Standing firm on Scripture in a Deconstructing world

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What do you do when you are verbally aggressed against for wanting to know more about the J.E.D.P hypothesis by a conservative teacher and few years later verbally aggressed against by a liberal teacher for not supporting the hypothesis? Aggression from opposite quarters gives me something to ponder. I believe that force is used when good arguments don’t exist. Good arguments enable you to systematically analyze a position before you take a side.

A good argument explores the gamut of consequences an idea will birth and addresses it. Both harsh conservatives and liberal teachers ignore one consequence when they teach controversial topics: to distort the role of foundational doctrines. The conservative and dogmatic teacher apriori concludes on a matter without sufficiently analyzing it (or explaining the results of their analysis). The liberal teacher denigrates the importance of foundational doctrines. These mistakes cost faith.

Faith is inseparable from the rationality drawn from the notion of GOD’s character. For example, GOD is wise. A reasonable conclusion drawn from this knowledge is that GOD’s words are superior in insight and understanding than man’s words. Conversely, secular perspectives on the Bible allow the post-modern student to conclude that the Bible is not very special. Extrapolating from this conclusion we assume that GOD is not as wise as traditional Christianity claims. A wrong notion of God will either build or destroy our faith.

My time in seminary was strange. On one side I knew the importance of thorough analysis for a vibrant personal intellectual devotion and service to GOD. On the other side I was puzzled about the non-Christian inferences assumed and presumed when doing analysis. This puzzlement drew my attention away from worshipping and knowing GOD to thinking through the validity of using these secular inferences. My soul became barren and my walk started to slip. However, the few high points of seminary were enlightening teaching of certain Scriptures that illumined my understanding of GOD and consequently strengthened my flickering faith.

My confidante and supporter was my beloved father. I complained to him a lot about the relativism which destroyed our ability to be certain or make certain statements about our faith. I vehemently whined about the pervasiveness of doubt which made our understanding of the Bible lost in the obscuring mists of relentless uncertainty. I, however, grieved with him about the insidious and unrelenting exchange or redefinition of Biblical categories like authority, inspiration, and inerrancy. My Dad listened, engaged with me, and pointed me to people and literature to help clarify my thinking. GOD used my dear father to prevent me from becoming remorseful about my decision to follow and know GOD.

Few months before Dad passed away, he mentioned J.I. Packer’s position on the authority of the Scripture. This has helped me set my thoughts on the inspiration, inerrancy and authority of the Scripture in stone. I have excerpted it below. 

“Jesus Christ constituted Christianity a religion of biblical authority. He is the Church’s Lord and Teacher; and He teaches His people by His Spirit through His written Word. As the Westminster Confession puts it: ‘The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils,…We shall argue that subjection to the authority of Christ involves subjection to the authority of Scripture. Anything short of unconditional submission to Scripture, therefore, is a kind of impenitence; any view that subjects the written Word of God to the opinions and pronouncements of men involves unbelief and disloyalty towards Christ. Types of Christianity which regard as authoritative either tradition (as Romanism does) or reason (as Liberalism does) are perversions of the faith, for they locate the seat of authority, not in the Word of God, but in the words of men.” [Packer, J. I.. “Fundamentalism” and the Word of God (p. 20). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. ] 

Packer’s thought not only locates the source of authority in the Word but also sets some other thoughts on inspiration and inerrancy in motion. If JESUS teaches us through the Word then the Word is inspired. Furthermore, inerrancy is a consequence of hearing the Teacher JESUS himself teach through the Word. So the authority of the Bible is the rock on which our faith rests and the consequences of such a kind of authority is its inspiration and inerrancy. 

In my seminary journey, while I was in the masters program I remember telling friends that Theology must control the interpretation of Scripture. In other words, interpretations must be justified by an overarching perspective. I mentioned this because of the destructive effect scattered inconsistent interpretations were having on my ability to think about the Bible coherently. Scattered interpretations are exemplified by a dalit reading of a certain passage and a simultaneous equally held valid feminist reading of the same passage. 

After a post-masters degree, I had the opportunity to discuss with Shammi the same matter. She is passionate about consistently reading the Scripture and provided a cogent argument for allowing Theology to control the interpretation of Scripture. GOD used Shammi to help me heal from the shock of hearing many mutually exclusive interpretations of biblical passages. 

Dear one-time/present seminarian, please don’t regret putting your life’s weight on believing and following the Bible just because lauded, decorated scholar X offers you persuasive arguments to believe otherwise. The foundation on which we stand is the truth that GOD uses the Word to speak today and so it is authoritative, inspired, and inerrant. Hold onto this foundation. Hold on in faith, in hope, and in gracious love to those who state otherwise.

The storyteller has a double masters degree in Theology, and has wrestled for many years with the effects of liberalism and post-modern deconstructionism in Christian seminaries across India.

Hope is here.