Subject: For Joe. |
Bible Note: Charis: I agree with what you say about the Bible, the church, and the Holy Spirit. I am sure that you agree, also, that the Bible is our tool for discerning whether it is truly the Spirit who is working. I also would bet that you believe that when a church and the Bible are at odds, it is most likely time to find another church. In other words, the Bible is our sole objective, immutable authority for knowing God. It requires the Spirit's teaching us (John 14:26), and faithful misisters proclaiming God's truth are definitely a gift from Him (thanks be to God for them!); but the whole Christian life for us in the post-apostolic age is centered in the completed canon. When I was referring to illiteracy and the unavailability of Scripture, I was referring to the Middle Ages and pre-Reformation Renaissance more than the early church. Certainly God has preserved His people throughout history, many of whom have very little access to Scriptual truth of any kind. But the Scriptural truth that they go get is what they cling to. Think of Chinese Christians who have one Bible for about every 500 believers. These are people who do not so casually put aside the Word of God. They THIRST after it in a way I have seen few believers in free countries thirst after it. They have the Spirit. They are congregated. But it is the Bible that makes the Christian growth complete. The problem that I am addressing however, is the notion that the Bible is "not enough" in some sense, that we must rely on other, outside sources for a complete knowledge of God. This leads to lots of errors on the part of the original poster, which mostly center around the apparent opinion that mankind is basically good and clearly reflects God's nature in our humanitarian deeds. "Good" deeds such as the rescue attempts in NYC, while they are helpful and are making a temporal difference in our world (and I DO support the efforts, so save the flames, onlookers!), also can be done from very humanistic, and God-dishonoring motives. It does not reflect the "innate goodness" of the human race, which you know the Bible denies (Romans 3:10-18). The Bible is the only thing we have which unmistakably conveys the nature of God, and looking at humanity as a whole without a knowledge of the Bible is the most ridiculous way of learning about God's character. But I am sure that I am speaking to the choir here... --Joe! |