Basis for Theology: Scripture
bryan on July 16th, 2008
Next in the discussion of resources used in the conversation we call theology is scripture. Scripture as we see it as Christian’s is the books that make up the Christian Bible. All Christian traditions agree upon 66 books which are a part of the canon(collection of books that makes up the Bible). Some traditions also hold to a grab bag of other books that were tacked on to the old testament. While the Anchor Church does not view these books as having the same place of authority as the 66 that are agreed upon, we do believe that these books are useful for helping us understand the background of the New Testament.
As Christians, we believe that the Bible tells the story of God, and how He has interacted with Christianity. Each of the 66 books that make up the Bible tell a different piece of the larger story. From the beginning of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, we are introduced to a good world that God has created, and how God has declared all of the Creation He has made to be good. By the third chapter though, this begins to change. The first humans decide to break their relationship with God by focusing on themselves and their perceived needs first. The end result is the disobey God and ruin their relationship with Him, introduce destruction to the work, and now life is much more difficult. This sets the stage for the story of God’s interaction with humanity that is told through the rest of the Bible.
The story then tracks how God begins to go about creating redemption for humanity, so that their relationship with Him can be restored. This redemption becomes fully realized when God incarnates our story, taking on human form. This is the story of Jesus. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the ultimate solution to the problem of humanity being ensnared by self-love, or as Christian’s also refer to it: sin.
There is more to the story, as the New Testament then tracks the result of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection through the establishment and growth of the early church. The Bible finishes with a book called Revelation, which is a book full of images. Ultimately it conveys one point- in the end Jesus wins, the fallen powers lose.
At least one more issue must be addressed as we begin to think about scripture as a basis for theology. Theologians like to call this issue “inspiration.” Going back to the post before this, we discussed the idea that God reveals. As Christian’s, we believe that because we serve a God who reveals Himself to people, that one of the primary ways He has done that is through these written books. A problem arises, since these books are not written by God, but by humans. “Inspiration” now serves as our understanding for how it is that humans could write a collection of works, which we consider to be a primary part of God’s revelation to humanity. This idea is that the Holy Spirit has been at work, giving the inspiration for the Bible’s human writers. This does not mean that God has insisted on the very choice of words, but the primary intent of these books has been inspired by the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of human individuals, going as far as to use their personality and context in how the message is conveyed.
This is a continuation in our Basis for Theology series. Click the links below to see the other entries.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
[...] you have read the series I wrote on the Basis for Theology(Scripture, Tradition, Experience, Reason), that there are varying elements that influence our understanding [...]