07/11/2024
Biblical Authority
For All Areas of Life
https://www.carlshankconsulting.com/biblical-authority-for-all-of-life
Do you recall the old vacation Bible school song? — “The B-I-B-L-E / Yes, That’s the Book for me / I stand alone on the Word of God / The B-I-B-L-E.” When I asked the artificial intelligence site, Calude.ai, for a recent summary of “biblical authority,” it offered the following — “Here's a concise summary of major views on biblical authority:
1. Inerrancy: The Bible is without error in all matters.
2. Infallibility: The Bible is inerrant in matters of faith and practice, but not necessarily in historical or scientific details.
3. Limited Inspiration: Only certain parts of the Bible are divinely inspired.
4. Neo-orthodox: The Bible becomes the Word of God through personal encounter.
5. Liberal: The Bible is a human document containing spiritual insights but not divine revelation.
6. Canonical Criticism: Focuses on the final form of the text as authoritative.
7. Historical-Grammatical: Emphasizes original context and language for interpretation.
8. Allegorical: Seeks hidden spiritual meanings beyond the literal text.
9. Existential: Emphasizes personal interpretation and application.
10. Post-modern: Views biblical authority as culturally constructed.”
Again, AI has missed the point of “inerrancy.” Biblical inerrancy does NOT claim the Bible is without error in all matters, but rather the Bible is without error in “all that it claims.” While this may be seen as “infallibility,” according to AI’s summary, it really outlines what evangelicals have claimed forever as “inerrancy.”
But we are ahead of ourselves. Biblical authority presumes faith-submission belief. The presupposition of most writers here, including the internet Wikipedia article on “biblical authority,” is that the Bible is just another book that can be subjected to autonomous, human critical thinking and dissecting. Once we start with a supposed “neutral” human position, we are then allowed to critique anything by anybody, including the Word of God, and even “God” himself. No one starts without critical presuppositions that inform and even dictate what the results of study and reflection and life choices involve.
Those who choose to place their critical suppositions on the Bible are predisposed to disbelieve many parts of the Bible, or even reject the Bible’s claim to authority itself. This is a fact that has been demonstrated over and over again in the literature about the Bible. What we do not like, we do not like. And we therefore do not take the Bible’s precepts at face value. That is especially true in a post-modern world that has gone way beyond the old modernistic liberalism of the nineteenth and even twentieth century. We do not want God telling us what to believe, how to live and how to make choices on everything. Consequently, biblical authority is a non-starter for many people.
Can a non-believer in Christ as Savior and Lord of their life submit to biblical authority? Not really, and certainly not evenly. The debate about certain Bible verses and declarations centers around a presuppositional tablet of belief and practice. The biblical Christian takes God’s Word on the authority of God himself, who cannot lie and who does not deceive. Biblical faith requires submission to the overriding Lordship of Christ over all of life and thinking. Without that submission, there is no consistent or thorough biblical authority.
This does not mean that there are no hard places in the Bible to understand and relate to modern culture and society. Moreover, our natural and sinfully laced examination of the Bible darkens and prevents much understanding of these so-called “hard” places. Books and seminars and sermons on such supposed “difficulties” have failed to satisfy many people due to their internal rejection of God as Lord of their life and thought and choices. On the other hand, those who have a willing submission to God’s authority over their lives have increasingly found resolutions to such “hard” places in Scripture. Presuppositional “openness” to God and what God says in the Bible is at the forefront of biblical authority.
Biblical authority is “contextual” authority. The so-called verse separations we see in our Bibles betray our understanding of biblical authority. We must always relate each “verse” to the context of that verse, locally and then extensively throughout the Bible. Picking and choosing verses we “like” or “don’t like” or have trouble with is no way to read or understand the Bible and its authority. Unfortunately, large parts of the Church of Christ over the years have fed into such an erroneous system of understanding and living out what the Bible says and means. Context is truly king here.
Biblical authority is “all of life and thought” authority. Those who dichotomize faith from the rest of life have foreseen trouble with biblical authority. God gives us a “world and life” point of view in the Bible. Either we admit and accept such a viewpoint or we do not. I have a friend who helps doctors and nurses in their medical training. That training in our day is in many aspects diametrically opposed to the teaching and authority of Scripture in their professional practice and life. This anti-God study and practice militates against biblical authority in their profession. And, in a number of cases, they cannot legally practice medicine with an overriding submission to Scripture in their minds and hearts. Or, they must hide such belief and submission as they practice medicine. That does not mean we have no Christian doctors or nurses. What it does mean is that some aspects of current medical care are “off-limits” to them, if they seek to be submissive to God and the Scriptures.
I admit that I am a “bottom-line” kind of Christian. There is truth and there is falsehood. Do I believe we should write and talk with and debate with unbelievers about biblical authority? Yes and no. Yes, if there is a genuine willingness to find God’s truth. No, if this is just an academic exercise with no resolution perceived or intended. At the end of the age and judgment, God is not going to adjudicate people according to where they lived or what cultural time line they occupied. His judgment will be based on his character and Word. No fudging then and there.
After over forty years in Christian ministry and theological study, I have been disappointed time and again over endless debates with unbelievers over the Bible’s authority and integrity. Do I believe God preserved his Word through the ages? Yes, I believe in God’s overriding providential sovereign control of people and events and church councils and debates on the integrity of the Bible. Unless God does an invisible, yet definite, spiritual opening of eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to understand and submit to the Bible, that never happens.
We live in a world of choices. Biblical authority is a choice. “The B-I-B-L-E / Yes, That’s the Book for me / I stand alone on the Word of God / The B-I-B-L-E.”
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