The Bible is not the Word of God

The title of this post might seem shocking to some, but it is standard Quaker theology. One traditional formulation of this is that Christ is the Word of God and the Bible is the words of God. The Bible provides a history of God's working with people in the past and so is instructive to us as we try to make sense of how God is working with us today. Barclay discusses this issue at length in his 3'rd Proposition. I have already discussed this here  and here.  The Barclays full text on the subject can be found here: 

Today I would like to focus on 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, in order that the person of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

I would like to point out what this passage doesn't say. It does not say that Scripture was written by God. It does not say that it is infallible or inerrant. It says that it was inspired by God, which means that it was written by humans who were inspired. From which one can conclude, in fact, that there is also a human element in scripture as well. Quakers, at least unprogrammed Quakers, have experience with the differing degrees of the divine and the human elements in the inspired messages they receive each Sunday. We need to listen to the Bible with the same discerning ear we use in Meeting for Worship.

Secondly, it is important to understand what Paul meant by Scripture. He was not referring to what we now call the Bible, since it had not all been written at the time. Those parts of the Christian Testament that had been written would not be assembled until several hundred years later. Scripture, for Paul and other early Christians, would have meant what we call the Hebrew Testament. This is significant because this contains the Law of Moses. Paul elsewhere says that following the law does not lead to salvation. So Paul is not saying that Scripture is a rule to live by. He certainly is not saying that what he writes in his letters should be used to create a new set of rules to govern Christian behavior. All he is saying is that study of scripture is useful for preparing a Christian to be competent and equipped for the work to which they are called.

There are many Christian writers and teachers who quote Paul extensively to crate a rule of morality for people to follow. This seems to be applied in particular to areas of sexual morality and the role of women in the church and society. For example in Ephesians 5:21-33, Paul says:

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

This is often used to justify the position that wives should be submissive their husbands. But that was not what I think Paul was really about here. I think that he was trying to paint a vision of what the Kingdom of God would look like. He is presenting a radical and revolutionary vision of marriage as a relationship of love and respect and saying that this is the model for living in the Kingdom of God. This applies both to the family and to the church and its relationship with God. Paul is saying that our personal relationships need to mirror our relationship with God. This remains a radical and counter-cultural vision. To turn it into a set of rules that limit the role of women is in fact to turn the meaning of this passage on its head.


The Bible provides us with stories of how God has worked in the lives of people and peoples in the past. It provides us with a vision of what is possible if we have faith in the voice of God as we experience it. It provides us with reason to trust in the love of God for us and for all humanity. There are times in our spiritual development where having a clear set of directions as to how to live our lives is important, but this is not what God is calling us to. In 2 Timothy 3:5, Paul warns about those who are “holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power.” We are called to follow the law of God that is written on our hearts, and not in books. We are called to be friends of God and not servants. We are called to be sons and daughters and not slaves. We are called to live in the transforming power of God's love. We need to have faith in God and trust the freedom that is being offered to us.


Blessings,


Will T

On Worship - Centering together.

I have just returned from the Quakers Uniting in Publishing (QUIP) annual meeting where I was part of a panel discussion on Quaker blogging. I will write more about that later but here is the second part of my thoughts on worship.

For when people are gathered thus together, not merely to hear men nor depend upon them, but all are inwardly taught to stay their minds upon the Lord and wait for his appearance in their hearts, thereby the forward working of the spirit of man is stayed and hindered from mixing itself with the worship of God; and the form of this worship is so naked and void of all outward and worldly splendor that all occasion for man's wisdom to be exercised in that superstition and idolatry hath no lodging here; and so there being also an inward quietness and retiredness of mind, the witness of God ariseth in the heart, and the Light of Christ shineth whereby the soul cometh to see its own condition. And there being many joined together in this same work, there is an inward travail and wrestling; and also, as the measure of Grace is abode in, an overcoming of the power and spirit of darkness; and thus we are often greatly strengthened and renewed in the spirits of our minds without a word, and we enjoy and possess the holy fellowship and "communion of the body and blood of Christ," by which our inward man is nourished and fed.
[Proposition 11, Section 7]

I have heard many Friends talk about coming to meeting for an oasis of quiet in a busy world, or words to that effect. I know that there was a period when I likened my common experience of meeting for worship as being like a cat curled up in a warm spot behind a wood stove. I was just basking in the presence of God that I felt. This was a healing and a resting time for me. I came to know and trust God as a source of comfort and love. I did not know it at the time but this was laying a foundation for more vigorous work later on. In some ways it was like the long rest in base camp that mountain climbers have to take to acclimatize their bodies to exertion at altitude. I also did not come to meeting seeking that experience, no matter how precious it was when I found it. If we come to meeting just seeking quiet we are short circuiting the work of God as much as if we come planning to give a message.

Such is the evident certainty of that divine strength that is communicated by thus meeting together and waiting in silence upon God, that sometimes, when one hath come in that hath been unwatchful, and wandering in his mind, or suddenly out of the hurry of outward business, & so not inwardly gathered with the rest, so soon as he retires himself inwardly, this Power, being in a good measure raised in the whole meeting, will suddenly lay hold upon his spirit, and wonderfully help to raise up the good in him and beget him into the sense of the same Power, to the melting and warming of his heart, even as the warmth would take hold upon a man that is cold, coming in to a stove,...
[Proposition 11, Section 7]

When we come into meeting do we see that our centering can help center the entire meeting? Do we think of meeting for worship as an individual activity or do we see it as an attempt by the body gathered to center down corporately and so do we take up our work, not as an individual practice but as part of an attempt by all to come into the presence of God? At Fresh Pond Meeting the children go to First Day School for the first portion of meeting and come in to meeting for the last 15 minutes or so. There are many of them relative to the number of adults and they can bring in a fidgety energy with them. But when the meeting for worship is strongly gathered, it seems that they come in more quietly and settle themselves more quickly than at other times.

To be continued...

Blessings to all,

Will_T

Barclay on Universal Redemption and the Saving Light

Proposition 5 & 6 Concerning the Universal Redemption of Christ and also the Saving and Spiritual Light wherewith every man is enlightened.

Barclay actually has two propositions which he considers so interconnected that he discusses them together. The text of just the propositions can be found here and his discussion of them can be found here.

I will summarize the Fifth Proposition as this: God has infinite love for all humankind and out of that love sent His son as a Light so that whoever would believe in Him would be saved. This Light enlightens everyone who comes into the world. It teaches temperance, goodness and righteousness and it reproves the sin in everyone. It is no less universal than the seed of sin in everyone.

The Sixth Proposition holds that the manifestation of this Light is available to all regardless of their outward circumstance. The Light is a grace that is available to all and can be felt and understood by all, whether or not they have heard of Christianity or not. All people, even those who lived before Jesus or who have lived in places where the Gospel has never been preached can still follow the inward manifestation of the Light of Christ and be obedient to it and so can be turned from evil and towards good and so become holy. If Christ is known inwardly, there is no need to know Him outwardly for salvation to occur.

Undergirding this view is the infinite love of God. God loves everyone in the world and would not keep any from coming to God because of the accidents of their birth that would have kept them from hearing the Christian message. God is actively seeking the redemption of everyone, that is why God made the Light of Christ available to everyone. Barclay takes the opportunity of the discussion of these propositions to utterly deny any form of the doctrine of predestination. He calls it a “blasphemy against the love of God.” because it would made God the source of evil and it would cause people to hear of a salvation that they could never have, no matter what they did. I would hope that people who come to Quakerism from other Christian traditions that make a great emphasis on the anger and judgment of God could understand that God's love is the foundation of Quakerism and not judgment and fear of damnation.

This universalism is not based on any notion of tolerance or an idea that all traditions hold a kernel of truth. Instead it is based on the ability of God to communicate directly with every person. There is one God and this God is knowable by everyone regardless of our religious or theological beliefs, or lack of them. The goal of the spiritual life is to come to know the inward promptings of God and to be obedient to them. So rather than saying there are many paths up the mountain, he is saying, there is one path up the mountain (obedience to the Light) but that the road may be given different names.

This is how Barclay puts the Quaker Gospel:

According to which certain Light and Gospel, as the knowledge thereof has been manifested to us by the revelation of Jesus Christ in us, fortified by our own sensible experience, and sealed by the testimony of the Spirit in our hearts, we can confidently affirm, and clearly evince, according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures, the following points:

First, That God, who out of his infinite love sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world, who tasted death for every man, hath given to every man, whether Jew or Gentile, Turk or Scythian, Indian or Barbarian, of whatsoever nation, country, or place, a certain day or time of visitation; during which day or time it is possible for them to be saved, and to partake of the fruit of Christ's death.

Secondly, That for this end God hath communicated and given unto every man a measure of the Light of his own Son, a measure of grace, or a measure of the Spirit, which the Scripture expresses by several names, as sometimes of "the seed of the kingdom" (Matt. 13:18-19); the "Light that makes all things manifest" (Eph. 5:13); the "Word of God" (Rom. 10:17); or "manifestation of the Spirit given to profit withal" (1 Cor. 12:7); "a talent" (Matt. 25:15); "a little leaven" (Matt. 13:33); "the Gospel preached in every creature" (Col. 1:23).

Thirdly, That God, in and by this Light and Seed, invites, calls, exhorts, and strives with every man, in order to save him; which as it is received, and not resisted, works the salvation of all, even of those who are ignorant of the death and sufferings of Christ, and of Adam's fall, both by bringing them to a sense of their own misery, and to be sharers in the sufferings of Christ inwardly, and by making them partakers of his Resurrection, in becoming holy, pure, and righteous, and recovered out of their sins. By which also are saved they that have the knowledge of Christ outwardly, in that it opens their understanding rightly to use and apply the things delivered in the Scriptures, and to receive the saving use of them. But that this may be resisted and rejected in both, in which then God is said to be resisted and pressed down, and Christ to be again crucified, and put to open shame in and among men, and to those as thus resist and refuse him, he becomes their condemnation.

I will write more about the doctrines expounded here, especially the idea of a day of visitation, in another post. I would like to end by drawing your attention to the first part of the statement. He is saying that this is true because of four things:

1.It was revealed to them by Christ.
2.It is in accord with their own experience.
3.It has been confirmed by the Spirit
4.It is in accord with the Bible.

Based on these things they can proclaim what they believe. Note also that Barclay is using the plural throughout. This is not an individual witness. This is a witness of Friends as a people.

In spite of the strengths of liberal Quakerism, I am disappointed that we seem to have lost this sense of confidence in the revelations of God we have received. We do not state things forthrightly and clearly. We are downright timid. How often do our statements begin with words like, “No one can speak for all Friends but ...” Have we received revelations form God? Are they in accord with our experience? Are they confirmed by the Spirit in us and in the body of Friends? Are they in accord with the Bible? If we have, why are we shy about proclaiming it? If we haven't received such a revelation, what are we doing to prepare ourselves to receive one? It is not because God has stopped talking to us. Are we waiting expectantly, stripping away all that would distract us from our attention to God? Are we practicing faithfulness in small things so that we can learn to become faithful in large things?

I have just finished reading Douglas Gwyn's book Seekers Found. I understand him to be saying in it that Truth is not something abstract but is part of the essential nature of God. This truth is made real, it is embodied, not by our intellectual understanding, but by our living it. Thus our faithfulness is a fruit of God's work in us already and at the same time it is the means by which God continues to work in us. If our lives embody this Truth, this essential essence of God, if we have become the sanctuary, the tabernacle where God lives, how can we be so timid?

Blessings to all.

Will T