Scripture and the Global Methodist Church
Over the last year Firebrand has published a few articles debating the topic of inerrancy, particularly with regard to the position of the Global Methodist Church. This debate began, quite unintentionally, with a piece by David Watson comparing the positions of William J. Abraham and I. Howard Marshall. In the wake of this publication, Tom McCall and Watson published a friendly back-and-forth on inerrancy (see here, here, and here). More recently, Kenneth Collins offered a piece asserting that inerrancy is an exclusionary doctrine, and Murray Vasser published a response to Prof. Collins. We are grateful for the healthy conversation. Honest debate helps us to advance intellectually.
Debates about inerrancy and infallibility, however, can become semantic arguments. There are various conceptions of both of these terms. When we have these debates, we are trying to describe the nature and function of Scripture, and so we use terms like these as shorthand ways of describing whole sets of related affirmations about what the Bible is and what it does. The shorthand descriptions, however, sometimes result in our talking past one another.
We believe that the parties involved in these debates have far more in common than they have differences from one another, and that the differences, such as they are, are manageable within the structure of a single denomination. The point of this essay, then, is to identify affirmations we believe the parties involved can generally agree upon moving forward, and to emphasize unity over dissension.
The GMC’s Doctrinal Standards
The Global Methodist Church has within its current Doctrinal Standards a few statements on Scripture:
From the Articles of Religion:
Article V—Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation:
The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the church. The names of the canonical books are:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, The First Book of Samuel, The Second Book of Samuel, The First Book of Kings, The Second Book of Kings, The First Book of Chronicles, The Second Book of Chronicles, The Book of Ezra, The Book of Nehemiah, The Book of Esther, The Book of Job, The Psalms, The Proverbs, Ecclesiastes or the Preacher, Cantica or Songs of Solomon, Four Prophets the Greater, Twelve Prophets the Less.
All the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical.
Article VI—Of the Old Testament:
The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and Man. Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses as touching ceremonies and rites doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts thereof of necessity be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.
From the Confession of Faith:
Article IV—The Holy Bible:
We believe the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, reveals the Word of God so far as it is necessary for our salvation. It is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice. Whatever is not revealed in or established by the Holy Scriptures is not to be made an article of faith nor is it to be taught as essential to salvation.
Supplemental Teaching on Scripture
We affirm these statements. As the GMC continues to develop as a community of faith, its laity and clergy may benefit from teaching documents (distinct from Doctrinal Standards) that clarify certain aspects of the nature and function of Scripture. Such teaching documents may help to maintain unity within the denomination moving forward. We hope to strike the balance of describing Scripture in ways that are helpfully specific but not divisive or unnecessarily restrictive. Moreover, our intention is to offer a set of affirmations that can unify us in our love for God’s Word. In that spirit, we offer the following statements on the nature and function of Scripture, along with means of fruitful engagement with it.
What is the Bible?
The Bible is Holy Scripture. It is Holy Writ because it comes from the Triune God who is holy, and its purpose is to lead us to the God who is Triune and to make us holy. In accordance with the perfect will of the Father, the Holy Spirit inspires and authorizes the Bible as the written Word of God that bears witness to Jesus Christ who, as the Living Word incarnate, is the center of the Scripture.The Bible is Holy Scripture, and thus we should recognize and appreciate the canonical unity of the Bible. Because it comes from the perfectly unified action of the Triune God, it has an inner coherence, overarching message, and consistent goal: the salvation and sanctification of wayward and wretched sinners.
Jesus Christ is the unity of the Bible, for “in him all things hold together” (Col 1:17). He is the ultimate fulfillment of divine promises in the Old Testament, he is the central figure of the Gospels, and he is the focal point of the New Testament. The Bible testifies to him (John 5:39-40), and scriptural interpretation that is truly Christian recognizes and celebrates this reality.
The Bible is Holy Scripture. It is a diverse collection of literary works produced by a wide range of human authors under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The historical character of the Bible as God’s written Word bears witness to divine action in human history, divine action that culminates in Christ and in his body, the church, of which he is the head (Eph. 1:22; 5:23; Col. 1:18).
The Bible is Holy Scripture, and thus we are to understand that it reflects the unique contexts and capacities of the human authors. Accordingly, the diversity of the Bible is not to be ignored, denied, or downplayed; instead it is to be seen as a witness to the patient work and unfolding revelation of God in human history.
What is the function of the Bible?
God works powerfully through the Bible in many and varied ways, and by this work the Triune God brings about the salvation and sanctification of human sinners. Through Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit works to transform and sanctify God’s people by bringing them into union with Jesus Christ who is, as the Living Word incarnate, the center of Scripture.The Word of God is “living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12). In and through the Bible, the Holy Spirit works in an astoundingly wide range of ways: speaking and revealing; warning and cautioning; teaching and leading; exposing and convicting; encouraging and healing; cleansing and purifying; comforting and consoling.
As an instrument in God’s hands, the Bible tells us the truth about ourselves and our world—and ultimately about the holy Triune God and life with God. It judges our sins and calls us to account. It warns of the consequences of rejecting God, and it exhorts us to turn from our sins and toward God. It disciplines God’s children and encourages us to receive that discipline as an act of love. It announces the good news of God’s justifying grace to helpless and despairing sinners. It is a means by which the Holy Spirit sanctifies, cleanses, and transforms sinners into saints. It instructs believers in matters of personal morality and social ethics. It carries divine comfort to God’s people in times of sorrow, grief, fear, and pain. It conveys great and precious promises from God for the people of God.
What should we do with the Bible?
We should receive the Bible with reverent and respectful joy as a gift from the Triune God; it is the ‘God-breathed’ written Word, the Spirit-guided witness to the Living and Incarnate Word.Our attitude should be that of the Psalmist who says that the Word of God is to be desired “more than gold” and relishes it as “sweeter also than honey” (Ps 19:10). The Bible is never to be worshiped as divine. To treat it as a magic book is to misunderstand it and mistake it for the Triune God who is active in and through it and to whom it bears such eloquent and powerful witness. Instead, Holy Scripture is to be received with gratitude to the God of whom it speaks.
We should read and hear the Bible. In academic study, personal devotion, and public readings, we should expectantly hear and earnestly heed the Word of the Lord.
We should proclaim the “whole counsel of God.” With full confidence in the prevenience and power of divine agency, we should not hesitate to preach and teach the Bible, and in humble reliance on the work of the Holy Spirit we should be bold to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the “power of God to salvation” (Rom 1:16).
We should gratefully employ the historical and philological tools that help us better understand the background, context, and message of the Bible. For while there is a beautiful simplicity to the basic message that can be understood by all, nonetheless there are depths of meaning that historical-contextual, literary, and philological scholarship can help uncover. Moreover, such scholarship is vitally important in helping us to avoid misreading the Bible by interpreting it with assumptions that were foreign to its authors—as if it were a clumsy exercise in modern historiography or a crude textbook in the natural sciences.
At the same time, we should affirm and develop interpretations of the Bible that affirm that Christ is both the center and goal of the Bible. We should pursue and promote the theological interpretation of Scripture; we should read and hear the Bible as revelation from God and about God that also leads to God. Moreover, we should promote theological interpretation that is canonical, creedal, and confessional.
We should believe and affirm the truth claims made in Holy Scripture. Of course there is much more to the Bible than a series of propositional truth claims, but there is not less than this. We believe that the Triune God who gave us the Bible is omniscient, completely truthful, and always faithful. We should accept and affirm that all that the Bible claims to be true indeed is true.
We should submit to the authority of Holy Scripture, and we should obey the commands of God contained therein. The Triune God of holy love who gave us this book wants what is best for us and truly knows what we need. If we submit to God, then we should submit to the judgments of the Word of God.
We should heed the warnings that are given to us in Holy Writ, and we should receive the discipline and reproof that comes to us in the pages of Scripture. Indeed, we should do so with gratitude and gladness of heart, remembering that “the Lord disciplines those whom he loves” (Heb 12:6).
We should join its prayers and take our place in the chorus of worship that we find there. Indeed, we should let the prayers of the Bible teach us how to pray; for in Scripture we find not only adoring praise but also desperate supplication and heartbroken lament.
We should cherish the “great and precious promises” of God that are conveyed in Holy Scripture, for there we are encouraged that “through them” we may “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). Praise be to God!
Finally, we are aware that there are disagreements among us with respect to issues of higher-resolution detail. We are not surprised by this, and we do not think it should threaten earnest and sincere commitments to the theses above. We need to have room for further discussion—and indeed space for ongoing disagreement—about such matters as, say, the proper definition of inspiration, and the usefulness and propriety of terms like inerrancy and infallibility. But we can have such discussions and debates within the context of a significant core of shared commitments. Our sincere hope is that the theses outlined here can help to unite us in our love for Scripture, for Jesus Christ to whom it bears witness, and for all the saints whom the Holy Spirit has united to him. We invite you to join us.
Thomas H. McCall holds the Timothy C. and Julie M. Tennent Chair of Theology at Asbury Theological Seminary. He serves on Firebrand’s Editorial Board.
Jason E. Vickers is the William J. Abraham Chair in Theology and Wesleyan Studies at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He serves on Firebrand’s Editorial Board.
David F. Watson is Lead Editor of Firebrand. He serves as Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary.