Monday, January 19, 2009

The Word of God

I have just read the best explanation of the Orthodox view of holy scripture that I have ever found, and I want to point any readers of my blog to it, in case they might also like to read "another point of view" which lies wholly outside the frame of reference and the battle of "science versus the Bible." I have tried to explain this view in my own way many times in my blog, and in testimonies I have given about the Word of God both locally in person, and to people I have met over the internet. I’ve profited much from reading Fr Stephen's post, Is the Bible True? and I hope you will too. Some of his approach is a little different from mine, but we both end up at the same place. These were a few of my favorite passages…

The Bible is not God’s revelation to man: Jesus Christ is God’s revelation to man. The Scriptures bear witness to Him and are thus “true” as a true witness to the God/Man Jesus Christ.

Not only does Scripture treat history as quite relative (Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, He is also the “Lamb slain from the foundations of the earth”), it in fact makes history subject to the end of things - making history simply one aspect of lived eschatology. Thus time and chronology do not govern reality - God governs reality. By the same token, Holy Scripture is a Divine account of reality, not itself explained by chronology nor subject to historical validation, but subject to the Truth as it is made known to us in Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ Himself is the Truth. This is not to say that He is the Truth as compared to some external criterion of truth, but rather that He Himself is the criterion and definition of what is true. Things are true and false only as they are compared to Him. He may be compared to nothing else.

Well, I could end up copying Fr Stephen's entire post, but I'd like you to just go to his blog and read it yourself, which you can do by clicking HERE.

Thank you, Fr Stephen, for your testimony on the Word of God.
Axios!

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