Recently I have been thinking about the overarching authority of Scripture and it's command over any experiential citation. Often people proclaim their experiences to be authoritative, but alas, they crumble under the weight of Scripture. The following, although not entirely exhaustive, are my thoughts concerning the preceding.
Seeking an experience, rather than Scripture, for understanding or revelation is warned against directly by Jesus.
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.
How can I pardon you?
Your children have forsaken me
and have sworn by those who are no gods.
When I fed them to the full,
they committed adultery
and trooped to the houses of whores.
They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
each neighing for his neighbor's wife.
Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord;
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?
So, is it wrong to seek these things? Of course not, but not through experience. The first chapter of Hebrews gives us the exact way that we should seek understanding or revelation.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Just as Jesus gives the Pharisees Scripture when they seek a physical sign, so the author of Hebrews tells us that God now speaks to us through His Son. And I take those to be equal considering John 1,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Therefore, I take Scripture to be the ultimate authority in every situation. This does not eliminate the possibility that my experiences may hold significance or meaning, but rather that it is Scripture that tells me the significance or meaning of an experience. I then cannot cite an experience as my reason for believing a certain truth, because by doing so I have eliminated the possibility that I regard Scripture to be ultimately authoritative.
In conclusion, I seek understanding and revelation in Scripture alone, and heed experience as an upholder of the truth granted in the Word.
3 comments:
Good thoughts.
I, too, hold Scripture as the ultimate authority.
I am wondering if you have insights on a question I continue to struggle with: How do you resolve that stance (Scripture as authoritative over experience) with the realization that how we intperpret Scripture is influenced by our presuppositions which, in turn, are formed by our experience? Scripture may tell us the significance or meaning of an experience but how we understand what it is telling us is often informed by other experiences.
Just wondering if you have any thoughts on that.
That's a good question. I will try to answer it.
Often social conditioning gets the blame for the things that we believe. But for the Christian, we know we are led by the Spirit.
"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." -John 16:13-15
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. -Romans 8:14-16
So, our interpretation of Scripture is not governed by our experiences, as a postmodern society tells us, but rather by the Spirit. We are indeed a new creation in Christ and we can be certain that God is faithful to the promise in John 16. And a semantic look at John 16 shows us (1) that the Spirit spoken of is that of Christ (He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life) and (2) that the Spirit will guide us in all Truth, which includes all matters of Scripture, as Christ is both synonymous with Truth and the Word (John 1).
Does that make sense?
Yes, it does, thank you.
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