jesus on the cross and couldn't see how God could be anything but love.) In those two cases, it was the words of the Bible that transformed (or kept) my belief in and obedience to God's words.

Any thoughts on those two questions (or the other two) from the two of you? This chapter really did refresh me and spur me on to increase my love for and knowledge of the Scriptures.

The Authority of Scripture

When reading chapter 4 which addresses the question of the authority of scripture I found myself not thinking as much about the details of the arguments but what it was actually saying to me and found it amazingly powerful and challenging.

It was a real reminder that the Bible is the written word of God - which I know I knew but the impact of that really struck home. I have been looking at Hebrews recently and was particularly struck by the first few words where it states - without any debate - that God has spoken. Its easy to go past those first words and focus on the supremacy of Christ (which is a great subject!) but it is also good to remind ourselves of that basic truth that God has chosen to reveal himself to us.

I found the definition on the opening page to be particularly challenging where it states that disbelieving or disobeying any word of scripture is to disbelive or disobey God.

Later on - page 83 - there is the statement that the Bible is God's Words which means that it is the ultimate standard of truth, the reference point by which every other claim to truthfulness is to be measured.

If Christians / the church / I really understood the truth of these statements and lived our lives accordingly I believe that the effect on this world would be amazing - and this is how it ought to be.

Some food for thought....