{"id":621,"date":"2022-05-13T12:44:23","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T12:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/?p=621"},"modified":"2022-06-08T15:39:43","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T15:39:43","slug":"the-enduring-authority-of-the-bible-in-the-world-of-post-modern-relativism-and-post-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/?p=621","title":{"rendered":"The enduring authority of the Bible in the world of Post-modern relativism and Post-truth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The enduring authority of the Bible in this changing\nworld<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our world is racing ever\nmore rapidly away from God. God calls His church to be the people of the future\nbut too often we are living as people of the past. We need to recognise the\nchallenges we face in a rapidly changing society and respond to them. Howevcr,\nin doing so, many churches and many Christians are in danger of drifting away\nfrom God\u2019s revelation of Himself as it has been handed down to us through the\ncenturies in the Bible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The changing world<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost 40 years ago we were\nset an essay for the Sociology of Religion course at LBC with the title, \u201cwhy\nis it the church has good news which nobody wants to hear?\u201d We have watched the\nanswers to that question become more and more true. The world we live in is rapidly\nchanging. People are generally much more mobile \u2013 they may move homes and\ncities and change jobs many times. Family life is breaking down. Television\nwith hundreds of channels and streaming on demand, together with the internet, has\ntransformed leisure time just as smartphones, texting, instant messaging and\nsocial media have revolutionised communications. All these advances have\nproduced a much more fragmented society as people\u2019s lives have become\nincreasingly insular and individualistic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secularisation describes the\ndramatic decline in the influence of the church and Christian values. We live\nin a disenchanted world, where worship of God has been replaced by science and\ntechnology. Sociologists also talk about privatisation, by which they mean that\nour lives are becoming more and more isolated. Local community activities and\neven family life are being lost in the anonymity of \u201csociety\u201d where many people\nno longer know their neighbours. Privatisation also describes the way that\nfaith is being squeezed into people\u2019s private lives and out of the public\nsphere of politics and commerce, as the media portray Christianity as outdated\nand irrelevant. Britain has become much more a multi-cultural multi-faith\nsociety. This is given the label of religious pluralisation. Christianity is no\nlonger the only or even the dominant faith. It is now seen only as one option\namongst many on offer in the supermarket of beliefs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemporary western culture\nis dominated by consumerism: people expect the right to choose and they demand\nsatisfaction guaranteed every time. These expectations extend to shopping\nbetween religions. Christianity is now only one stall in the spiritual\nmarketplace. Faced with the difficulty of making an informed decision about\nwhich religion to believe in, many people take the easy option of not believing\nin anything at all. People may say, \u201cI don\u2019t buy into any of that\u201d. One effect\nof this consumerism on Christians has been the way in which the false gods of\nMoney and Entertainment and their false prophets the Celebrities hold sway in\nmany churches. Another effect is the rise explosion of niche churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-modern relativism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emerging culture in\nsociety is often labelled as post-modern. Understandings of the world dating\nfrom the Enlightenment are being rejected. There is a wide distrust of\nauthority and \u2018the establishment\u2019 in education, politics, law and order, and\neven in religion. Certainty is replaced by questioning. The only thing\npost-modernists are allowed to be certain about is that nobody is allowed to be\ncertain about anything anymore. Ordinary people and many scholars are rejecting\nany idea of absolute truth \u2013 everything now is relative. Post-modernism insists\nthat everybody is entitled to their own version of the truth and their own\nunderstandings and beliefs. In a world of pluralism and consumerism, it is easy\nto see how relativism would appear to be correct. People are accustomed to\nexercising choice and so they assume they have the right and the ability to\nchoose for themselves what is true or false and what is right or wrong. Political\ncorrectness then insists that all opinions are equally valid and that it is\nrude (and in some cases even a crime) to challenge the views of other people. Many\npeople have lost sight of truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of these changes in\nsociety are being fuelled and sometimes driven by the rise of the internet and\nthe proliferation of information which is not subject to any objective\nscrutiny. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and\nTikTok now make it possible for people to operate totally within their own\nbubbles. Algorithms feed people with persuasive content which fits with their\nexisting bias, which they accept uncritically. That convinces them that they\nare experts in topics in which they, and the sources and influencers they rely\non, actually have no education or expertise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last decade has seen one\nfurther very unhelpful development. In 2016 Oxford Dictionaries announced\n\u2018post-truth\u2019 as their word of the year. Post-truth describes circumstances where\npeople share their own heart-wrenching personal experiences to promote a\nparticular cause and these emotional appeals carry more weight than any\nobjective facts about the matter in question. There are many obvious examples\nof post-modern relativism and post-truth having a dramatic influence on society,\nfrom changes in laws surrounding marriage, divorce, abortion and euthanasia, to\nthe rise of extremist political parties and various responses to the Covid\npandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One illustration of how\nthese changes in society affect the church is in their impact on Christian\napproaches to evangelism and to apologetics. 30 years ago you could invite people\nto consider the life and claims of Jesus and answer a rational question. \u201cWas\nJesus mad? Was Jesus bad? Or was Jesus truly God?\u201d Most people were prepared to\nthink logically about matter of faith.  Nowadays\nmany people would consider such questions irrelevant. In this post-modern,\npost-truth world reasoning is not important. What matters instead is plausibility:\nwhether something appears to be true, or feels like it is true, Image counts\nfor everything and any facts are irrelevant.[1]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-modern relativism and\npost-truth in the church<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least in popular opinion,\nmany corners of the church are now under the spell of post-modern relativism\nand post-truth. Some western Christians are abandoning theological\nunderstandings which have been believed through the ages and are still held\nacross the world church in important matters, from the nature of salvation to\nthe uniqueness of Christ as the only way of salvation to the Christian\ndefinition of marriage. Denominations are splitting over ethical issues. In\ncontrast, I remain convinced that there are still some facts which are true and\nnot just a matter of opinion. Equally, there are some opinions which are definitely\nnot correct, however plausible they may appear and however persuasively they\nare presented. Wrong does not become right just because lots of people believe\nit. I believe there are some issues where emotional appeals do not and should\nnot be allowed to override objective truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus said, \u201cI am the truth\u201d\n(John 14:6) and \u201cYou will know the truth and the truth will set you free\u201d (John\n8:32). God within Himself is truth, even though that absolute truth may be\ninaccessible to mere mortals and in this life we will \u201cknow only in part and\nsee in a mirror dimly\u201d (1 Cor. 13:9,12). Jesus promised his disciples that the\nHoly Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, would teach them all things and\nlead them into all the truth (John 14:26, 16:23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible must remain central<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nwe want to know the truth about God, or about the world, or about ourselves, we\nwill need to turn to the Bible. We need God to reveal the truth to us \u2013 we cannot work it all out for ourselves. God has revealed himself\nto us supremely through his Son Jesus Christ and through the Bible.  So I\nam convinced that the Bible, correctly interpreted, needs to remain central to\nChristian faith and Christian living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible carries authority\nfor believers because it provides us with a reliable record of God\u2019s mighty\nacts of salvation, supremely in and through God incarnate, Jesus Christ the Son\nof God. The Bible provides us with a reliable record of God\u2019s words to human\nbeings, supremely in the words of Jesus and of the prophets. And the Bible\nbrings us a reliable record of the theological interpretation of God\u2019s saving\nacts and of God\u2019s words as received by the people of God in the Old Testament\nand by the apostles and eyewitnesses of Jesus in the New Testament. All this is\nconfirmed by the agreement of the Early Church and the later generations of\nchurches in recognising the canon of Scripture.Only the Bible\nprovides Christians with these indispensable foundations of Christian faith. [2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am entirely convinced\nabout the complete reliability of the Bible for all matters of faith, practice\nand ethics. Since the dawn of the Third Millennium, it has been very sad to see\nmany Christians and churches losing confidence in the Bible as the source of\nauthority for their own lives and for theology and for the church. Many have\nembraced the relativism of post-modernism and no longer accept the idea of\nabsolute truth. Some no longer recognise that certain conduct is morally wrong.\nPost-truth emotional appeals are leading many to reject the authority of the\nBible in a number of matters of theology and ethics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of correct\ninterpretation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remain convinced that the Bible, correctly\ninterpreted, needs to remain central to Christian faith and Christian living. I\nsay \u2018correctly interpreted\u2019 because throughout history so many\nmisunderstandings and divisions have been caused by flawed interpretations of\nthe Bible. Historically, the church has believed that God reveals the\ntruth through particular channels. We begin with the word of Scripture. We then\nlook to human reason to help us understand Scripture correctly, guided by the\ntraditions of the church. The Methodist Quadrilateral added the fourth\nperspective of our personal experience of God\u2019s grace in our own lives. We also\nrecognise the revelatory ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church today. Although\nsome church leaders and theologians seem to have lost that confidence in the Bible,\nI still believe that between them the five channels of Scripture, Tradition,\nReason, Personal Experience and the Work of the Holy Spirit in the church can\nlead Christians into all truth today. Four comments follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am convinced that the\nBible, correctly interpreted, is sufficient for all the needs of individual\nbelievers and of churches. \u201cAll Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,\ncorrecting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be\nthoroughly equipped for every good work\u201d (2 Tim\n3:16-17). That does not imply that every kind of question we could ever ask\nabout life, the universe and everything, is plainly answered in the pages of\nthe Bible, because evidently that is not the case. What I do mean is that\nthrough applying the five channels believers will be able to discern answers to\nevery important question we actually need to be able to answer about Christian\nfaith, practice and ethics. The Bible, correctly interpreted, will always be\nsufficient for all our needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, I am persuaded\nthat in any issue it will be possible, and in some cases very important, to\ndiscover which is the best interpretation of the Bible. God does not intend\nChristians or churches to be confused or arguing or divided. God gave us the\nBible and the Holy Spirit still wants to lead us into all the truth. That said,\ndiscerning that best interpretation will require application of all the five\nchannels, lots of prayer and often some hard work. Sometimes reason, tradition,\nexperience and the work of the Holy Spirit will only lead us to parameters\nwhich still allow for several possible interpretations of Scripture. In that\nsituation we should seek to discern the most preferable understanding. I\nstrongly reject the post-modern assumption that everything is all a matter of\nopinion and all opinions are equally valid. When we apply generally agreed\nprinciples of interpretation, some conclusions are clearly not possible or\ndefensible. In those cases it remains the responsibility of church leaders and theologians\nto challenge and refute false teaching.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirdly, my understanding is\nthat when we do reach what we consider to be the correct understanding of a\nBible passage or on an issue in theology or ethics it is entirely appropriate\nto be \u201ctentatively definite\u201d.[4]<\/sup><\/a> This means we are allowed to defend vigorously our own\ninterpretation in debate. We are expected to do so if the matter has\nsignificant implications for belief or Christian living. We should not be\nsilenced by political correctness. Yet at the same time we are obliged always\nto remain tentative and humble in recognising that we may be mistaken and\nothers may have grasped a truth which we have yet to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fourth conviction is that\nit is never appropriate to say \u201cthe Bible got it wrong\u201d on any issue. There are\ninstances where interpreters generally agree that particular instructions in\nthe Bible were \u2018culture-bound\u2019, only applicable to the original settings, and\nshould not be taken to apply to the church or the world today.[5]<\/sup><\/a> This position is always reached by applying agreed\nprinciples of interpretation. However, in a variety of discussions, not least\nin debates around sexual ethics, a different approach has emerged in recent\nyears. There are certain issues where attempts have consistently failed to\nargue that specific verses were culture-bound, or have been mistranslated, or on\nother grounds should be interpreted in ways very different to their plain\nmeaning, In such circumstances, some readers end up taking a position which\nboils down to saying that the Bible got it wrong on that particular point. They\nargue that because the lived experiences of many individuals are at odds with\nthose Bible texts the Bible writers must have been mistaken. I reject the post-truth\nnotion that a coherent and defensible understanding of an issue, which has been\nformed on the basis of correct principles of interpretation, is automatically\ntrumped by an individual\u2019s personal experiences, however tragic or emotionally\nexpressed. Yet that post-truth approach is encouraging people to erase whole\npassages from their Bibles on the grounds that those texts make some people feel\nuncomfortable. We live in a changing world but I believe that the authority of\nScripture is unchanging. The whole Bible, correctly interpreted, still remains\ntrue today.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> I will\nsay more about how our outreach needs to be shaped differently in the light of\nthese factors in the next chapter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> I\nexplored the reasons why the Bible is authoritative for Christians in my 1995\nMA dissertation, Is the Longer Ending of Mark Holy Scripture? An Exploration\nof the Nature of Biblical Authority<\/em> (1995, LBC\/Brunel)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> See my comments on false teaching and false teachers elsewhere, e.g. Stand up to false teachers http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1659.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> I\nfirst met this phrase in a postgraduate seminar with the inspiring New\nTestament scholar Kenneth Bailey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> An\nobvious example would be the teaching  on\nwomen covering their heads in worship in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The enduring authority of the Bible in this changing world Our world is racing ever more rapidly away from God. God calls His church to…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":626,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions\/626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}