{"id":1055,"date":"2023-05-09T14:19:59","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T14:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adamericksen.org\/?p=1055"},"modified":"2024-01-05T12:58:53","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T17:58:53","slug":"the-key-to-all-christian-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamericksen.org\/the-key-to-all-christian-theology\/","title":{"rendered":"The Key to All Christian Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most important things I\u2019ve learned in my deconstruction experience has been about the Bible.<\/p>\n

The Bible is not the Word of God.<\/p>\n

Once I realized this, I was able to take a deep breath. It was like the 800 pound gorilla had been lifted off my shoulders. I felt so free.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. I love the Bible. It\u2019s my favorite book and I think it\u2019s the most important book ever written. I read it every day.<\/p>\n

But it is not the Word of God.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Bible never claims to be the Word of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bible states that the Word of God is a lamp unto my feet<\/a>. The Word of the Lord comes to the prophets<\/a> and they speak the Word of the Lord<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Bible never explicitly says that the Word of God became a book.<\/p>\n

This has been so important for me on my faith journey because so many Christians believe that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible Word of God.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Inerrant and infallible are words that the Bible never uses, by the way.)<\/p>\n

But what do we do with those passages that clearly go against our morals? I\u2019m talking about passages that nobody, not even the most staunch biblical literalist, would follow today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take Deuteronomy 21:18-21<\/a>, for example. It states, \u201cIf someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, \u2018This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.\u2019 Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. So you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel will hear, and be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you were to read this during a worship service, someone might say at the end, \u201cThus says the Word of the Lord.\u201d And the congregation might respond, hopefully with a lack of enthusiasm and a lot of questions, \u201cThanks be to God.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do we do with such passages?<\/p>\n

I like to remind myself that I am not a Biblian. I am a Christian. While I love the Bible, as a Christian I am not called to believe in the Bible. As a Christian, I am called to believe in Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like the way Michael Ramsey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, put it: \u201cGod is Christlike and in God there is no un-Christlikeness at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think this is the key to all Christian theology. It is not that \u201cGod is Biblelike and in God there is no un-Biblelikeness at all.\u201d No, the point of Christian theology is that God is Christlike.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another Christian formula is found in John chapter 1<\/a>. It claims that the Word of God was with God in the beginning and through the Word all things were made and that the Word became flesh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bible does not say that the Word became a book. It says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Jesus had a deep appreciation for scripture, there were some laws that he refused to follow. For example, Leviticus 20:10<\/a> states that, \u201cIf a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus was confronted with this very law by some of his opponents. In John 8<\/a>, Jesus\u2019 opponents bring to him a woman caught in adultery. Being biblical literalists, they say to Jesus, \u201cTeacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?\u201d<\/p>\n

If Jesus believed that the scriptures were the inerrant and infallible Word of God, he would have responded, \u201cGood point, fellas. The Bible is the inerrant and infallible Word of God, so we must follow every Word of it. I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. So pick up your stones, men! Let\u2019s go!\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Jesus didn\u2019t say that. Jesus actually stopped the men from following what the scripture clearly says.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus did claim to fulfill the law, but he didn\u2019t fulfill the law in the sense of enacting every law in the scriptures. In fact, there were times that Jesus refused to follow laws, specifically laws that harm others.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the Bible is not the Word of God.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In conclusion, Jesus is the Word of God. And Jesus teaches us and shows us what God is truly like. God is most truly seen in the Word of God made flesh, who repeatedly stopped Biblically motivated violence and replaced it with Biblically motivated love.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor Adam reveals the key to all Christian theology is not the Bible. It’s the Word of God made flesh, Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[26,84,136,29,38,135],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Key to All Christian Theology - Pastor Adam Ericksen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pastor Adam reveals the key to all Christian theology is not the Bible. 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