The nature of Scripture

I wanted to take some time to engage this commenter in detail. You can see the original comment in full. Look for the comment posted here and dated September 19 at 9:02 p.m.

Anonymous said ...
Either Scripture is the inspired word of God, totally inspired by God, or it's not.

If you don't believe that God can have his hand in the translation of scripture then you are placing limits on God's power.

If you believe that the scripture is fallible, then all bets are off and Christianity is no more than a religious movement. I believe that God's word is as infallible today as it was when it was written.

I think the ELCA's website does a nice job in summarizing a traditional Lutheran approach to Scripture. Check it out in full here.

Here are a few relevant passages from the website:
"Lutherans believe that the Bible is the most important of all the ways God’s person and presence are revealed to humanity. That is because it is in reading the biblical books that we most reliably hear and encounter the living Word of God, who is the risen Jesus.

"The Bible’s very name begins to tell us what we have between its covers. In Greek "the Bible" literally means "the books." The Bible that Lutherans use is a collection of 66 books produced over a period of as much as 1,000 years. Each of these books had a life and use of its own prior to its incorporation into what we know as the "sacred canon."

"The Bible contains the story of God’s interaction with humankind, first through the understanding of the Jewish people (Old Testament, 39 books), and subsequently to all people through God’s self revelation in Jesus (New Testament, 27 books).

"Lutherans believe that people meet God in Scripture, where God’s heart, mind, relationship to - and intention for - humankind are revealed. Through an ongoing dialogue with the God revealed in the Bible, people in every age are called to a living faith.

The Bible’s authority rests in God
"ELCA Lutherans confidently proclaim with all Christians that the authority of the Bible rests in God. We believe that God inspired the Bible’s many writers, editors and compilers. As they heard God speaking and discerned God’s activity in events around them in their own times and places, the Bible’s content took shape. Among other things, the literature they produced includes history, legal code, parables, letters of instruction, persuasion and encouragement, tales of heroism, love poetry and hymns of praise. The varying types and styles of literature found here all testify to faith in a God who acts by personally engaging men and women in human history.

"At the same time, we also find in the Bible human emotion, testimony, opinion, cultural limitation and bias. ELCA Lutherans recognize that human testimony and writing are related to and often limited by culture, customs and world view. Today we know that the earth is not flat and that rabbits do not chew their cud (Leviticus 11:6 ). These are examples of time-bound cultural understandings or practices. Christians do not follow biblically prescribed dietary laws such as eliminating pork from one’s diet (Leviticus 11:7) because the new covenant we have with God has replaced the Old Testament covenant God had with his people. Because Biblical writers, editors and compilers were limited by their times and world views, even as we are, the Bible contains material wedded to those times and places. It also means that writers sometimes provide differing and even contradictory views of God’s word, ways and will.

"Listening to the living Jesus in the context of the church, we therefore have the task of deciding among these. Having done this listening, we sometimes conclude either that the writer’s culture or personal experience (e.g., subordination of women or keeping of slaves) seems to have prompted his missing what God was saying or doing, or that God now is saying or doing something new."

I would argue that no bets are off at all.  As a matter of fact, speaking for myself the mystery and Glory of God is these very inconsistencies.  Different authors writing in different times, often telling a story differently results in these inconsistencies.  This simply reflects, again to me, the fact that many had a hand in the biblical scripture.  God’s word is infallible.  However, man is not; the scribes certainly not; and the witnesses to the events themselves do not necessarily remember the event exactly, or remember it differently than another.  Explore the story of the birth of Christ according to Matthew, and then according to Luke.  I don’t know about you, but I like the tidy little story we have been brought to believe, and that is how I choose to know the story.  However, the two stories do have glaring differences and since they were written within 10-15 years of each other, it makes you wonder, does it not? But you and I share the combined stories as our description, and that is nothing to fear or run from. 

Anonymous said ...
And I believe that the scripture’s points on homosexual relations are clear, and I for one have never seen any evidence to the contrary.

Nowhere in the bible is the homosexual relations issue, as we know it today, addressed.  Taken in context, which of course we must do, there are the 7 recognized admonitions regarding male relationships and 1, if memory serves, regarding female relationships. Advanced study of modern biblical scholars will clarify this issue for you.   

Anonymous said ...
Luther was all about scripture. From what I understand his problem with the church was that the church started teaching things that were not supported by scripture. We are trying to keep the church from doing that again.

And this brings up the point that you and I simply disagree with the meaning of the scripture involved.  That is why I urge much more discussion specific to the issues at hand.

Anonymous said...
God’s character is the final truth and I think his word is clear on how he feels about homosexual relations. You may choose to disagree but I don’t think you have a leg to stand on. Again, that’s between you and God.

I would suggest that Jesus Christ is the Word of God, as revealed in the Gospel of John, and is therefore the Absolute Truth of which we seek.  It is to Him and Him alone that I turn to answer these types of issues.  And nowhere in the 2026 words attributed to Jesus Christ is the issue of homosexuality even mentioned.  

Anonymous said...
Comparing my beliefs with Nazi sympathizers, slavery, and the persecution of women is the typical response by today’s society. If we believe that homosexual relations are a sin, we must be homophobes. It’s so typical and so wrong. But I would never expect a non-believer to understand. In this case I mean a non-believer in the inspired word of God.

I would urge you to take the post’s reference to be the reflection of the use of scripture by humankind to defend a position, not a comment directed at you.  I do not view your beliefs as condoning anything however, you have to admit that scripture has been used throughout history to defend certain positions.  Let me be clear:  Homosexuality is not a sin.  Same sex behavior is as natural to some as heterosexual behavior is to others.  A person does not “acquire” homosexuality; it is not a disease.  He/she is created the same way as you and I and sexual persuasion has nothing to do with the creation.  You either are or are not, but God does not love you any less, and neither therefore, should we.