By Dr. Ben Johnson
Will advances in our knowledge of the past be digested by the church of our day and contribute positively to its theology as well as to the life and witness of the believer?
That was the question I reflected upon in the address I gave 30 years ago when 1 was installed in the chair of Exegetical Theology at Hamma School of Theology. The gist of my comments was that the same energy then being applied to analysis of the Scriptures would need to be applied to the upbuilding of a theology which would draw out the implications of those new insights for our understanding of God, humans, the world, and the role of Scripture for this time and place.
Little did I sense that the comfortable Neo-orthodox world from which I came had already begun to ooze away – the assassination of John Kennedy, the experiments with LSD going on at my own precious Harvard University – into the quagmire of Vietnam and the counterculture, which would first entice us and then threaten to engulf us.
A New Emergence
What emerged theologically was psychological pietism on the one side and the politics of the New Left on the other. Both would have progressed more rapidly if they had not been troubled by the conservatizing influence of Scripture, tradition, and confession.
Today we can look back and sec that psychological pietism has been integrated in the American Litany, "It's not my fault." And the politics of the New Left has matured to the "politically correct" movement. We have a president who has promised to carry out the agenda of the politically correct movement, a group which already has profound influence in my ELCA church.
These two wings of popular American thought did not progress without resistance. Representatives of the traditional church, the confessional church and pietism were goaded into response. The Center for Evangelical and Catholic Theology was founded, promoting a rediscovery of the historical church as the key to faithfulness in a secular culture and a disintegrating society. Luther Seminary faculty sought a return to faithfulness by a reaffirmation of Luther's doctrine of justification by grace through faith. Pietists responded with a flurry of activity in the early 1980s, founding groups like Friends for Biblical Lutheranism, the Great Commission Network, and the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans.
Despite these responses – and ironically – the majority of Lutherans trained in the Bible fall into the "politically correct" camp. Is someone needed to argue that the clear condemnations of homosexual practice contained in Scripture either do not mean what they say or are no longer relevant? Call your local exegete. Does a commission need a scholar to argue that the early church was socialist? Call your local exegete. Would people be more comfortable if the hard sayings attributed to Jesus were in fact not uttered by him? Call the local representative of the Jesus Seminar, who will gladly make more palatable the teachings of Jesus. In one of the more ironic developments in the history of theology, biblical interpretation appears to be the enemy of biblical belief.
Bible Faith Shunted Aside
Contrary to my expectations three decades ago, that the period ahead would provide a grounds well of support for the role of the Bible in the life of the church and the believer, I found the opposite. Biblical faith has been shunted aside as naive and irrelevant. Exegetes do not stand against the triumph of the radical left. Rather, they encourage it. Where it has been slowed, the retardation has been provided by historians and theologians in the world of thoughtùnot the biblical experts – and by some of our congregations, seminaries, and bishops.
It also became increasingly clear as the '70s progressed, that reading in my field would not deepen my understanding of Scripture as a resource for the life of faith. Rather, I would have to leave the seminary and enter the life of the ordinary Christian as a parish pastor, living among the people, and sharing their faith struggles.
My 30 years' question was thus sharpened to the following: Can a person believe and preach the Bible and survive as a minister in the Lutheran Church? I am not talking about the Bible as exempted from the investigations of historians and critics, nor do I mean the Bible as a guarantor of one or a few special doctrines. And I do not mean the Bible interpreted in a world of two dispensations, where the age of miracles ceased with the death of" the last apostle.
After a return to 12 years of parish ministry, I feel incredibly blest. First, I met and learned to love some of the greatest and most genuine people I will ever know. They are the church. And they make my work and efforts, and those of the Lutheran Bible Institute, worthwhile. Second, through living among believing Christians, reading theology and preaching upon Biblical texts as called for by the lessons of the church year, I believe not only
have I survived, not only have I been blest by the people God has given us, but I have learned some important things about the Bible. These are: (1) its supernatural character, (2) its authority, and (3) its perspicuity.
The Bible's Supernatural Character
The supernatural character of the Bibleùthe fact that the book itself participates in a connectedness to God, is stated in Galatians 3:8: "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, 'In you shall all the nations be blessed.'"
This fact about the Bible, which is also confirmed by those who live with the Scriptures, teaches us that in the content of the Bible we are confronted by a living and intelligent force, a force which knows the mind of God and assists us in discerning that mind. This supernatural character is reflected not only in the central content of the gospel of justification by grace through faith, but in its very reflecting of the nature and character of God. Much as Moses' face shone after his extended period with God (Exodus 34:35), so the Scriptures shine with His presence. We cannot but be touched by God through an intimate knowledge of His Word. This supernatural character is not dependent upon theories about the Scripture's origin or manner of composition, but is revealed in the subject matter itself.
The Authority of the Bible
The authority of the Scripture is linked to the community which acknowledges it, but is not derived from that community. In acknowledging the authority of Scripture, we as a community acknowledge that the content of the Bible has a special claim upon us.
We also acknowledge three ecumenical creeds of the ancient church. The church in fact acknowledged a series of canons (or standards): a canon of faithùsummarized in the Apostles' Creed; a canon of writingsùwhat can be read publicly in the church; a canon of liturgyùan order for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. The Scriptures which could be read publicly in the church were the Old Testament and the collection of gospels and apostolic writings which came to constitute the documents of the New Covenant. These commonly numbered the same 27 books in the Eastern and Western churches by the end of the 4th century.
As Lutherans we claim that the Scriptureùamong other canons or authoritiesùis the primary canon to which we look, because it is our chief revelation of God, who is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Later the authoritative Word was reduced to the message of God's justifying act in Jesus Christ. But it is just as important for our generation to understand what it means to have a LORD as to understand what it means to have a SAVIOR.
In the face of the profoundly distorting readings of the Bible in our time, we may find that Luther's sola scriptura principle is inadequate. At least as a temporary buttress, we may wish to add (with Adolf Harnack): (1) an affirmation of the Apostles' Creed as a marvelous summary of Biblical faith, and (2) to affirm our place within the traditional church and our continuity with those who uphold the faith once delivered to the saints.
In other words, Lutherans who affirm the importance of the church as obedient carrier of the tradition, are our allies. And those who affirm strongly God's justifying act in Christ are our allies, because they affirm a God whose righteousness requires a radical act to bring us into a beneficent relationship with Him.
Our opponents – whether by ignorance or malice – are those who would stand in judgment over the Scriptures, those who would adjust the strong word of Scripture to the relativities of the neo-pagan time in which we live. They may be nice people. But faithfulness to Christ is not about civility. As the Apostle Paul says, our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness.
Put simply, the debate of our time is not about the theories of the Bible's origin, but about the content of the proclamation. The genteel enemy is the man or woman who either rejects a personal god completely, or more perversely, one who substitutes a god so distant from the biblical picture of Yahweh or Jesus Christ, as to be in serious discontinuity with the Bible.
And make no mistake, that god – loving, warm, always accepting and affirming – is the god of much of America. Santa Claus without a red suit. A god who only comes out when called upon – and then always and only to bless.
Christians who take the Bible as authority know a God who hates sin, a God who not only redeemed us, but will ultimately judge us – albeit with our advocate Jesus Christ at our side. We understand ourselves as being under that living Lord. It is fearful and exciting; and it's a life and death matter.
We therefore do not broker His image, the God to whom Scripture calls us back when we are tempted to project images of a god we would rather have, much as the children of Israel did in the wilderness with the golden calf.
The Perspicuity of the Bible
The perspicuity of the Bible is a key doctrine of the Reformation. It asserts that the meanings of the text can be clear to the ordinary reader, that God uses the text of the Bible to communicate His person and will.
Opposition to this teaching has more recently centered in linguists, some of whom believe that only those who read the Bible in its original Hebrew and Greek are fit interpreters. (An ironic position, since the words of our Lord Jesus come to us already translated from his native Aramaic. By these linguists' own standards, no one then would have access to Jesus.)
Not only is language a barrier, but is there not a 20-century gap between us and the nearest biblical texts? Currents of thought and assumptions differ from that time to ours. Hence it is argued that all but the most learned reader will inevitably misread the Scriptures.
The opposite, no doubt nourished by this elitism toward the Bible, is to treat it as 'candy for your mind" – that is, agree that the Bible can mean anything the reader finds tasty in it for himself. From such interpretation we come away rarely knowing more of the Bible, but we do learn of the struggles of faith of the interpreter. To tolerate or even encourage this kind of blurring of the line between text and interpreter is an abuse of our confidence that God will speak to us through the Bible.
A Fence for Perspicuity
This is an abuse of the Bible's perspicuity, and indicates we need to build afence around this doctrine, that is, define it more circumspectly. Thesepointscome to mind:
(1) For doctrinal purposes, the New Testament has a clear position of superiority to the Old. The Old Testament predicts, prefigures and prepares for the adventofjesus Christ, Sonof God, Savior. It is important in its affirmation of God as the Creator and ultimate redeemer of the world. But we Christians live under the new covenant, not the old.
(2) Doctrine is defined by the church as it weighs Scripture, tradition and experience. It is not reinvented every generation. Nor is it simply lifted from individual texts (the baptism for the dead of the Mormons for example). When we read the Bible as individual Christiansù-even clergy in our preparation for preaching – we are not formulating doctrine. So the Apostle Paul cautions, "If even an angel from God should preach to you another gospel from that which you received, let him be accursed."
(3) Yet the Bible is a living, active, busy thing. And it has a word to speak to anyone who opens it, or hears it read. My recent encounter withapracticing Christian illustrates this. Invited to a Christian friend's home for a college break, he was impressed by the family and their interaction. He went with them to church that Sunday and was converted. When he later told the pastor, the latter embarrassedly could not recall what the sermon was about. "Oh," the student said." You weren't preaching that day – somebody from the seminary was in the pulpit asking for money. No, it wasn't the sermon – it was the Gloria. I knew the music in Latin. But I'd never before heard the words in English."
That's the perspicuity of Scripture! It can reach out and grab you – in a lesson in church, on acard, in a hymn, in the liturgy. That doesn't make you Mr. or Mrs. orthodox Christian. You may have miles to go, rough edges to smooth. Yet as surely as Moses when he gazed upon the burning bush – you have heard the very voice of God!
Three Answers about Scripture
Thirty years ago – fresh from the benefits this world's learning has to offer, I posed questions. Today, in the midst of a neo-pagan culture, older, and hopefully wiser, 1 want to underline three answers about the Scripture, which I passionately believe are as true about the Bible today as when the first bit of B ible emerged among our Hebrew ancestors in the faith.
The Bible is supernatural. While it may not have fallen from the sky, it has the glimmer and sparkle of angel dust, and the faint rustling of angel feathers. This characteristic of the Bible alone should make anyone who has ever treated aBible disrespectfully to blush.
The Bible is authoritative. Church doctrine ought to be measured in relation to it. A church or believer who listens to it will find a consistent rootage in God's will which sustains through tumultuous times. Abandoning itùor cavalierly standing in judgment over it – makes one vulnerable to relativism.
The Bible is perspicuous. It is a treasure to the believer. God gave it to the church, the whole church. Both wise and simple women and men’ yes, and children, will continue to find Him in its pages.
* Dr. Johnson is Dean of the Faculty of Lutheran Bible Institute in California. Holding a doctorate from Harvard University, he served as Dean of the Faculty at Hamma School of Theology, New Testament professor at Trinity Seminary, and as the hugely successful pastor of Salem Church in St. Cloud, MN. These abridged remarks are from his inaugural installation address at LBIC.