Miscellaneous Topics from Pastor Scott

Here’s an interesting article by Stan Ingersol from the official Church of the Nazarene website called “Strange Bedfellows The Nazarenes and Fundamentalism“  It’s not an especially easy read, after all it was written for publication in a Theological Journal.

In it Ingersol deals with the history of the Fundamentalist movement in the U.S. and how Nazarene and other Wesleyan theologians have responded to it.   If you want to get to the more current history just skip to the last third of the article.

There’s mention of the development of the famous 1928 Nazarene statement on Scripture in which the integrity of Scripture is affirmed even while the denomination pivots away from a more extreme point of view.  Ingersol writes: “the revised Nazarene article on Scripture in 1928 emphasized the church’s confession that Scripture is a reliable and trustworthy witness to salvation, while avoiding fundamentalism’s more extreme emphasis.”

There’s more with comments on topics like Creation Science and women in the ministry.  The article concludes:

The Church of the Nazarene formed in the century in which fundamentalism took shape as a movement. Both have grown up together. At times Nazarenes have even chosen to be bedfellows to fundamentalism. But the Nazarenes were the product of a very different set of theological ideas; their spiritual life the expression of a different essential quality. If they are wise, those are truths they will never forget.

Again, this isn’t a light read for most of us.  Still, in a time when individuals and groups are seeking to rewrite the history and theology of the church I think it’s telling that this article is posted on the official denominational website.

Many years ago, when I had my first computer, I ordered a Bible program called the Online Bible.  The funny thing is that it wasn’t “online” at all.  Of course, in the late 1980’s the term didn’t have anything to do with the Internet.  I ordered the program and a week or so later I received a box of 3.5″ diskettes.  I copied them onto my “massive” 20 megabyte (no, it’s not a typo) hard drive.  What a thrill it was to have the Bible on my computer.  My trusty Bible Concordance was placed on a forgotten corner of my book shelf and I could now do amazing searches of the Bible.  I know there are many good Bible programs out there today, but I’ve stayed with the Online Bible through the years.   I have it on my computer at home and also on my PDA. These days the Online Bible folks explain that the name doesn’t mean that their Bible is actually “online” although the program is actually, of course, available for download “online.”  However, some folks just go to the Biblegateway website and do their Bible searching online for real.   It’s interesting to me that the Online Bible started before anything was actually “online” but that now, there are several real “online” Bible websites that most folks just take for granted.  We’re on an interesting journey through technology even in our access to that old Book.

For years now I’ve watched from the sidelines as some church groups have fought the so called “Battle for the Bible.”  I say I’ve watched from the sidelines because I’m a part of the Church of the Nazarene and Nazarenes, from the beginning, refuse to enter into the fray.  Our founders arrived at the wise stance that the Holy Scriptures are inspired and inerrantly reveal “the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation.”  By making this one of our Articles of Faith it removed us from the endless debates about whether thus and so “really happened.”

Still, I can’t claim that we aren’t impacted by the issue.  Some of our folks get their theology as much from Christian radio and TV as they do from their local church.  Since we do “believe the Bible” arguments framed as “do you or don’t you?” cause us to unknowingly drift into the raging waters of this debate.

We Nazarenes have a Wesleyan view of Scripture.  That means, as our forefathers stated, we believe the Bible has been given to us for the purpose of revealing God’s will concerning our salvation.  Some folks read the story of Jonah and the big fish and think they have to prove Jonah really was swallowed by such a fish or the whole Bible is placed in doubt.  A Nazarene reads it and asks, “What does this tell us about God and his redeeming grace?”  The big fish may or may not have existed (personally, I’m on the “did exist” side), we’re free to believe however we conclude.  It’s what this story tells us about God and salvation that matters.  That, for us, is the inerrant part.

For some folks “believing the Bible” is about proving whatever they think the Bible is saying is factual.  To them, it’s a science-history-math-theology book.  For Wesleyans, it’s a book about God and man and salvation.  We believe everything it says is about that is hard fact, inerrantly pointing us to God and his redemptive purposes for us.

Both sides in the so called ‘Battle for the Bible’ believe that the Bible is a book of divine revelation. It tells us about God and his view of us and his intentions for us. Because we agree on this, both sides can rightly call it ‘God’s Word.’

The difference has to do with the nature of that revelation. One side says ‘God wrote it’ and the other side says, ‘God inspired men to write it.’ If God wrote it (or dictated it, etc.) Word for Word then nothing needs to be translated into current culture.

If God inspired men to write it, and they revealed God to us through the lens of their own culture and world view, then throwing around a few proof texts won’t work. Instead, we have to get to the root meaning of the passages.

Therefore, when one person reads about slavery, for instance, they might say, ‘Well there you have it — Paul wrote about slavery and didn’t out and out condemn it so it must be okay.’

Others read it and say, ‘Humm, Paul wrote about slavery but didn’t out and out condemn it? I wonder why he did that and what principles there are that can be applied to my life today?’ Out of that reading may come a conclusion that, for instance, sometimes Christians must focus on bringing people to Christ and not run off to solve every problem of society. Or maybe, we Christians can depend on the transforming power of Christ to change the wrongs in society, so we must concentrate on simply serving him and trust him to right the wrongs of our society.

I have been reading The Message for my daily Bible reading this year. Eugene Peterson brings a fresh perspective to Scripture and I recommend it for devotional reading.

A hidden gem in this work is Peterson’s introductions to books and other sections of the Bible. He catches my attention in nearly every one.

I have just read his “Introduction to the History Books” of the Bible. Peterson points out that we often view history from an economic or political or some other point of view. For the Hebrews, every bit of history was about God and how He worked through the events of that day.

That got me to thinking about how even we Christians generally miss the boat. We talk about current events, even historical ones, as though these things are totally separate from our faith. If we would think more like the Hebrews we would spend more time deciding how we, as God’s people, ought to respond to things like terrorism threats, or hurricanes, or elections. God isn’t some “secret power” behind these things. He has given us free will and won’t compromise that even to stop people from doing bad things — and, Jesus made it clear that it “rains on the just and the unjust — sometimes hurricanes just happen.

However, God is definitely at work in and through history making events.

Where are His people in all this? Are we just watching the news or are we seeking a response that puts us in harmony with a God who is never just a bystander in history?