My House, Caronport Saskatchewan
Contemplating Ecclesiological / Eschatological / Christological concepts in relation to authority within the Christian Church... (relaxing after work / making supper) 7:16 PM
Weather = very pleasant
Authority. Where do Christians find it? What authority do we live by and where or what do we get authority?
Well, being a good Protestant / Evangelical / Baptist we will start with Scripture. The Bible is the source of authority that all of us good Evangelicals hail as the divine law and ultimate authority for the Christian and the Church. Indeed, the divinely inspired Scriptures of The Bible are the foundations for Christian conduct and the source of God's Word to us. As the Scriptures say;
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
For the conservative Evangelical, The Bible is the highest law. But this makes me ask the question, "why don't we follow it?"
If Christian authority were as simple as saying "The Bible says..." then why don't we stone homosexuals, stop women from wearing jewelry, or sell all our possessions and give them to the poor?
The answer is that the Bible needs to be properly interpreted otherwise it can say whatever you want it to say. So perhaps the Bible alone isn't the sole authority for authentic Christian life, we also need to use sound thinking.
Reason, the ability to discern truth and understand reality by the power of our minds. The ancient Greeks hailed reason as a religion and the Enlightenment hailed Reason as god. From reason we have the Philosophy, the love of wisdom. Christians however acknowledge reason as a gift of God for the discernment of truth and the enabling of wisdom. Many church fathers acknowledged an eternal rational within nature, human thought, and even within the being of God himself! So we reason about the Bible and discern what parts of the Bible are applicable for us today.
For this reason all of what can be considered 'Classical Christianity' has done away with the sacrificing of animals on the rational that Jesus blood is our sin sacrifice. Christians don't follow the ancient Jewish Law given by Moses because of the decision of the original Church leaders who rationalized that since the Holy Spirit has come upon the Gentiles just like it came upon the Jews, that God accepted them as they were and that they did not need to follow The Law but should still adhere to some basic rules so as to not create strife between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. The Judaisers (those who demanded that Gentile Christians adhere to the Law) were the first heretical movement in the church and it was reason applied to Scripture which stopped them.
And so we have the entire field of Exegesis (properly understanding Scripture on its own terms) which is taught in every Christian School which seeks to be obedient to God. Within Exegesis we have many sub-categories that we use to discern the meaning within Scripture, and here is where Christians will differ in opinion about how this should be done. We have the Historical Critical method, Narrative method, Redactical method, and a whole host of other methods that will bore the average human being to death, but each are very important and form the rational behind different views of Scripture. Is the creation story literal or metaphor? Did Jesus actually do literal miracles or is it all narrative pointing towards a larger and more important truth? Is the proper interpretation of the Book of Revelation Pre-Trib, Post-Trib, Millennial, or Amillennial?
To be completely honest, I don't see most Christians looking into the discipline of applying reason to Scripture which means that we have another form of authority at play, Tradition!
The average person doesn't actually consider the reasoning behind what they believe, they just believe it on the basis of authority. I'm not just talking about religion now, I'm talking about everything. All of us adhere to different traditions of how to understand the world.
The weight of tradition can not be overemphasized and the authority found in it is staggering, especially in the Christian faith. It was tradition which allowed for the discerning of heresy in the early church and it was tradition which eventually allowed for the crafting of the entire New Testament! The Tradition of Truth, handled from Jesus to the Apostles to the disciples of the Apostles is the foundation of the Gospel message and the doctrines of the Church from the Apostles Creed to all the doctrines. As Christianity continued on its way through history it built upon the reasoning and discernment of the generation before it. It is this faithful tradition which has kept this religion firm against the attacks of corrupting the original message of Christ (as the Mormons and Muslims see it). It was this tradition which stopped the spread of Gnosticism in the second century and it is the this tradition that defines orthodox Christianity.
In an immediate sense the average Christian is part of a branch of this tradition that shapes how he or she understands The Bible, God, Salvation, the Church, the purpose Christianity itself, and so many other things as well. Instead of doing personal exegesis, most Christians rely on the authority of tradition. Even those that do learn how to do proper exegesis rely heavily on tradition, it is what gives us roots and identity. In an even more immediate sense every church has traditions from how many hymns or choruses must be sung to emphasizing specific doctrines (perhaps an emphasis on the sovereignty of God verses the free will of man).
Now if you happen to be reading this and something really ins't lining up just yet then perhaps that's because I haven't mentioned The Authority of The Spirit.
Christianity isn't just properly understanding Scripture and a Tradition of Truth, it is also empowered by The Holy Spirit! Christianity is a living religion and the Holy Spirit is what unifies us all in Christ as well as empowers and inspires individuals do the will of God. When The Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles it burned within them and they could not keep silent, even when the Sanhedrin (the highest religious authority during the time of Christ) forbid them from speaking, they literally could not stop, the Holy Spirit surged through them. All throughout history the Holy Spirit has empowered Christians, sometimes overtaking them in incredible ecstasy and revealing truth to the hearts of all who would listen. How did the Apostles know that Jesus was the Christ, the incarnation of God Himself? God revealed it to them, through the Holy Spirit!
Now going back to reason, it is important to note that authentic revelation of God will not contradict past revelation because God will not contradict himself. For this reason simply saying "God told me so," sometimes isn't the most authoritative thing to claim. Scripture, reason, and tradition all tell us to test the spirits to make sure that perceived divine revelation is in fact from God and not just someone's idea that they got really excited about.
That being said, the place and authority of revelation from God apart from Scripture (in personal experience) can not be overstated! Christianity would be dead if it weren't for the life breathed into each of us by God. The supernatural testimony of the Apostles, the Scriptures themselves, and the incredible witness of countless Spirit filled leaders from Scripture and beyond (Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Barth just to name a few from theology alone). This is the legacy of Christianity, the declaration of the Gospel! God is with us! Emmanuel! Hallelujah!
Even today, God manifests his power through us in Spiritual Gifts! The gift of wisdom where God gives you the ability to understand many things and how to apply knowledge well. The gift of knowledge where God allows you to know things that nobody has told you (yet). The gift of prophecy, where as you speak the truth about God, God himself speaks through you to enliven the soul of those listening. The gift of tongues where the spirit of the individual is caught up in the rapture of God's glory and begins to praise God in spiritual languages or where the language barrier is breached and the Christian is empowered to speak the language of the hearer. In addition to these are the gifts of teaching, administration, charity, faith, mercy, and hospitality.
Occasionally God will give some individuals a special anointing to do incredible things for the Kingdom of God. Luther's corrective to dead Catholicism, Barth's corrective to dead Protestantism, Martin Luther King Jr.'s corrective to a racist and hateful Christianity, Teresa of Calcutta's ministry to a poverty stricken land. Occasionally the Holy Spirit is poured out like wildfire upon an entire region for a time of incredible revival. It is from these people and times that traditions are formed and the authority of Spirit is remembered in those traditions. All these authorities are part of the grand story of God's working in history apart from as well as in and through his people.
Then of course there is always culture. Since the Church is located in time and space it is also located within a local culture. Local culture will have its own ideas and traditions, and is a natural catalyst for development and adaptation of the local church. Culture always demands that the church change, and the church must always walk the line between holding to what is true and updating what is out of style / irrelevant / wrong. The Church should be a notable presence within culture, following Jesus' command to be salt and light. The Church will also always be changing because of culture, both to combat as well as accommodate it.
This is why the Historical Critical method of understanding the Bible can not just be ignored, the Christians within Scripture were also shaped by and engaging in (reacting to?) the culture around them. Culture is the medium we live in, it is a part of who we are and who we are trying to reach.
Why then do Christians differ so much from each other? Why are there so many disagreements and schisms within the Church?
The reason I think is that we all place a different emphasis on different authorities. We Evangelicals (especially us Baptists) hold that Scripture is the highest authority, Scripture as the Holy Spirit empowers you to understand it. Roman Catholics value tradition, especially Peter's mantle to lead the Church, as the foundation of their structure and belief. Liberal Protestants (as well as liberal Catholics) emphasize historical criticism and reason based on the human experience. Pentecostals, Apostolics, as well a host of other mystical and spirit lead groups emphasize the authority of the working of the Holy Spirit and personal revelation. Independent churches place the authority of Scripture or the Holy Spirit above that of Tradition. Liberation and 'Social Gospel' movements within Christianity emphasize the importance of culture and our need to engage it. At the end of the day we all have the same authorities, but we just put them in different places.
I think that this difference in emphasizing of authority is actually a good thing. The Body of Christ (the Church) is a made up of many members, and I don't think the spirit of this analogy is lost when applying it to different streams within Christian thought. In this way the Church, like the Apostle Paul, becomes all things to all people so that some may be saved.
I think that there is a danger neglecting any one of these authorities. Christianity without the witness of Scripture risks toppling into foolish or false ideas that are in not part of Christianity at all. Christianity without reason is unintelligible / foolish / dogmatic at best and leads to some of the absolutely worst atrocities at worst. Christianity without Tradition risks corruption and has no accountability within the larger body of Christianity. Christianity without the Holy Spirit becomes dead religion, the very thing that Jesus condemned in the Pharisaical tradition. Christianity detached from culture becomes stagnant and begins to die.
All these forms of authority interweave with one another and we can not truly ignore any one of them. These are the forces that shape us which we engage in.
Greg Out
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