We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. (The Nicene Creed).
In unison, we chant the Nicene Creed every Sunday in my church. When we get to this part, where we affirm our belief that the Holy Spirit reveals Himself to us “through the Prophets,” I sometimes wonder why we would say this if we do not believe it. Maybe I don’t understand the phrase properly, but I always assumed that it meant that the Bible is THE word of God—spoken directly by God and transcribed for our benefit. Paul seemed to think so: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16). Does this not mean that the Bible (in its entirety) is a transcription of everything God wants us to know on this realm and put to use in the furtherance of His Kingdom of Righteousness?
Not so fast. What about all those verses (many of which come from that same Paul) that prescribe or proscribe conduct or thought that we would rather engage in or refrain from as we see fit? Don’t we get a say here? Because, if we are to believe that all Scripture is God-breathed straight to the Prophets, then we don’t have any choice but to obey or disobey everything in the Bible, whether we like it or not. I heard a proposed solution to this dilemma this morning. Instead of saying that the Bible IS the word of God which we must obey entirely, we could say it CONTAINS the word of God that we need only obey partially. In other words, the Bible is like a spiritual birthday present that comes packed in a shipping container that the Lord intends us to discard as we dig for the real gift of His truth. It’s the gift that matters, not the container.
This formulation is enticing. It conveniently allows us to disregard the personally offensive parts of Scripture as mere gift wrap. Surely, with our big human brains we should be able to discern between the divine wheat and chaff that the Spirit speaks through the Prophets. Maybe. But what this image brings to my mind is my kids on Christmas morning, ripping open their presents to get to what they are sure is buried in the bottom of the box. Often, in their childish zeal, they toss away the card or batteries that go with the gift. Is it not the same with us, when we grant ourselves the right to decide those parts of Scripture we will accept as gifts and those that we will discard as Packing Peanuts?
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