In the many recent discussions and diatribes regarding points of faith and morals I have repeatedly heard the Bible presented as the unfailing bulwark, the very Word of God filled with the Spirit of truth. Having, in vain, waited for a corrective, I write to supply it.
Someone must say it; sound theology—dogmatic and liturgical—demands it: the Bible is not the Word of God. The Word of God is a living person, second person of the Trinity, Son of the Father incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. The Word of God is not a book.
The Bible when proclaimed and preached, like the bread and the wine set apart in the communion service, becomes, through the Spirit, the form whereby the worshiping community perceives the presence of the living person of God’s Christ. To make this book in itself the Word is idolatry. There are many in the reformed tradition that will not countenance the worship of the bread, but seem content to worship a book.
The Bible is a primitive witness to the presence of Christ in the church. It is actually a sacred assembly of witnesses. But Paul’s views are not sympathetic in all things with those of Peter. James and Paul also disagree on points. Paul is himself not always consistent. The evangelists are not of one voice or mind. The same is true of the Jewish scriptures. They all speak to different conditions and times, but they all bear witness to God present for us in history, God the font of that which history in itself cannot provide: hope, God the source of that which self-centered man cannot rise to: faith, God the singularity and plurality of personhood man craves: love.
The Bible is a part of the believing community’s witness and worship, but it is not the only witness, and it cannot be the object of worship. It contains no black and white answers written up for all time. If that were the case, there would be a united voice in every detail of scripture, and more to the point, there would be no need for the Holy Spirit to descend, no need for Christ to promise to be with us until the end of time, and indeed, there would be no need for the Resurrection.
To be a Christian is not to obey the Bible; it is to carry on the life and presence of God’s Christ in my own time and place. We are not called to be a people of the book, by the book, for the book, we are called to be—with all mind and heart, body and soul—the bearers of Christ’s work in the world for the world.
Theological ideas and religious ideals come to life, become real and accessible, in practice, and in practice it is dialogue, nuance and evolution of interconnectedness, variation of rapport that characterize a relationship with a person. The relationship with an idol is one of either rejection or blind adhesion, and with the latter comes a belligerence to either eliminate all them not of like mind or force them into submission and conformity with oneself.