Scripture & Authority

In the wave of current antagonism to the church, our culture has made it no surprise that the church is nothing more than a politically driven machine, and those minorities known as fundamentalist are nothing more than unintelligent individuals who are holding back the culture from evolving, to use the allegory of certain unhappy Darwinists (Smith, Dennet, and Hitchens).

Moving away from this cultural crisis, the church has scrambled as it seeks to plant itself as an institution (or movement) and provide somewhat of an alternative to the neo-Darwinian materialism. The only problem, however, is that the answer the church is giving the culture is a drastic shift away from the Scriptural mandate to proclaim the Word of God.  Essentially the Christians have retreated and ignored the call to transform the culture around them. This is the current problem outlined in Reforming or Transforming (Johnson and Gleason). Leading up to this point, however, Schaeffer has some very important words to say,

The basic problem of the Christians in this country (America) in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals… This shift has been away from the world view that was at least vaguely Christian in people’s memory (even if they were not individually Christian) toward something completely different—toward a worldview based upon the idea that the final reality is impersonal matter or energy shaped into its present form by impersonal chance.

For Schaeffer, this move away from a holistic approach (what he calls a worldview) has led to the devastation and collapse of Biblical values in the culture. It is the unfortunate consequence of this status that we, as the Christian community, must reckon with and resolve.

            We are at this point still pressed by another matter plaguing the church. Though much of this problem is seen from without (meaning, the problem is stemmed on the outside patio of the church steps), the church has to deal with herself. Some in the church have taken steps to try to resolve this problem from the inside. Like a virus, the cultural problem has now become an ecclesiastical problem. Do you see what happened? A shift from correcting the outside has brought about a complete reorientation of change to the inside, namely the church. This problem, however, only begs a very crucial question: where are the Christians? Today, Christians still seem to be asleep at the wheel as the socio-political climate changes! These changes, however, are a result of the ineptitude and inaction of Christians in America.

            The new Christian consciousness, as spread by people like McLaren and most of the post-moderns, reply that we as the Christian community have thought of Christianity not as an organism of change but one of acceptance and love. And while this attitude—that’s what it is after all, an attitude—may seem appealing to the new Christian, propositional truths have taken a backseat. We are no longer concerned with truth as a mechanism, so goes the logic, but we think more in terms of people. The shift in propositional truth, namely the Word of God as an authority (or I should the only authority) that speaks both on the individual and corporate level, is now a synthetic “answer” to the culture war. In effect, the answer to this problem is not an answer in the strictest sense, since an answer would imply that there is something that needs to be corrected and only propositional truth can truly give us that. Gary Johnson, in his book Reforming or Transforming seeks to correct this line of thinking. He writes, “We cannot escape the powerful undercurrents of postmodernity that course through the times we live in. The question that confronts us all is, how do we respond to such things? Since the apostle Paul tells in a very direct way—we are not to be conformed to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:1-2)—exactly what do we do when we find ourselves being molded and shaped by the culture around us?” Truth as truth, the way we find it expressed in the pages of Scripture, comes down in fiat. God doesn’t merely suggest a way of living but speaks with authority to obey His Word (John 6:35-40).

            As we continue to look at the doctrine of Scripture, I want you to have this in your minds: every man and women has an outlook on how they see the world, what Schaeffer calls a worldview. That worldview does in large measure define and control (authority) our beliefs and ultimately our actions. The question that lingers is “what authority is running your life?” For some, the final reality of pure chance and material energy is apex (Darwinists). (Essentially, what we do doesn’t really matter in light of this philosophy.) For others it is the changing of cultural norms to fit a working order (postmodernists). For the Christian, there is nothing more sure than the hope we have in God, who speaks in every time and culture and violates the laws of nature to do. We need to follow Paul when he penned these words: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-21 ESV)