Theological Statement, Part 2 - Jesus & the Holy Spirit
(Painting: "Still Life with Bible," by Vincent van Gogh, 1885)
The Bible – The Bible (by
which I mean the library of 66 books traditionally held in the Protestant canon
as sacred) is the church’s authoritative rule of faith and practice. It is the foundational
witness of God’s revelation to humankind, both in his relationship to ancient Israel
and in the person of Jesus Christ (who alone is the full and final revelation
of God). It was composed by a group of human authors who recorded and reflected
on these revelations of God which they witnessed, and the Holy Spirit’s
inspiration was present in the processes of writing, redacting, and canonizing.
The Holy Spirit continues to use these books to speak to the people of God as
the church reads and interprets them (2 Tim. 3:16). Since it is the
authoritative witness to the revelation of God, it is our primary source of
knowledge about God and about how to live in relationship with him. As such,
the preaching, teaching, and study of the Bible must occupy central places in
the worship of the church and the daily lives of Christians. However, even
though the Bible is our authoritative rule of faith and practice, the fact that
it was written thousands of years ago and in very different cultural and
literary contexts than our own requires that we be discerning and humble in our
attempts at interpretation. We who are church leaders must study not only the
Bible itself but the history of its interpretation, as well as current
hermeneutical debates, so that we can be in conversation with the whole
Christian community, all of us interacting with this one text through which the
Holy Spirit has been speaking to his people for millennia. I hold that the
Bible will infallibly lead us to true doctrine about God and his plan of
salvation; but our reception of its infallible message is only fully accessible
when we read it humbly, diligently, prayerfully, as part of our intentional
pursuit of holiness, and in spiritual communion and dialogue with the whole
Body of Christ. I believe that our foundational hermeneutical principle ought
to be to read all of Scripture, Old Testament and New, in the light of the
person of Jesus Christ, since he is the full and final revelation of God.