On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 18:16:19 +1000, Greg Crawford wrote:
>We live in a multicultural community and that should raise some questions for >us. Some time ago I hosted a Muslim-Christian dialogue and our Muslim guests >eventually got around to inviting us to accept that the Koran was the infallible >word of God. Such a stance surely invites us to question the process by which >any human writings are elevated to such status and the validity of same. That >process is more open to us through Biblical scholarship which gives an >appreciation of the process and dilemma of making such claims about any body of >writings. To the Muslim - bar some 'liberals' - the Koran is much more than holy scripture. It is the direct message from God, and Mohammad, the human messenger. To a Christian it is Christ that is the 'direct message' from God [being God incarnate], and it is the Bible that delivers the message. Just as we believe that Christ was 'fully God & fully human' so IMHO we need to view the Bible from both those angles, divine and human - which is quite different from the way Muslims view the Koran. Because we don't believe that God dictated the Bible to scribes, but rather, that its authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit, bibliolatry is inappropriate. Instead, we should be asking, 'What is God saying to me/us through this passage?' As I understand it, that's what paragraph 5 of the Basis of Union is about. I do agree that there's a problem with the 'Protestant principle of Sola Scriptura', but I don't agree that 'we ... have to elevate the communities and councils who determined the canon to a status alongside the material they passed on' - the Catholic position - as it is God, and not Man, that we're meant to be listening to. And that takes prayer and meditation, including much corporate Spirit-led prayer. It also takes repentance and the willingness to submit to the Lordship of Christ. By the way, 'You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. ' John 5: 39-40 ... are the verses that changed my attitude to the Bible, and through which I was converted after more than ten years of daily Bible reading. [ Obviously a hard case!] Anyway, that's one layperson's view of the issues Greg raised. Shalom/Salaam, Sue Sue Bolton Sydney, Australia ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
