Now I know talking about anything these days can be polarizing, let alone talking about the bible! So I want to be extremely careful not to do so. I’ll say a couple things that I hope will aid in that direction.
First I don’t think the Bible or what our views on it is a measure of Orthodoxy. That means we can have different views (even radically different) and still be Orthodox Followers of Jesus. Historically from what I understand Orthodox doctrine was based and rooted in the Worship of the Church. And what do we worship? That’s right Jim, God. Because we don’t worship scripture, the Bible, is not a measure of Orthodoxy. Rather Orthodox doctrine, what made one Orthodox, was ones doctrine of God, which fell into two categories. Trinity, and Christology. Under Christology was included the Full Humanity and Full Deity of Christ, Bodily Resurrection, and Virgin Birth. These four doctrines were and I think are what makes one Orthodox. Everything else falls as a secondary rather than primary doctrine.
The second thing I’ll say is many of my brothers and sisters even in Misfits believe that this should be the question we’re asking, and they no less desire to be faithful to God than I do. At the end of the day we may still disagree on the importance or place of this question in the life of the church, but what’s important is that we’re being faithful in following Jesus together in unity among-st our doctrinal diversity.
(for more on this see my exploration of faithfulness in the context of desire in the following post Why I Don’t Affirm Sola Scriptura, and Why Thomas Merton Saves The Day (Part One)
So should we be asking, “Can we trust the Bible?” I think this is actually the wrong question. There’s another question that I think we should be asking but too often are not. The question we should be asking is, “Can we trust Jesus?” You may be asking why this question and not the other. Well it seems to be that this first question assumes the Bible’s centrality. But Christianity is not a faith centralized around the Bible, but around Jesus, the Christ. Hence the name “Christ-tianity.” Some may say that to trust the Bible is too trust Jesus, while I think that is flawed for a number of reasons I’ll save that for another post, and instead address the biggest problem with it. If trusting the Bible is the same thing as trusting Jesus and therefore God it seems that we have another mediator than Christ. I know that some will want a Bible verse to back that up. While I think the desire to trust the Bible is rooted in the Bible as the center rather than Jesus, I thinks its important to answer it. The authors of Hebrews as well as other than New Testament writers claim Jesus is our only mediator between us and God. Not the Bible. There is no need to trust anyone or anything other than Jesus otherwise in all practicalities we have more than Jesus as our mediator, which ironically is un-biblical.
Jesus has to be at the center, root, base, whatever you can think of, for Christianity to be Christianity. It’s all about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Not the Bible. The first question raises the Bible to a level above Jesus. The Bible is not how we know Jesus, Jesus is. Christ comes to us Himself, and this may happen through Scripture. But Christ is not limited to meeting us in Scripture. The Scripture does not in and of itself communicate God to us, the words are just words on a page until God picks them up and enters into them. The Bible may tell you about Jesus, and point you to him, but that’s not the same as knowing Jesus which only happens with an encounter between you and Jesus.
Its about Jesus, He is our foundation, our center, our everything. He is the living Word of God and He is the one whom we are to trust. The Bible is not a sentient being asking for our trust, Christ calls us to trust Him and Him alone.