One thing that I find VERY important to me when I read the Word is usually the first sentence of whatever book I am reading…

1 Cor 2: “I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”

Romans 7: “I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people.”

These verses are very key verses — they’re explaining why the author is authoritative and to WHOM. Sometimes it even explains the time frame of the authority in terms of what Jesus wanted for specific groups.

The Word is extremely difficult to discuss when you have parties with different eschatological views. For me, 80% of the post-Ressurection New Testament is eschatological in direction — so much of it deals with the end of the Age. As a fulfilled-prophecy Christian, I am an “outcast” in terms of how to deal with those directions. For dispensationalists (or futurists as some call that group), the “waiting” gives them reason to try to fit into those directions, whereas I look for direction ONLY from Christ.

The congregations I serve are ALL futurist congregations (in fact, I know of only 3 prophecy fulfilled congregations in all of Lake and Kenosha counties). Much of what I work on comes from a “waiting” ideal, so it is very mind-opening to see the difficulties that the futurist congregations deal with in trying to select WHAT directions and authority to follow. From my perspective, it is only Jesus. But I understand what many futurist pastors have to deal with in deciding direction for their “authority” over their congregation. I don’t accept any authority from my pastors (and they know it and some of them appreciate it), nor do I accept authority from my government or my elders. If they love me, I love them back. If they hate me, I love them back. That’s all the relationship is founded on. But if you still accept mortal authority, it changes things and makes it more difficult.!

He also gave us the Spirit and the community to understand the book and especially, its implications.

Levels of authority. I was taught that there were these levels. But as I think about it objectively, it seems bizarre to elevate or to lower any revelation of God, though it seems heretical for on someone who has been taught the supremacy of scripture to say such a thing.

i agree that the purpose of Scripture, and ultimately the Spirit that penned Scripture was/is to point us towards Jesus. i think we forget that a lot of times… but it’s interesting to think about Jesus holding that authority rather than Scripture or the community. the question then becomes how does one regard scripture in this light? if authority comes from a third party–away from both the text and community–the how does interpretation take place?

maybe i’m not looking at this “spiritually” enough–and instead am focusing on a carnal interpretation/thought process….

so, then if all authority lay in Jesus’ hands–and the only way we can know about Jesus is through Scripture (because it ultimately points us to him), and the community is also charged with pointing people back to Jesus (Mt. 28), then how are we able if all we are doing is looking to things (community/scripture) that contain no authority?

is it possible there are levels of authority? and if so, is that really true authority if it is lesser… (i’m not thinking heirarchical…)

Everyone asks “Why bother reading such a large volume of unnecessary texts?” The OT covers so much of what people used to do/had to do/refused to do — it shows us that the answer is NEVER action in terms of appeasement of the Lord, it is strictly love and love alone that appeases the Lord. The lack of love does the opposite. Love for Jesus is the ultimate appeasement. We forget that throughout the Bible, the one thing missing is true love — until Jesus comes around. God’s love for Adam & Eve was not as easily seen because of God’s demand for obedience and God’s demand for perfection. Jesus made both obedience and perfection unimportant in the face of loving others at all cost. He did it for us, we can do it for Him.

Scripture is important because it can somehow bring us into contact with these people, their experiences with God, and hopefully with God. And somewhere along the line people in the vast tradition of God believers thought that these books is the primary books in doing this.

If the Old Testament simply talk about WHY Jesus had to come, then what use do it have? Simply stating the problem? The for hundreds of years people were in relationship with God, and it had no meaning? I don’t know…