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Questioning the Origin and Authority of the Bible

The biggest division within and the greatest challenge facing Christianity today centers on how we view the Bible's origin and authority.

Viewed simply, Christians fall into two camps. Modernists / Liberals and Fundamentalists / Conservatives. This, in turn, frames how each of us interprets and applies Scriptural passages relating to such controversial and divisive issues as evolution, abortion, homosexual or women clergy, same-sex relationships, etc.

What do you believe with regard to the origin, authority and reliability of the Bible? I invite you to share your comments.

	Fundamentalist / Conservative	Modernist / Liberal
ORIGIN	The Bible is a divine product. God’s revelation to humanity. Its writers were guided by the Holy Spirit, directly or indirectly, so that what Scripture says ultimately came from God.	The Bible is a human product, or both divine and human. The Bible is man’s response to God. It tells us about how people living in ancient times saw things; not how God sees things.
AUTHORITY	Absolute and unchanging truth. Its truths are timeless and universal.	The Bible is a collection of ancient stories, with a good moral--but they are time-bound and culture-bound; therefore, not necessarily relevant to a postmodern society. Reason and science are tools that help us come to better know and understand God.
RELIABILITY	The inerrant (without error) word of God and the infallible (incapable of error) repository of redemptive revelation. Reliable and accurate, historically and scientifically. Is to be interpreted literally, unless the language of a particular passage is clearly metaphorical.	Writings of men living in ancient times that capture their understanding of humanity’s relationship to God. Many parts of the Bible cannot be taken literally as historical or scientific fact, such as the Genesis creation account or a literal Adam and Eve. Much of the Bible is allegory or metaphor.

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Comment by Leonard T on September 17, 2012 at 5:30am: Modernist/Liberal are left with no foundation upon which to base their salvation. If the Bible is a work of man, and not of God, then we are left with man's opinion regarding our need for a Savior, His work on our behalf, etc. There is a great difference between viewing the Bible as a Word about God and as the Word of God as you have demonstrated in the two views above. Do we believe that Jesus is the Son of God because man told us this or because God told us? Man is falible and if our hope is based on opinion instead of God we are in serious trouble.

I am a a Fundementalist/Conservative that seeks to read Scripture at face value. As I have stated elsewhere, IMO, liberalism has done more damage to Christianity over the past 100 years that anything else.

Lord Bless,

LT

Questioning the Origin and Authority of the Bible

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