What is Sacred Text?

Most religions recognize some document(s) or symbols as sacred or holy:  the TaNaKh for the Jews (or what we Christians know as the Hebrew Bible); the Koran for the Muslims; the Buddhist Tripitaka and Sutras; the Tibetan Book of the Dead; the Hindu Veda; and, of course, the Christian Bible are a few examples.  I will focus this blog on the Christian Cannon but I believe the discussion is applicable to any sacred text.

The question comes to me every now and then as to the nature of the scriptures: are they inspired? Infallible? Inerrant? These questions tend to be somewhat vague in that the questioner really doesn’t have a good handle on what they’re asking.  More often than not they’ve been challenged by someone and they’re trying to figure out how to deal with it.  Now a days the Muslim must deal with questions about the command to kill infidels and martyrdom for 72 virgins.  So clearly Christendom is not alone in its struggle to deal with its own texts.

To understand this battle regarding the nature of scripture it’s necessary to understand that this is a relatively new issue.  Up until the mid to late 1700’s the questions of infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible would not even have been understood.  In order to understand how this came to be an issue it’s necessary to delve into a little history.  In the 1500’s & 1600’s an event occurred known as the Reformation.  Martin Luther and others broke from the Roman Catholic Church because in their opinion Christendom was failing to live up to Biblical principles.  They saw the core issue being caused by focus on the authority of the church rather than the authority of the Bible.  The Protestant movement established a principle known as “Sola Scriptorium” (Scripture Only).  They believed that if the church/state was governed by scripture alone in matters of faith that soon all of Christendom would be living good Christian lives.

Unfortunately what actually occurred was decades of wars in which each confession attempted to enforce their interpretation of the scriptures on each other that continued until over a million people had died and the resources of Western Europe were exhausted.  We now enter the 1700’s, the age of science, enlightenment and reason.  Theologians completely disenchanted with solo scriptoria jump on the “reason” band wagon.  Scientific enquiry and reason is the way to God!  This forces the conservatives among the Protestants to develop a defense of Sola Scriptoria and so first was the loud proclamation of the infallibility of scripture and then later, as they become more extreme in their defense, the doctrine of inerrancy (1881) was born.

Now none of this is to indicate that sacred texts are not divinely revealed, infallible and/or inerrant.  We haven’t gotten to that point in the discussion yet.  And, the gentlemen responsible for the doctrine of inerrancy, Drs. Warfield and Hodge were extremely distinguished Theologians.  And, those who defend the doctrine would argue that it didn’t exist before because it wasn’t needed before.   But an important part of the answer is the genesis of the questions.   In my next Blog I will explore how the writers of the text, their early readers and those who canonized the text thought about them.  How did they become sacred?

“The Church is like a public swimming pool, all the noise is at the shallow end”

A Christian view of Atlas Shrugged

I read Ayn Rand’s Fountain Head and Atlas Shrugged for the first time when I was in high school and, like Paul Ryan, was profoundly influenced by her negative portrayal of socialism.  About ten years later a friend of mine read it and in his case became a “true believer.”  I read it again to refresh myself as he began to preach the gospel of Objectivism.  It was quite an eye opener to watch someone I thought I knew well transform before my eyes.  As he internalized the philosophy he became totally self-centered and selfish.  He quit his job and went back to college allowing his wife to support him and their two children.  He told me confidentially that he planned to leave her once he graduated since he would no longer need her and she would only be a hindrance to his future plans.  He felt this to be totally consistent with his new insights.  This may sound extreme but if you read the book you will see that his behavior is totally consistent with the teachings.  I don’t know what he ended up doing or what happened to him, we drifted apart shortly thereafter and I never talked with him or saw him or his family again

.

Atlas Shrugged does a wonderful job of exposing the ugly underbelly of Socialism/liberalism; the terrible ways in which it can go wrong and destroy a country.  On the other hand Ayn Rand completely misses all the ways Capitalism/conservatism or what she calls Objectivism run amok and can be equally devastating.  To somehow consider the capitalist as noble while the socialist is evil is the height of folly.  Both nobility and evil will seek any and all means to express themselves.

But even if we ignore a philosophy which preaches total selfishness and focus on the value of a book/movie which does do an excellent job of exposing the problems of collectivism, can we as Christians endorse Atlas Shrugged.  That piece of the story which exposes the problems of liberalism is certainly one that the Christian right has been struggling to tell for a long time.  The dangers of a government that uses Social Justice as the means to take control a country is real.  The fear is justified.  Whether it’s real or not in our case can always be debated but it certainly worthwhile to have the debate.  Just to give an outrageous example, almost all of Christendom applauded when the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NAZI’s) came to power in the name of establishing Social Justice in 1933.  And we all know what they did with that once democratic nation once that held sufficient power in their hands.

Cal Thomas, one of the original leaders of the Moral Majority and an outspoken Evangelical Christian who frequently appears on cable news shows, certainly believes Atlas Shrugged should be endorsed and promoted.  But, in addition to her militant pro-selfishness and derision for anyone with compassion for the needs of others, one must also overlook the fact that the book is anti-Christian and promotes sexual promiscuity, deviant sexual behavior (bondage, S&M, etc.) and abortion.  There’s a lot for the religious right to overlook in order to get their polemic against liberal economic and social policies heard.

“The Church is like a public swimming pool, all the noise is at the shallow end”

Christianity, Not One Among Many

Christian or not, any intellectually honest person must admit that there has never been anything that compares to Christianity throughout all of recorded history.  2000 years ago an obscure man from an obscure village wandered around the Levant region of the Mediterranean teaching about God for a couple of years and then was crucified.  At the end of his ministry all his followers fled, betrayed him or deserted him.

Yet, a couple of centuries later he was the center of the dominant religion of the civilized world.  It still remains the largest religion in the world 2000 years later with over 2 billion adherents.  Historians have spent at least 1500 years going crazy trying to understand this phenomenon.  There are, of course, many explanations, but few that are satisfactory and satisfying.  They range from, “God made it happen” to, “it was all an elaborate hoax perpetuate by the Apostles.” 

In order to understand the unique nature of Christianity’s growth it is necessary to look at one other key uniqueness.  Christianity did not begin with Jesus ministry on earth but with his resurrection.  Christians do not follow a prophet like Moses or Muhammad.  They follow a risen Lord.  This is absolutely critical to the understanding of Christianity.  It is impossible to teach the wisdom of Jesus’ teachings or philosophies; as Paul tells us, it will be considered foolishness.  The disciple’s job is to introduce people to Jesus Christ.  It’s his job to teach the wisdom of the kingdom’s ways.

Paul himself persecuted the Christians until Christ knocked him off his horse and blinded him with a bright light to get his attention.  Once Paul had personally met the risen Lord he underwent an very real attitude adjustment.  Read the beginning of Acts.  Massive conversion to Christianity came about because people had a personal experience with the living Jesus Christ.  It is the fact that Jesus Christ lives that makes Christianity unique among all the religions of the world.  The rapid growth happened and continues to happen because Christianity continues to have a leader who is alive and active in the world.

Jesus said that they (non-Christians) will know you (Christians) by how you love one another.  But we love one another because he first loved us.  The entire heart of Christianity rests on the assumption of a personal relationship with a living Lord which rests on the reality of the Resurrection.  This Holy Week we live in anticipation of the celebration of that unique event in history which occurred on Easter morning.

“The Church is like a public swimming pool, all the noise is at the shallow end”

Using the poor in Political debates

Biblically speaking, which is better for the poor, liberal or conservative principles?  I am a gourmand when it comes to the consuming of published materials of any kind and especially if they should touch on religion or politics and especially if they should touch on both.  I find it fascinating that both ends of the political spectrum can find so much scripture to support their position. Let’s consider the two in general terms.  I admit up front that I must stereotype but I don’t think the picture it draws is invalid because of the gross generalizations.  

Our conservative would help the poor through capitalism.  The Entrepreneurs and business people work hard make money and create jobs.  The conservative enjoys the fruits of their labor by becoming wealthy.  Those they employ benefit by having opportunity and income from producing products and/or services.  Those unable to participate due to misfortune of one kind or another receive charity which is available due to the abundance produce in such a rich environment.  Since the Regan era this has been known as trickle-down economics.   Reward the wealth producers and all boats float higher in a rising tide.

Our liberal would help the poor through redistribution of wealth.  According to the Federal Reserve Board, which is probably about as unbiased a report as one can get, 85% of the wealth in the US is held by the top 20% of the population.  A worse statistic is that the bottom 40% of the population holds less than .2% of the wealth.  The liberal enjoys the fruits of their labor by become patrons.  Those they employ benefit by having opportunity and income from by support and/or services.  Those unable to participate due to misfortune of one kind or another receive entitlements as a natural part of providing for a fair distribution of the wealth produced by the country.  From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.

 

Let’s try to looking objectively at the two societies.  Both are classed societies.  Both have an upper class.  I challenge you to distinguish between Larry Ellison, Founder of Oracle, who flies his private jet and live in luxury we can only imagine and Nancy Pelosi, who flies her private jet and lives in luxury we can only imagine.  And yet they represent opposite ends of the capitalism/liberalism spectrum.  Both the conservative and liberal based society has their workers and both have their poor.  More importantly, both are condemned Biblically.  Neither represents the Kingdom.  To conservative I give you Luke 18:22.  Sell all your possession, give them to the poor and follow Christ.  To the liberal, read my previous blog, Hunger fast for a moral budget, were I show the fallacy of using scripture to justify stealing from the rich to give to the poor.

“The Church is like a public swimming pool, all the noise is at the shallow end”