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

This I know experimentally

And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, Oh then, I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition,' and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord did let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory; for all are concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have the preeminence, who enlightens, and gives grace, and faith, and power. Thus, when God doth work who shall prevent it? And this I knew experimentally.

George Fox, 1647

This is George Fox's description of the great opening he had turned him from a seeker to a finder and an itinerant preacher and so led to the Quaker movement. But I want to focus today on the last sentence, “And this I knew experimentally.” If we were to paraphrase this into modern English, it would probably be rendered, “And this I knew experientially.” I think though that the older word carries with it some useful associations. In modern English, to know something experimentally implies some kind of scientific rigor. We know something because we have conducted experiments and have demonstrated it. But scientific experiments are really a formalized method of trial and error. One proposes an idea and then conducts some experiments to see if the idea is true or not. This is the heart of the scientific method and seems to us far removed from spirituality.

I think that for Fox, and anyone who proposes an experiential theology, as Friends do, the element of experiment is important. Fox came to his opening only after he had traveled around seeking out the leading lights of his day. He found that none of the people who he met could answer the questions in his soul. He found the answers in an inner voice. He heard this voice, he identified it as the Inner Christ, and he found confirmation in that his “soul did leap for joy.”

It does not take a lot of introspection or experience with people to realize that there are a number of voices speaking in us at any time. Some Christians will quote Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” to support their idea that we should trust only in Scripture, because our own hearts are too unreliable. There is a useful caution here because there appears to be no limit to human powers of self-deception. But this is not the end of the story. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:13 “And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit.”

How are we to know which is the correct voice to listen to. In John 10:4-5, Jesus says “the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because do not know the voice of strangers.” How do we come to know this voice. The short answer is that we conduct experiments. In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul identifies the fruits of the Spirit. “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” In Matthew 7:15-17 Jesus instructs his followers to judge people by their fruits. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” This is actually very sound practical advice and it applies to both inward and outward prophets. If we hear a voice that we think might be God's, listen and follow it. Then look at the results. Does it bring forth, in however small a way, any of the fruits of the spirit, or does it have the opposite effect? This provides guidance as to the nature of the voice. So by listening and observing carefully, one can learn to distinguish the Shepherd's voice from all others.

Likewise, the journals of Quaker ministers have many stories of their difficulties in learning when to speak in meeting. Some, like David Ferris, recount the long periods of their resistance to the voice prompting them to speak. He reports that it was the fervent prayers of a traveling minister that enabled him to break through his resistance. John Woolman, on the other had recounts a story of when he spoke more than he should have and felt an inward correction. After anguish and prayer, some weeks later he was led to speak some words in meeting that gave him peace. “As I was thus humbled and disciplined under the cross, my understanding became more strengthened to distinguish the language of the pure Spirit that inwardly moves upon the heart.” In both cases, there was an inward prompting or correction. Both people also had encouragement from their community to pursue greater faithfulness. This is an experimental approach to religion.

For many people, religion has been taught as something that they have to accept on authority. Sometimes it is the authority of a book, be it the Bible, the Koran, or the Torah. Sometimes it is the authority of a person, be it the Pope, an evangelist, or a pastor. Sometimes the authority is tradition. Anyone who teaches that ultimate authority rests with any outward authority and not with the Spirit as heard in the heart is teaching something less than the full Christian message. Quakers say that you can hear God yourself . As Robert Barclay says, “It is the privilege of the Christian to know the Shepherds voice.” Learning to know this voice is a process and, as in any learning, there are bound to be mistakes. Knowing that we are all learning, we need to be gentle with ourselves and each other when mistakes are made. But as we progress in our discernment we are able to say, as George Fox did, “And this I know experimentally.”

Blessings,

Will T

Faith is a Relationship

If you ask someone about their faith, they may describe it in terms of a creed or a document. In many church services there is a part in which a statement of faith is recited, be it the Apostle's Creed or the Nicene Creed, or something else. Orthodox Friends might reference The Richmond Declaration of Faith. If you ask me, I am likely to go into a discussion of Barclay's Apology. We tend to view our faith as if it were the same as our beliefs. I am as likely to fall into this trap as anyone. But I don't think that God is particularly interested in theology.

Jesus is always asking his followers whether they believe, whether they have faith. But it is always, do you believe in me, do you have faith in me? When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, (Matt 14:22-33), Peter said, “Lord, if it is you command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said come and Peter boldly stepped out of the boat and started walking on the water. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became fearful and began to sink and called out to Jesus, who reached out and saved him. Then Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” This was not the faith of intellectual belief that he was asking about, this was a question Peter's faith in the power of God to hold him up.

When Jesus healed people, he was clear that it was a matter of faith. Not faith in dogma or scripture but faith in Jesus' ability to heal. When the centurion came and asked Jesus to heal his servant, (Matt 8:5-13) the centurion says, “Don't bother coming to my house, I am not worthy. Just give the order and he will be healed.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have i found such faith.... Let it be done to you according to your faith.”

But how does this translate to our lives today since Jesus lived and died some 2,000 years ago? This was the key insight of George Fox that Christ can still speak to us. “There is even one Christ Jesus who can speak to your condition.” “Christ has come to teach his people himself.” This was the wondrous news that made Fox's heart jump for joy. Christ can be known inwardly and we are invited to live in relationship with this inward Christ, just as the disciples lived in relationship to the outward Jesus in Galilee. They saw this as a fulfillment of the prophesy of Jeremiah 31:33-34, “ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” This is a call to know God and to be in relationship with God.

Evangelical Christians are right on the mark with their question “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” if they mean by that, “Do you trust the voice of Christ within you to lead you to healing and greater love and understanding?” But for me, this question carries with it a sense that there is only one relationship to have with Jesus and our experience of the Divine takes a single form. If you haven't had a particular experience or if your relationship with God is different, then you are, at best, a second-class Christian. The Biblical record contradicts this. God appears to people throughout the Bible and each event is unique. God walks with Adam in the cool of the morning. God appeared to Abraham in the form of 3 strangers walking down the road. Moses encountered God in a burning bush. Jacob wrestled with God through an entire night. God answered Job out of a whirlwind. God appeared to Elijah as a still small voice after the whirlwind, the earthquake and the fire had all passed by. The miracle of Pentecost was not that the apostles spoke in tongues. The miracle was that the apostles spoke and every listener heard them in their own language. God is always speaking to us in our own language and in the context of our own knowledge and experience. If we have a personal relationship with God, than each relationship will be unique, just as each of us are unique. And each of is is being called into relationship with God.

Blessings,

Will T

Christian Education

During the discussion at NEYM Sessionson renaming the Christian Education committee,  I started thinking about other meanings of Christian education, and those thoughts have been percolating ever since. My first thoughts were about the need to educate Christians. Although early Friends thought that they were on a mission to spread their gospel to the entire world, it turned out that it was mostly a matter of educating Christians. When they spoke in the steeple-houses, or in the yards outside when they were not allowed to speak inside, they were trying to educate Christians about the true nature of Christianity. Christianity as they experienced it and understood it, bore little relationship to what was being preached in many of the churches. They did not pull any punches about this, either. Barclay called the doctrine of predestination “a horrid blasphemy against the love of God.” It appears to me that a large portion of the Christian Church in America has become captive to the kingdoms of this world. Early Friends saw themselves as primitive Christianity revived. We need to educate ourselves and others about how revived Christianity is different from what we see around us.

The second area of Christian education that came to mind is based on who it is that comes to our meetings. Many people come to Friends suffering some sort of spiritual trauma from whatever tradition they came from. Many of these people have difficulty hearing Christian language. At some point we need to be clear, as Quakers, that our view of Christianity is different from what it was where they came from. We need to be able to articulate a non-traumatic and healing vision of Christianity. And we need to embody this vision in our lives and in our meetings.

With this in mind I am planning to start a series of posts on Christian education. I will be discussing various aspects of Christian theology and what the Quaker take on it is. Much of what I will have to say will not be unique to Quakerism, but I will try to identify how the Quaker tradition embodies these things. Some Friends are not comfortable with theological discussions, but ultimately any faith tradition is an embodiment of a particular theology. It is difficult to understand the puzzling or unique aspects of any faith tradition without understanding the theology that underlies it. For instance, it is strange to find out that some Catholic and Episcopal churches have special sinks that are not connected to the regular plumbing . But if you know that these sinks are used for washing the dishes used during the Eucharist and if you understand the concept of transubstantiation, it is easier to understand that people would not want any drops of wine or crumbs of wafer that have become the physical body and blood of Christ, to be washed out into the common sewer. Quakerism has its own quirks and oddities. I do not intend to discuss our peculiarities of architecture, but I do expect to discuss some of our unique religious, organizational and cultural structures.

This is all matter that I am still working on myself, so I hope that what I write can be a starting point for discussion.

Blessings,

Will T

NEYM Part 4 – In which two miracles occur.

On Tuesday morning, the yearly meeting budget came up for approval. The treasurer and the Finance Committee made their presentation. After a number of difficult years, their main news was that we were in the black for the first time in several years. There may have been a clarifying question or two but then the budget was approved with no further discussion. Elapsed time, about 10 minutes. To me, this certainly qualifies as a miracle.

The other major item on our agenda that morning was a proposal for changing the name of the Christian Education committee to the Quaker Youth Education Committee. This change was being proposed because the committee found that it was doing a lot more than helping with First-Day Schools and they wanted their name to reflect that. Their new purpose statement starts:

The goal of the Quaker Youth Education Committee is to help the Yearly Meeting's children and youth: build personal foundations of Quaker history, practice, and belief, Christan education, and comparative religion; find effective ways to witness to their beliefs in the world; and become spiritually resilient in a complex and changing society.

As understandable as this desire was, it was also clear that this change could become a flash point for all of the tensions in the Yearly Meeting between Christian and non-Christian Friends. What happened was truly remarkable and another miracle. The first speaker was a well-known Christian and spoke about her first reaction to this proposal was fear that this was going to be a first step in turning Quakerism into a non-Christian religion. But she was not going to be governed by her fear. She trusted in the good faith of the committee and the care that it had taken already. A friend who has often had reservations about Christian language spoke about how much she valued hearing the Christians in the yearly meeting. Another well-known Christian Friend spoke about how important it was to her that she was accepted into membership when she was not a Christian. There was a palpable sense of unity in the room. The change was approved. There was a bit of difficulty in preparing the minute but it was resolved when we finally realized that the discomfort was because the proposed minute did not go far enough in recognizing the value the body was putting on the Christian voices in the Yearly Meeting.

Blessings,

Will T