Our only certain knowledge of God derives from the Christian Bible, both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety. And yet the Word of God is a term better applied to Jesus Christ than to the theopneustos (God-breathed) Scriptures. Certainly, what we know of Jesus is found in the Bible, but when the apostle John spoke of "the Word of God" he was speaking of God's self-revelation in the form of His only-begotten Son.
As humans very attached to our physicality, we like to have objects to tie our faith on. God has granted us two eminently physical elements in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, but we are seldom satisfied with what we've been given. All of us are prone to searching beyond the stated means of grace for some kind of object in which to put our trust and on which to found our certainty. For many, that object is the Bible.
This is going to sound to some like I'm saying something I'm not. The Bible is central to our faith in that it was inspired by God and tells us everything He intended to directly reveal about Himself. We can have no real faith without the Bible. I affirm these and other statements like them. What I do not affirm is that it is the Bible in which we put our faith.
Evidential apologetics and other modernist attitudes implicitly take the view that the Bible is the source of our faith. Evidentialists work hard to prove that the Bible is trustworthy, that the events recorded in it actually happened, etc. Anti-intellectuals share this attitude, though with a slightly different trajectory: they fall back on "the Bible says so" response to any challenges to their beliefs and attitudes.
Christians put their faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible reveals to those who believe the nature, character, and doings of the triune God, but it isn't the source of faith, and its veracity doesn't depend on our ability to defend it or prove its truth. The Bible is a subservient revelation to the incarnation of Christ, Who is the truest revelation of God to mankind; we must hold to it as our only source and rule of doctrine and life, but we must receive our faith from Christ Himself, and He alone must be the object of our faith. All else is subsidiary.
No comments:
Post a Comment