Five Points on the Relationship Between the Bible and the Church

from Stand Firm by Matt Kennedy 

I wrote up these five points in the heat of a facebook discussion with my friend Fr. Jonathan regarding the relationship between the Bible and the Church. If you have facebook, you can read the thread here. I thought the 5 points might stir up a good exchange on Stand Firm as well...so read them and have at it.

1. The Bible is God's revelation to human beings who, using common hermeneutical techniques--the sort used with any work of literature, can understand its meaning.

2. The bible interprets the bible: What is difficult to understand in one passage will be made plain elsewhere. It is a unified whole without contradiction or error. So when passages like James 2 and Romans 3 for example are said to be in "conflict", it is the reader who is confused not James or Paul.

3. The Church has been given teachers and preachers to explain and exposit the Word of God and to help formulate doctrine...but all visible churches (as defined by Article 19) though they seek to proclaim the "pure word of God" have and will err with regard to matters that are not dealt with explicitly in scripture (whether babies are to be baptized for example) or that, through our own sinfulness, remain obscure (the meaning of the first several verses of Genesis 6 for example).

4. The Church has the authority to rule on these "disputable" matters but that authority does not imply infallibility. It is given so that all things will be done decently and in order, because the Church is not a democracy but part of a Kingdom with a King who has appointed pastors and teachers.

5. The Church is the expositor of scripture and does seek to explain and understand its meaning but she is not the sole "mediator" of scripture. It is entirely possible for an individual who knows how to read and understand what he reads, to read the bible and understand it apart from the teaching and instruction of the Church. The Bible is God's Word given to communicate his truth. What God sets out to do, in this case reveal and communicate to human beings, he does.

I probably won't be jumping into defend the points too much here since I've already done that quite a bit on facebook and I'm overloaded with work but I'll be writing more on this topic on Stand Firm later.