Tough Questions Without Definitive Answers
Matthew Stickel
Colorado Christian University
In 2 Timothy, Paul writes to his dear friend and student, Timothy, and encourages him to continue practicing and believing all that he has learned from "the sacred writings" (2 Tim. 3:15, ESV). Paul further elaborates that Timothy has known and studied these writings since he was a mere child. The sacred writings that Paul refers to are also "able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 3:15). Marvin Vincent (2009), a professor of sacred literature, writes that the original Greek that is interpreted "to make you wise" means "[to] give thee understanding of that which lies behind the letter; to enable thee to detect in the O.T. books various hidden allusions to Christ" (p. 316). Paul finally concludes his imperative to Timothy by establishing that, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17, ESV).
In but a few verses in his second epistle to Timothy, the Apostle Paul has established that the Bible is "the only rule of faith and obedience" (Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, 2004), able to make wise the foolish through faith in Christ Jesus, and able to be read and known by mere children. That the redemptive story of Jesus Christ contained within the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is able to be known, studied, understood, and practiced through faith by all who read it (adult or child) is a characteristic of the Scriptures referred to as their perspicuity. Paul makes it very clear that Scriptures can be understood by babes, and that all of it is profitable for teaching, reproof, and correction so that Christians may be competent of our faith and for our walk of obedience.
However, this is not to say that everything contained in the Scriptures is easily comprehended and fathomable. For example, the Scriptures contain numerous allusions to the triune God, existing as one God with three equal, immutable, perfect persons in the Godhead. This is a hard concept for Christians to wrap our heads around, but nonetheless, we know these things to be true because they are revealed to us in Scripture, and not because our intellect and intelligence can fully comprehend them. It is a matter of faith, and faith, being the work of the Holy Spirit within Christians, is a prerequisite for any person to believe, understand, and comprehend the glorious revelation of God made evident to us through the Word. Johannes Vos (2002), a chair of the Bible department at Geneva College for 19 years, articulates that "the Word of God does not have any inherent power of its own, apart from the inward work of the Holy Spirit in a person's heart, to accomplish anything toward a person's salvation" (p. 436). Therefore, the Scripture's perspicuity depends not on man's level of intelligence, but upon God's work of revelation through the indwelling of His Spirit within us.
An understanding and an appreciation for the perspicuity of Scripture is of the utmost importance in order to establish that "there is no body of men who are either qualified, or authorized, to interpret the Scriptures, or to apply their principles to the decision of particular questions, in a sense binding upon the faith of their fellow Christians" (Hodge, 1999, p. 86). In other words, the church is neither qualified or authorized to interpret Scripture to fit their whims and to bind Christians to follow their own interpretation of Scripture rather than Scripture's own interpretation of itself.
The Emergent Church takes a different approach to the Bible, however. Rob Bell (2005), the pastor of a large Emergent church in Michigan, argues that the stance on "Scripture alone" cannot guide our interpretation and understanding of the principles contained therein because the Bible did not just drop out of the sky, but "we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is" (pp. 67-68). John Calvin (1989), the 16th century reformer, uses Eph. 2:20 to argue for Scripture establishing the Church rather than the other way around when he states that, "If the doctrine of the apostles and prophets is the foundation of the Church, the former must have had its certainty before the latter began to exist" (p. 69). The Emergent Church, much like the Roman Catholic church of Calvin's day, dismisses the Bible as the only perspicuitous rule for faith and obedience, and places its interpretation under the authority of the church. Bell concludes that interpreting what the Bible teaches must be approached in a communal manner rather than having a pastor stand in front of a congregation and preach and teach them what appears to be his own interpretation. The church, Bell argues, is a community and interpreting and understanding what the Bible teaches is dependent on the whole spirit-guided community of the church to lead the discussion. In his own words, Bell expresses his view of Biblical interpretation as "God has spoken, and the rest is commentary" (p. 87).
Central to the Emergent Church's approach to practicing the Christian faith is the art of questioning God (Bell, 2005). As Bell puts it, "The Christian faith is mysterious to the core" (p. 32) and "[the] mystery is the truth" (p. 33). Bell compares seeking definitive answers about our infinite God to swimming to the bottom of a bottom-less pool. "Because truth is insight into God and God is infinite and God has no boundaries or edges" (p. 33), finding some truth about our infinite God leads us to search for more truth, and therefore, more mystery and uncertainty. Thus, Bell clearly summarizes the postmodern approach of the Emergent Church, and their stance on the unknowability of mysteriousless truth. By the observation of John Bohannon (2010), an instructor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, "Mystery is allowed to belittle, if not replace, the 'What is truth?' question for postmodern preaching—pretentiously leaving it unanswered, at least in part, if not in whole" (p. 73).
By rejecting "Scripture alone", the Emergent Church rejects Scripture's perspicuity and its ability to interpret itself. Without the perspicuous Scripture's ability to interpret itself, the commentary depends on the discussion and decisions of the church. The postmodern church, however, views truth and mystery almost synonomously, practically stating that the best way you can answer the question is by asking more questions. With this approach, the Emergent Church's ability to interpret and understand Scripture with any sense of certainty is amorphous and devoid of any real form. If the mystery of the Christian faith is truth, as the Emergent Church proposes, then the truth of the Christian faith is a mystery. However, Luke, seems to write to Theophilus so that he "may have certainty concerning the things [he has] been taught" (Luke 1:4). Likewise, the Apostle Paul warns the Galatians to discern the teaching of others. In harsh and damning language, Paul tells the Galatians that should any man (even an angel) preach to them a contrary gospel, to let that person be accursed (Gal. 1:8). This seems like a ruthless punishment for misleading believers in a mysterious truth.
The problem with the Emergent Church is not the fact that they want to question every Christian doctrine and dogma, but that they want to answer their questions by rejecting the Bible's authority and place their postmodern intellects in its place. The questions are not the problem, but the uncertain and vacuous answers are. As Travis Barbour and Nicholas Toews (2010), graduate students of Columbia Bible College, state, "The conversation that defines the Emergent Church will be reduced to mere jabbering, and it will have rejected the monologue of modernity without being able to offer a viable alternative" (p. 38).
References:
Barbour, T. I., & Toews, N. E. (2010). The Emergent Church: A methodological critique. Direction , 32-40.
Bell, R. (2005). Velvet Elvis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Bohannon, J. (2010). Preaching and the Emergent Church -- An examination of four founding leaders: Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, and Doug Pagitt. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from The Resurgence: http://theresurgence.com/files/pdfs/6x9-Full-Online-Ebook.pdf
Calvin, J. (1989). Institutes of the Christian religion. Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Hodge, A. (1999). Outlines of theology. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust.
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. (2004). The Westminster larger catechism. In The Constitution of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (pp. B-1). Pittsburgh: Crown and Covenant.
Vincent, M. (2009). Vincent's word studies in the New Testament, Vol. 4. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
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