I Take No Delight In Your Solemn Assemblies

One of the contemporary defining points of Evangelicals is their view that the Bible is authoritative. At least that's what they say. Most Evangelicals will describe the Bible as the only infallible authoritative word of God. In fact, that's how the National Association of Evangelicals would describe it. (If you check out the link, note the capital W in "Word"- does that seem, blasphemous to you too?) How you arrive at that point scripturally, or how you even arrive at the Bible itself scripturally isn't clear. A strange situation, especially if you declare that the Bible is your supreme authority. No wait, not declare- decide- no that won't do either. Adhere to the authority of ecumenical consensus and agree the Bible is as it is? No? Accept the precedent of tradition? No no wait we can't do that. Assume it's a given? It's a mystery of the Church? Just take it and like it?

Aside: Am I treating this too lightly- is it not as silly a conception as it seems?

I happen to believe the Bible is authoritative but I can't agree to this tenet that finds itself at the top of so many statements of faith. The funny thing is, I reject this "given" because I do happen to believe the things I read in the Bible, things like: Jesus is the Word and he has sent his Spirit to teach us, and that he is present among us when we gather together in His name, we're His body. Weird.

It seems a large number of people who claim otherwise don't believe those things. I don't know what that means exactly so if it sounds very self-righteous... oh well.

There is some practical silliness that arrives from this starting point. I experienced some of that silliness at camp. The speaker was a public high school coach that also taught Life Science. He was a horrible camp speaker. He read directly from a power point presentation he gave- long paragraphs in little font on a projector. He spoke on "Evilution" or as he liked to call it "Satan's Evangelism." He gave a lot of quotes, explained how Darwin's theory on the origin of species has led to everything that is bad in modernity and then finished off the week with an altar call. I've had to sit through a number of camp/chapel/crusade type event speakers and this one was pretty lame. I think the whole evolution versus creation debate is pretty lame. It seems so much like a petty playground argument that has no bearing on what really matters. Anyway, you know how many kids made decisions for Christ because of that speaker? You know how many kids were convinced the Bible is true ergo they should make the perfectly reasonable decision to "become" a Christian because of the "scientific" evidence he laid out? You know how many kids made a decision for Christ because of any speaker? None. That's not how it works.

Kids didn't go forward that last night. I think that's a good thing. I've never been very comfortable with "altar calls" but a lot of kids did take the opportunity at other times to share what they thought God was doing with them. It wasn't because of the speaker; it wasn't because of the brilliant, good looking, counselors, or a special sacredness of the mountain, or the sleep deprivation, or the mood setting music and lighting. It happened because we were in the Word- not the Bible- we were living as the Body of Christ. Just a little bit.

I think the road that starts from the "The Bible is the only infallible, inspired, blah blah blah" point leads to places we don't want to be. It leads us away from what the Bible really is and away from a church life we are supposed to have. I think it leads us away from belief in God's Holy Spirit and into discussions about rabbits chewing cud or bats being birds. It gives the impression that the goings on inside a camp chapel are more important or more real than the life that occurs with and among believers as they become a part of the testimony that scripture is. There's more to say about that but my wife is rushing me so she can read her celebrity gossip. (She'll say she wants to check her email).