Studies: Scripture and Authority

Here’s the question of the week:  if the Bible is a story, in what sense can it be authoritative?

This is my first ever class in academic theology and I was slightly underwhelmed.  My first reflection was that it was rather a bizarre reflection on the philosophy of language, the way in which God might or might not guide our behaviour and the destruction of some fairly feeble straw men.

We got tied up in knots discussing whether God dictates the Bible or in some other sense fixes every iota of the text in some magical way.  We felt good about ourselves for dismissing the demythologising of the likes of Spinoza, Kant and Bultmann.

There was a fairly frustrated discussion about the degree to which the church creates or discovers the Scriptures. And we had fun ridiculing the ESV for fixing their translation for all time after a couple of pretty controversial translation edits in the final version.

I’m no academic theologian – at least not yet – but I’m a Pastor and practical theologian by trade.

My sense is that people need to know they can trust the Bible as authoritative – but they have no idea quite what that means.  This class did little to reinforce or clarify but it did allow for some interesting exchanges.

For what it’s worth – probably nothing in an academic sense – my answer to the authority question is fairly simple.  It’s all about Jesus.

How is the story authoritative?  A story can only be authoritative if it is pointing towards something with authority.  If I read a letter from my boss then it is authoritative because it reveals something about my boss, something about my status and something about the narrative of my employment.

The Bible is authoritative because it reveals something about who God is (a loving father), something about who we are (his redeemed people) and something about the story we are living in (his coming kingdom).

Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, us and the story.  Jesus is the one with the authority.  The Bible is authoritative because it points us, often obliquely, to Jesus – the word of God who took on flesh and moved into the neighbourhood.

Jesus authority stands or falls on the claim of the resurrection – which is a topic for another day – and the Bible’s authority stands or falls with Jesus.  Any claim to authority that doesn’t appeal to the Lord of the Universe is bound to feel slightly anti-climactic.

Why is the OT treated as authoritative?  Because Jesus treated it as such.

Why is the NT treated as authoritative?  Because Jesus commissioned the guys who wrote it to do so with his authority.  It’s all about Jesus.