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The church and her scriptures:


The scriptures are divine. The scriptures are human. These may seem like two mutually exclusive statements. Theologically, we call this idea "confluence." So it is that though the scriptures were written by man with human minds and human pens, the scriptures were given, god-breathed, by the ever moving Spirit of God. This has been the statement of faith (tradition) of the church for two thousand years. As a community, the church body has agreed upon the supra-human origin of the scriptures, this being understood, orthodoxy must claim the authority of the scriptures as final.

What exactly comprises the complete canon of the scriptures is another subject altogether, however, again the church has commonly agreed upon the divine origin of the 39 books of the Old Testament as well as the 27 books of the New Testament.

Can the divine origin of the scriptures be "proved?" Obviously not. Do the scriptures themselves claim divine origins? Obviously they do. Do we believe they scriptures are divine because we can prove it or because we have received it? Obviously the latter. The following question often arises, "Isn't that circular logic?" The scriptures are divine because the scriptures claim to be so, and the scriptures claim to be divine because they are divine! Yes, circular, but true. Can we demonstrate a divine origin in the scriptures? I suppose we could attempt to defend the origin and authority of the scriptures based upon rational and reasonable premises, but must we demonstrate it? To those who wrestle with the claims of heavenly origins, I ask, "Can we prove our own existence?" Who do we prove it to? What do we base it upon? Take for example, "I think therefore I am." In essence: I am because I think and I think because I am. Sounds pretty circular to me.

Well, then, the next obvious question is "Can't anybody claim to have divine revelation?" Yes. Anybody can. In fact, the Jews do, the Muslims do, the JW's do, the Mormons do, just about every religion claims to have divine revelation. So which is true? The true scriptures belong to the true people of God, to the faithful community of believers. The faithful community of believers over the past so-many thousands of years have consistently and unashamedly claimed the scriptures of the Judea-Christian Holy Bible. Again, our statement of orthodox faith claims the tradition of the Christian church which states that the Holy Bible in its form is eternal in its origin and human in its beginnings.

Who then should interpret the scriptures if they are divine? Only those within the faithful community of believers can rightfully claim the correct and right interpretation of the scriptures because they have the Spirit of Truth. The community of believers is constantly in flux, constantly in deliberation, constantly in an interrelated matrix of dynamic hermeneutics. Can any one interpret scripture? Yes. Can anyone interpret scripture for only themselves? No. Scripture is a communitarian object requiring a communitarian hermeneutic. Anything outside of that is marginal if not heretical. In this age of individualism we seek the exact meaning of the text as we perceive it, however the meaning of the scriptures only takes shape with the believing community for it is only there that the author of the scriptures, the Spirit of God, resides.

The scriptures are made alive because their life springs from the ever-living and life-giving Spirit of God. We believe the scriptures to be divine and human, their humanity being demonstrated by the fact that they are communicated in language, their divinity being demonstrated by the faithful witness of the believing community of faithful believers.

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