The Bible In the Post-Christian World (Part 1): An Introduction
By now you have heard all of the melancholy reports and the dreadful statistics: we live in a post-Christian age. Studies show that 70% of young adults who were churched leave for college and never return (Stetzer, 2014). This has become such a noticeable phenomenon that statisticians and political theorists have even given this focus group a name: “The Nones”.
There have been numerous reactions to this trend from the Christian church. Some deny it altogether and try to explain away the shrinking young-adult demographic in their churches and the diminishing influence of youth groups. Others have just accepted it as the natural progression of life. And others have rightly doubled-down on the importance of family discipleship and catechesis.
But, this trend is only a small corner of a glacial movement that has been progressing for years. Americans do not accept the Bible as the final authority. Many of them have never even considered the possibility that the Bible could be anything more than a great literary work of antiquity. Gone are the days when a political leader could ensure allegiance simply by appealing to Scripture. Even entire denominations now appeal to the inner light and the progress of man over against the “quaint” imperatives of the Bible.
In post-Christian America, how is a Christian to find common authority in his or her witness to the words of Scripture? Can we really trust the testimony of Scripture? Can we really hold the Bible as the final authority for faith and practice when the emotional appeal of those “just following their hearts” holds such sway over our sensibilities? Can we really say that the Bible is a complete story which is still unfolding when so many in the world just see it as a collection of old fables or a bundle of encouraging platitudes? Can we really study the Bible as we should and know what it means when so many false teachers swirl around us on our TV screens and Facebook feeds?
These are the questions that I hope to answer as we go through this series on the Theology of Scripture. From the questions I have just asked, you can see that I have set forth four categories for understanding Scripture:
· The Trustworthiness of Scripture — Can we know that Scripture is in fact the Word of God?
· The Authority of Scripture — What authority should Scripture have in our lives?
· The Story of Scripture — Is the Bible a collection of disconnected stories and sayings, or one grand story?
· Interpreting Scripture — What methods can I use to understand what God is saying?
Jesus, Not Paul
My first real challenge to my confidence in the trustworthiness of Scripture didn’t come from a skeptic or a pagan, but from a good Christian girl who was seeking to follow God’s call in her life. My interest in theology started when I was a Junior in High School, and it started because my home church was embroiled in a controversy that had plagued the Southern Baptist Convention for over 30 years. In 1969, Henton Davies, writing for the Broadman and Holman Commentaries (funded and published by the SBC), questioned the inspired nature of the first three chapters of Genesis, suggesting that the text was written over several hundred years by at least two different authors. The firestorm that followed led to what is now affectionately called the “Conservative Resurgence”, which resulted in the ousting of all of the presidents of the seminaries, the revision of our confession of faith in 2000 to explicitly affirm the inerrancy of Scripture, and the requirement that all employees of the SBC sign this doctrinal statement affirming the inerrancy of Scripture.
As that controversy unfolded, a new group of “moderate” Baptists splintered off into the “Cooperative Baptist Fellowship” (CBF). And, in the mid-90s the pastor at my home church was an active member of this new denomination. Without any notice to the church as a whole, there suddenly appeared in the state Baptist newspaper an announcement that the annual meeting of the CBF would be held at my home church that coming year. My church was outraged, and my father was active in the deacon body and worked to address it. There were many discussions around the dinner table about the inerrancy of Scripture and the difference in a liberal, moderate, and conservative Baptist.
This brush with controversy caused me to think critically about whether I believed the Bible at all. As I studied what the CBF believed, one article struck me. It was an article that interviewed a teenage girl who was aspiring to be a pastor in the CBF (the SBC rejects to this day the ordination of women as pastors). The article quoted the girl as saying, “I believe Jesus, not Paul”. There it was in black and white. This young lady, in one precise statement, drew up the dividing line. Is all of Scripture really the Word of God? If you believe so, how do you know? Is there a difference between the words of Jesus in the Gospels and the words of Paul in the Epistles?
The questions raised by this controversy form the framework from which I wish to argue. Throughout this series, we will consider the different reasons that this young woman might have had for saying “I follow Jesus, not Paul”. Did she say this because she believed that the Bible was limited by its cultural context, having been written by men after all? Maybe she thought that her conscience and call superseded the authority of Scripture. Perhaps she thought that the laws no longer applied since we are under grace. Or, maybe she just interpreted some key passages differently from us. We will ask and hopefully answer each of these challenges as we seek to understand the Bible in spite of the influences of the culture around us.
