as i prepare and study for this weeks sermon on the authority and purpose of Scripture, i can’t help but come back time and again to the words of Amos and wonder about the cyclical nature of this prophecy… while at the same time pondering whether or not we’re entering such a famine, or just coming out of it.
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land–not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8.11)
it’s a hard one to judge…
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Excellent discussion topic and thinking point!
I’m not sure if it is prophecy refulfilled any longer, but I think there is truth in the idea that the Word falls away in a cyclical way. During the Age of Enlightenment, millions of people found untruth in the Truth because of the way it was promoted — religion became a point of control, not freedom. With the Internet, the same thing is happening. I think this is a blessing in disguise — it helps to clean out the garbage and allows people to process more Truth rather than lies that persist for a long time.
It’ll be interesting to see what type of “church” springs up through Web 2.0.
phyllis tickle (whom jason is a big fan of) made an interesting assertion recently basically saying that every 500 years the church has a big “rummage sale” as it prunes down and peels away some of its excess “junk”. and often times what is left over becomes a viable expression of christianity.
451 – council of chalcedon
1054 – the great schism
1517 – the reformation
well we’re now in one of those 500 years….
the question that we face in our culture is where is the authority? sola scriptura certainly doesn’t hold water anymore (hence stanley grenz’s systematic theology starting with God instead of Scripture), so then that begs the question, where is the authority now?
Interesting question — I’m not sure that sola scriptura should stop holding water (although I come to sola scriptura from a VERY different stand point than the typical evangelical or dispensationalist).
The main authority is God, but not just the historical God but the current and now God. We don’t need the authority of man — see what it did to the Hebrews when they wanted their kings of men. If my belief standpoint is true, and we are living in the Kingdom now, then we are to be kings and priests but not in the way that kings and priests were in the OT or in the early church (epistles, etc). We’re to be good stewards of God’s Kingdom (spiritually) and of God’s Earth (physically). If you’re a good steward, why do you need the authority of man, and why would you need God’s direct involvement (a la Moses or Abraham) when Jesus fulfilled the need for that direct contact with the big God when we have Jesus’ words and actions (the Word), and we have the Spirit to tell us what is right and wrong (after we center ourselves in private and secluded prayer).
Another good discussion post, Aaron.
Hey Aaron – where did you get that quote from? I do like to read her work and hear her thoughts…nothing like a 70+ yr old woman with great knowledge of the Bible!
“sola scriptura certainly doesn’t hold water anymore”
What do you mean Monts? Do you mean in the church or in culture? I think that sola scriptura as Luther used it will always (should always) hold water for the church. What he meant is that we look to scripture alone – not the Pope, or tradition, or even our precious cultural presuppositions – in order to find out all we need to know for salvation and life.
sola scriptura certainly doesn’t hold water anymore in a cultural sense–and in even in the church. i think a lot of people are coming into the church with a non-authoritative view of the bible and aren’t having their view challenged. (probably has something to do with preaching styles). i’m not even sure if their view was challenged that it would change. it’s hard to argue for scripture from scripture–that’s like me trying to argue that i’m a god just based upon what i say, not from anything else.
i agree with luther’s presupposition, however i also like wesley’s quadrilateral and think that has something to do with how we’ll view authority today–as more of a meshing of reason, tradition, experience and scripture with more of a reliance on the holy spirit in our understanding… although i’m not sure what that means or what that will completely look like.
i think we’ve done a good job in the church of making scripture “irrelevant” in how we use it and treat it… (constant prooftexting of how we choose to live or what we choose to believe has probably led a great deal to this.)
i don’t mean to sound so negative, but i think there is a shift occurring within the body and i do wonder if it’s too late to reverse the trend…
jason, i heard it here.