In a spiritual world of quick fixes and vague emotion, is it crazy to believe there is still a place for insights based on simple, basic, theological understanding. I believe it is worth exploring.
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Monday, July 20, 2015
A Touch of Humor - The Idol
What other things can we put in the place of God? How do we avoid this?
Not a popular thing to say but I think that many put the bible in the place of God. It is called bibliolatry. Here is what the Internet Monk once wrote about it.
What I heard as a young man was Bibliolatry. It’s a word that conservatives hate to hear, but we must hear it. The Bible is ours for dozens of good, God-inspired, Christ-exalting reasons. But we can exalt the Bible in the wrong way. We can go too far.
The more we feel the need to elevate and exalt something as “true” or “from God” or “God’s Will,” the more likely that we will become excessive, and often uncareful in what we say and do, and the more likely we are to wind up teaching error as a result.
It is the nature of religious language and religious dogma to make authoritative claims based upon revelation. It is the nature of human beings to extrapolate, connect and exaggerate. Put these two tendencies together, and there is a great need for us to be cautious in our claims for ultimate truth and ultimate authority.
My “turning point” helped me to find the Bible as the Word that presents the Living Word, God’s mediator, given for us and for our salvation: Jesus Christ. I learned to listen for the difference between Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture, and to not equate God and His written word in ways that abuse both God and those who love scripture.
With all due respect to the Internet Monk, if we do not have an authoritative revelation of God, one that can challenge our preconceived notions and the preconceptions of our culture then we are all at sea as to what God has to say. The history of philosophy shows how inadequate human reason is in reaching any definite idea about who God is. I do not worship paper or ink but I do not see what we can know about Jesus except what Scripture reveals. Scripture is only a instrument and not God, but I do not see how we know God except through the instrument.
Not a popular thing to say but I think that many put the bible in the place of God. It is called bibliolatry. Here is what the Internet Monk once wrote about it.
ReplyDeleteWhat I heard as a young man was Bibliolatry. It’s a word that conservatives hate to hear, but we must hear it. The Bible is ours for dozens of good, God-inspired, Christ-exalting reasons. But we can exalt the Bible in the wrong way. We can go too far.
The more we feel the need to elevate and exalt something as “true” or “from God” or “God’s Will,” the more likely that we will become excessive, and often uncareful in what we say and do, and the more likely we are to wind up teaching error as a result.
It is the nature of religious language and religious dogma to make authoritative claims based upon revelation. It is the nature of human beings to extrapolate, connect and exaggerate. Put these two tendencies together, and there is a great need for us to be cautious in our claims for ultimate truth and ultimate authority.
My “turning point” helped me to find the Bible as the Word that presents the Living Word, God’s mediator, given for us and for our salvation: Jesus Christ. I learned to listen for the difference between Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture, and to not equate God and His written word in ways that abuse both God and those who love scripture.
With all due respect to the Internet Monk, if we do not have an authoritative revelation of God, one that can challenge our preconceived notions and the preconceptions of our culture then we are all at sea as to what God has to say. The history of philosophy shows how inadequate human reason is in reaching any definite idea about who God is. I do not worship paper or ink but I do not see what we can know about Jesus except what Scripture reveals. Scripture is only a instrument and not God, but I do not see how we know God except through the instrument.
Delete