Progression or digression …

Wrestling with the text of Scripture presents some interesting situations. Our tradition tends toward one of “Biblical Authority.” That is, the Bible speaks and from that we understand the meaning of life, the histroy and future of redemption and how we ought to live as followers of Jesus Christ.

Inevitably we come to “personal convictions.” These are things meaningful to us. We take the Reformation doctrine “Priesthood of the Believer” to give us “carte blanche” to “interpret” as we understand.

These personal convictions result in “personal opinions.” These are positions arrived at through our personal convictions. “Personal Opinions” help us determine how to handle the not so clear areas of life and faith.

Over time we hold our “personal convictions” so strongly and our “personal opinions” solidify in our minds that unbeknownst to us, we elevate our “personal convctions” and “personal opinions” to the level of authority. At that point there is no place for competing authorities and so our position of “Biblical Authority” fits into our “personal convictions” and “personal opinions.” Now the Bible is no more authority than a good book on leadership, an inspirational novel, or one of the many self-help books available.

At this point we make the same error we sense is made by those who do not share our view of “Biblical Authority.”

One potential help would be to recover the Reformation doctrine of “Priesthood of all believers” which really means that as followers of Jesus enter into community with one another they forge and form confessional statements as to what is held and beleived. This process helps avoid the elevation of “personal convictions” and “personal opinions” from rising to the point of ultimate authority.

The uneasy time comes when we realize our “personal convictions” and “personal opinions” are just that. Now in community we hold each other to the authority of Scripture that has been held through time by those living to follow Jesus. So we are both backward and forward looking.

Leonard Sweet’s image of the swing is appropriate here. We “lean back” looking to see what historically followers of Jesus have held and we “kick forward” seeing how to apply these contants to the changing environs of culture and society.

Ulitmately our goal is to live out our lives as Dallas Willard puts it, “as Jesus would live our lives were he us.”

About the Author
Husband to Patty. Daddy to Kimberly and Tommie. Grandpa Doc to Cohen, Max, Fox, and Marlee. Pastor to Snow Hill Baptist Church. Graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reading. Photography. Golf. Colorado. Jeeping. Friend. The views and opinions expressed here are my own and should not be construed as representing the corporate views of the church I pastor.

3 comments on “Progression or digression …

  1. says:

    What do you think about Wright’s statements on Biblical authority?

    Beginning, though, with explicit scriptural evidence about authority itself, we find soon enough–this is obvious but is often ignored–that all authority does indeed belong to God.
    What is he doing? He is not simply organizing the world. He is, as we see and know in Christ and by the Spirit, judging and remaking his world. What he does authoritatively he dots with this intent. God is
    not a celestial information service to whom you can apply for answers on difficult questions. Nor is he a heavenly ticket agency to whom you can go for moral or doctrinal permits or passports to salvation. He does not stand outside the human process and merely comment on it or merely issue
    you with certain tickets that you might need. Those views would imply either a deist’s God or a legalist’s God, not the God who is revealed in
    Jesus Christ and the Spirit. And it must be said that a great many views of biblical authority imply one or other of those sub-Christian alternatives.

    How does God exercise that authority? Again and again, in the biblical story itself we see that he does so through human agents anointed and equipped by the Holy Spirit. And this is itself an expression of his love; because he does not will, simply to come into the world in a blinding flash of
    light and obliterate all opposition. He wants to reveal himself meaningfully within the space/time universe not just passing it by tangentially; to reveal himself in judgement and in mercy in a way which will save people.
    -N.T. Wright

    He states on his website that “biblical authority” should probably not be used due to it’s misuse. Which I believe is what you were stating as well. All authority is God’s authority and by us standing on biblical authority we put ourselves as the authority too often.

  2. says:

    What do you think about Wright’s statements on Biblical authority?

    Beginning, though, with explicit scriptural evidence about authority itself, we find soon enough–this is obvious but is often ignored–that all authority does indeed belong to God.
    What is he doing? He is not simply organizing the world. He is, as we see and know in Christ and by the Spirit, judging and remaking his world. What he does authoritatively he dots with this intent. God is
    not a celestial information service to whom you can apply for answers on difficult questions. Nor is he a heavenly ticket agency to whom you can go for moral or doctrinal permits or passports to salvation. He does not stand outside the human process and merely comment on it or merely issue
    you with certain tickets that you might need. Those views would imply either a deist’s God or a legalist’s God, not the God who is revealed in
    Jesus Christ and the Spirit. And it must be said that a great many views of biblical authority imply one or other of those sub-Christian alternatives.

    How does God exercise that authority? Again and again, in the biblical story itself we see that he does so through human agents anointed and equipped by the Holy Spirit. And this is itself an expression of his love; because he does not will, simply to come into the world in a blinding flash of
    light and obliterate all opposition. He wants to reveal himself meaningfully within the space/time universe not just passing it by tangentially; to reveal himself in judgement and in mercy in a way which will save people.
    -N.T. Wright

    He states on his website that “biblical authority” should probably not be used due to it’s misuse. Which I believe is what you were stating as well. All authority is God’s authority and by us standing on biblical authority we put ourselves as the authority too often.

  3. says:

    Indeed true lb. There is another picture that helps me. For too long we have stood over the Scriptures as an analyst or a surgeon. We might be better off standing under the Scriptures as the subject to be analyzed or the patient to be “remade.” The Bible in the former becomes a tool and in the latter an “active agent” in the hands of the Spirit of God revealing the Living Word of God – Jesus, the Christ, who shows us the way to follow the Father in faith.

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