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Tony Payne
Paul is one of the Staff Editors at Matthias Media. He is married to Cathy and has three fantastic kids. He loves student ministry, reading, writing music and playing the saxophone, and is looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.
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Hello, Tony,
Thanks for this post, I think it’s true that we cannot pick out some things from the gospel truth and still expect it to hold together and stand.
After reading it, however, I wanted to ask a question, which could sound way too obvious for some, but please bear with a slow one like myself.
What did you mean by the phrase, “God’s word?”
The Bible as we know it?
Or, God’s revelation to “each of”/“all of” us?
My reasons behind asking it are as following.
First, I want to know how I can be confident about the 66 books we have in the Bible we use today. The Bible itself isn’t clear about what books are to be included when it refers to itself as Scriptures. Or, if it is, please let me know.
Secondly, because I want to know how to deal with the differences among manuscripts, eg. John chapter 8, or the last part of the Mark, etc.
Third, when there are so many people drawing different conclusions about various topics from reading the same Bible, and each declaring that he’s got it right, how can I be confident in my understanding of a particular topic, or a passage in the Bible? To say “we’re all correct” doesn’t seem right in view of the nature of truth (although post-modernists will be happy with it), and is self-negating in certain situations. To say “We all got it wrong” feels like I do not have enough faith in the work of the Holy Spirit who illuminats truth to His people, and also, too depressing to accept. But if that’s the case, let that be. But really, if “one is right and the other is wrong”, how can I be confident in saying it, especially I am not confident which one is right and why? (Should I go to a Bible college?)
Well Timothy! Big questions those, but I’m told that blog comments are supposed to be short and snappy. So here are some very brief answers:
1. In the quote, “God’s word” was being used synonymously with the Bible, which is a true and valid usage of the phrase. The Bible is God’s word.
2. If you want to know more about how the canon was settled, start with the New Bible Dictionary articles on Canon (OT and NT). And if you don’t have a New Bible Dictionary, go get one! (Every Christian should have one.) If you want to go further, try FF Bruce’s “The Canon of Scripture”.
3. If you really want the knowledge and skills to be able to sift through textual variants in the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, brace yourself for several years of tertiary level study. Sorry. The good news is that the modern editions of the Gk NT and the Heb OT are very solid, and nothing of substance hangs on the variants. You can read a good English translation (like the ESV) with a high degree of trust.
4. On the matter of different interpretations, there are (as you point out) three possibilities: everyone is right (illogical), everyone is wrong (impossible), or some are right and some wrong (the only option really). What do we do with the fact that there are different interpretations? The Bible itself tells us the answer: read 2 Peter 3:15-16 carefully and see what it tells you.
Warm regards
TP
Thank you for the response, Tony.
I agree that the blog comments are meant to be kept concise, and I expected that my question would not be answered in details here on a blog. However, I will take your advice, and will pursue further to learn about these issues on my own time. And, perhaps I will ask again someday, once I’ve given more thoughts and study into them.
Thanks.
A couple of comments re the logic behind the proposition…
Saying that Christian doctrine is like a certain set of blocks is an argument from analogy…and inevitably such arguments fall down (as most block towers do eventually
.
The second half of the post gives us better reasoning, but it seems to me that the ‘proof’ for the indivisibility of truth is reliant on us being able to see the connections. What about those aspects of Biblical doctrine which seem to be in tension with each other? What if we can’t immediately see a pattern? We need different criteria here.
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