A Word on the Word
Or Why Inerrancy Sucks the Life out of Scripture
I have an essay in the works to continue our discussion of sanctification as freedom from power. But we seem to have reached the "it is okay to reject key and essential Articles of Faith" point in the Church of the Nazarene. This is especially true around our understanding of scripture. It may be helpful to explain the modern Wesleyan understanding of scripture. To do this, we will focus upon the way the Church of the Nazarene views and understands scripture in particular. How scripture is viewed and understood can either allow for a free-flowing improvisation within boundaries or a rigid path where we essentially ride on rails. If our view of scripture is rigid, there is much less chance of open and relational discussions about God and how God works in the world. Rigidity creates a closed and often dusty view of God and God’s action in the world.
What do most Wesleyans mean when they mention the authority of scripture? Wesleyans see the authority of scripture in terms of an invitation to encounter the living God through the work of the Spirit. Joel Green illuminates what this means in practical terms for Wesleyans in chapter eight of the book Square Peg, “we approach it ready to be formed truly in relation to the God whose self-communication we hear in Scripture’s drama. Scripture’s authority is thus most visible among those whose lives embody God’s address heard in and through Scripture.” The primary approach of scripture for Wesleyans then is a relational approach. As we will see in later chapters, this is also the primary approach to soteriology (salvation), sin, and the Church catholic. This matters because when we view scripture as a transformative and relational revelation of a loving God, we tend to see scripture as the beautiful and rich story of God and God’s people being formed and becoming more like God. This is in contrast to reducing scripture to a set of propositional truths which restrict the story to facts rather than transformative experience.
The Church of the Nazarene, as an example, sees scripture as inspired by God and it “inerrantly reveal[s] the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation.” The word inerrant appears in the Church of the Nazarene article of faith on Holy Scripture, but if we examine the use of inerrantly as an adverb, we see that inerrant is only describing the way the scriptures reveal anything necessary for salvation. This is in contrast to fundamentalist or total inerrancy proponents of scripture. Because we understand the scriptures to be inspired by God but written by humans, we can view scripture in its cultural, historic, and theological contexts. We can also recognize that the truth revealed in scripture is revealed in ways the humans writing could comprehend and understand. Scripture never defines itself but it gives its purpose. 2 Timothy 3:16 is a verse often used to claim inerrancy, but it only describes the purpose of scripture, not how to recognize scripture. Hebrews chapter one highlights the truth that Jesus as the logos or Word of God is the perfect reflection of God and that revelation is superior to the revelations of the prophets and others.
In a metaphor of music, the fundamentalist or inerrant understanding of scripture is more akin to classical music, in which the conductor directs the orchestra to hit the same notes in the same place every time. This is stodgy and predictable and structured. But the view of most Wesleyans is like jazz, wild and unpredictable, improvisational, flowing and changing based upon our understanding of the world and of God through the move of the Spirit. The Wesleyan view looks at the entirety of scripture through the lens of Jesus. Because Jesus is the perfect reflection of God, we understand God is never not like Jesus. In this framework, which has a center in Jesus, we can understand the difference between truth and fact.
If we approach scripture with an openness to its diversity of thought and recognize the human elements, we allow ourselves to see the beauty in the inspired writings. When we are open to recognizing the Psalms that cry out to God in accusatory or questioning language are just as valuable to building faith as those Psalms that proclaim God near and active. The writings in a multitude of genres all share a familiar theme of revealing a God who loves and desires relationship with creation. If we allow scripture to be what it is, we can drink in the beauty of what it reveals.
While John Wesley would not use the wording and understanding we do today, we would not consider him a fundamentalist, as that label would be anachronistic as well. But as Randy Maddox mentions, “Wesley interpreted the Protestant sola Scriptura [in good Anglican fashion] to mean that Scripture is the primary, rather than exclusive, Christian authority.” So while we view scripture as authoritative, it is not the exclusive authority. To best explain how this works in a practical matter, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral is a good example. Scripture is primary, but experience, tradition, and reason are also tools to understand theology and how we relate to theology.
In Joel Green's conclusion in a chapter on biblical authority in Square Peg. Green shows how approaching scripture as a transformative experience is superior to propositional approaches. This quote feels improvisational in nature. We improvise with the Holy Spirit in a transforming experience with the inspired text.
It is never enough simply to think correctly about the nature of Scripture. Instead, embracing Scripture’s authority is more about our character, God's character, and our attitudes, as we come to Scripture. We recognize Scripture’s authority when we approach it ready to be formed truly in relation to the God whose self-communication we hear in Scripture’s drama. Scripture’s authority is thus most visible among those whose lives embody God’s address heard in and through Scripture.
Do you hear the refrain of beauty? Green is describing the typically Wesleyan approach to scripture as a revelation of God worked out in community and with the Spirit. As we read and study scripture, we can be transformed as we improvise in concert with the Holy Spirit illuminating the meaning and beauty of the story of God and God's people. If we lose this focus on the purpose and nature of scripture, we risk losing the beautiful thread of trust and community present in its truth.
Why does this matter? Because in our current world, we have a uniquely relevant way of speaking about scripture. In a sea of fundamentalism, total inerrancy, and the strict following of interpretive lenses that talk about God as distant or separate from our experience of scripture, the Church of the Nazarene is different. We have a view of scripture that invites and is alive. We allow scripture to be alive with the transformative power of relationship and invitation to meet God. When we abandon our historically and consistent view of scripture as that which points us to God in invitation to reconciling relationship, we abandon a beautiful and living story of God. We have the answer many who ask "is there a better way?" when they consider the state of Christianity in the United States.
True, the popular YouTube Christian influencers hold a very different view of scripture. But that is because they are almost all firmly within a Calvinist or fundamentalist understanding of faith and theology. They are Christian, but their framework is not the same as Wesleyan-Holiness folk. It is hard to swim upstream when pastors faithfully teach the understanding of scripture in the Church of the Nazarene. But it is worth it, because we have a view that pulls out of modernisms failure to empirically deal with life. Even when we get accused of denying the authority of scripture, we can stand firm in the trust of God by confidently speaking of the authority of the one who breathes life into scripture.
Ultimately, I cannot underline why this is important better than Zac Hunt does in his beautiful book on inspiration Godbreathed;
God breathed you into existence and wants you to find your story within the story of faith that has already been told and is being told all around you. This is the calling of all godbreathed things, whether that be the written word or flesh and bone—to be godbreathed, to be filled with the Spirit of God, to be filled with love and wonder and share that love and wonder with the rest of the world just as God first shared it with us.
Be filled with the wonder of God, be God breathed people.