Seems I stepped on some toes by calling people idolaters - those who are particularly fond of their Bibles. All I can say is, if the shoe don't fit, don't wear it! One of my readers even quoted a famous Archbishop of Canterbury:
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"If there were any word of God beside the Scripture, we could never be certain of God's word; and if we be uncertain of God's word, the devil might bring in among us a new word, a new doctrine, a new faith, a new church, a new god, yea himself to be a god. If the Church and the Christian faith did not stay itself upon the Word of God certain, as upon a sure and strong foundation, no man could know whether he had a right faith, and whether he were in the true Church of Christ, or in the synagogue of Satan."
-- Archbishop Thomas Cranmer 1489-1586
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With my knowledge of church history, theology, and hermeneutics being quite limited, it would be difficult for me to take issue with the Rev. Mr. Cranmer. As a Baptist growing up, I was taught, and still believe in, the priesthood of every believer. I also believe that a person's faith is a very personal matter. I also believe that God continues to speak, to reveal, to lead those whose hearts and minds are tuned to his. To limit God's revelation to the words printed in any book seems to make a very small god of The Deity who creates, redeems, and sustains us. To quote another wise blogger:
"...the key to Anglicanism as via media as I understand it. We have few guarantees and lots of approximations. We must live more by faith and not overly by sight. Absolute certainty alludes us on so many things and we must live with a certain degree of existential angst, which is mete and right and proper in my estimation, for certainty makes a claim that we have arrived, that we've gotten God all sewn up, so all is safe, secure, and comfortable. The Kingdom of Heaven, however, is not so easily tamed or contained."
So for those of you who are so in love with the tree that you can't yet appreciate the whole forest, I pray that you will continue to study the tree until your vision can behold the beauty of the woods in which it lives.
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"If there were any word of God beside the Scripture, we could never be certain of God's word; and if we be uncertain of God's word, the devil might bring in among us a new word, a new doctrine, a new faith, a new church, a new god, yea himself to be a god. If the Church and the Christian faith did not stay itself upon the Word of God certain, as upon a sure and strong foundation, no man could know whether he had a right faith, and whether he were in the true Church of Christ, or in the synagogue of Satan."
-- Archbishop Thomas Cranmer 1489-1586
.
With my knowledge of church history, theology, and hermeneutics being quite limited, it would be difficult for me to take issue with the Rev. Mr. Cranmer. As a Baptist growing up, I was taught, and still believe in, the priesthood of every believer. I also believe that a person's faith is a very personal matter. I also believe that God continues to speak, to reveal, to lead those whose hearts and minds are tuned to his. To limit God's revelation to the words printed in any book seems to make a very small god of The Deity who creates, redeems, and sustains us. To quote another wise blogger:
"...the key to Anglicanism as via media as I understand it. We have few guarantees and lots of approximations. We must live more by faith and not overly by sight. Absolute certainty alludes us on so many things and we must live with a certain degree of existential angst, which is mete and right and proper in my estimation, for certainty makes a claim that we have arrived, that we've gotten God all sewn up, so all is safe, secure, and comfortable. The Kingdom of Heaven, however, is not so easily tamed or contained."
So for those of you who are so in love with the tree that you can't yet appreciate the whole forest, I pray that you will continue to study the tree until your vision can behold the beauty of the woods in which it lives.
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