ClarkeComments.com

Hello all:

In the last couple of days, I’ve read enough sentences that say something like “xxx rejects the authority of the scriptures,” that I’m ready to puke. This phrase has bothered me for a long time, but I have tired of reading and hearing it, so now I shall start my diatribe against it.

This phrase comes out of the mouths of many in Churches of Christ. Not only that, though, this phrase also comes out of the mouths of many others that would be considered “evangelical” about churches that are more liberal than they are, or with whom they disagree.

If you read most statements of faith and creedal statements by most fundamentalist or evangelical groups today, they usually include a phrase that mentions that they firmly uphold and affirm the authority of scripture.

The groups that our church often criticizes for rejecting the authority of the scripture love to talk about how much authority the scriptures have. So why do we say that they reject that authority?

It is because they don’t reject the authority of the scripture, but instead they reject our preconceived ideas and beliefs about scripture. They reject, or rather, don’t even recognize our idea that there is a “New Testament Pattern” of how to conduct a worship service. They reject the Command, Example and Necessary Inference hermeneutic (which stems from the idea of a pattern to look for and follow). They reject the notion that the bible must specifically authorize something in English for it to be permissible in a worship service. They reject various interpretations of scripture that Churches of Christ typically affirm, and when they do this, we then say they are rejecting the authority of scripture altogether. It is implied that they don’t respect God. It is implied that they are apostate for not agreeing with our notions about scripture.

We then use these items in our unwritten creed to keep these people at arms length or further so they don’t effect “doctrinal purity.”

When we do this, we, in fact, are guilty of rejecting the authority of scripture. We instead exalt the authority of our logical and common sense above that of the scripture. We impose our beliefs on the text instead of reading anew what the text actually says and means.
One of our taglines states: “It says what it means, and it means what it says.” Its time that we respect that.

-Clarke

Hello all:

I love it when I am searching for information about scripture through website sources that many in our churches wouldn’t touch with a ten foot poll, and then find little gems on those sites from scholars within Churches of Christ.

I was searching for information about the exclusion of the apocrypha from the Protestant Cannon when I found this quote, which is attributed to a book that Everette Ferguson edited, entitled “The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity.”

“The Septuagint was the Bible of the earliest church. The parting of the church from the synagogue was a bitter one. The Septuagint had been regarded as the inspired Word of God; . . . the synagogue rejected the Septuagint [c. 90-100] . . . the Church spread the Septuagint, together with its own writings contained in the New Testament, throughout the world in its missionary activities. The Greek Bible was translated into Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic and other languages. . . Until the Protestant Reformation, the canon of the Church was the larger canon of the Septuagint. The Septuagint has traditionally been used to restore the text of the Hebrew Bible where the latter is corrupt.”

The thread and post can be found here, it is post #18.

Enjoy

-Clarke

Daniel and the Dragon, circa 1372

Proverbs 8:12-36 (NRSV)

I, wisdom, live with prudence,
and I attain knowledge and discretion.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
I have good advice and sound wisdom;
I have insight, I have strength.
By me kings reign,
and rulers decree what is just;
by me rulers rule,
and nobles, all who govern rightly.
I love those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me.
Riches and honour are with me,
enduring wealth and prosperity.
My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
and my yield than choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness,
along the paths of justice,
endowing with wealth those who love me,
and filling their treasuries.

The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth—
when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.

‘And now, my children, listen to me:
happy are those who keep my ways.
Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
Happy is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favour from the Lord;
but those who miss me injure themselves;
all who hate me love death.’