![\"cartoon](\"https:\/\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/naked-pastor-300x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\ncartoon by David Hayward, (nakedpastor) http:\/\/mail.nakedpastor.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Let\u2019s talk about how our view of the God and our view of the Bible are enmeshed.<\/p>\n
Here is one example.<\/p>\n
If your dominant vision of God is of a\u00a0sovereign\u00a0king, enthroned above, who communicates to his subjects through written decrees mediated to inspired men borne along by God\u2019s spirit to insure the accuracy of the divine oracles, you will likely describe the Bible as\u00a0necessarily<\/em>: historically accurate, logically consistant, self-evidently\u00a0divine, inerrant, fully and absolutely authoritative in all it teaches.<\/p>\n Yes, certainly, people who tend toward this view also use other descriptors for God and the Bible, but the view above exhibits\u00a0functional\u00a0priority\u2014especially when doctrinal disagreements arise.<\/p>\n Data (either biblical or extra-biblical) that seem to challenge this description tend to be interpreted in such a way as to support the\u00a0description, regardless. After all,\u00a0since<\/em>\u00a0God is what he is, his word\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0be consistent with that description. Contrary \u201cdata\u201d are contrary only because humans perceive them through their sinful minds and rebellious hearts.<\/p>\n Hence, disparate historical accounts and divergent theologies\u00a0are only alleged to be so, and so are harmonized. More compliant Particularly difficult challenges are either tabled until such a time as adequate counterarguments can be mustered or marginalized by means of rhetoric. The primary task in\u00a0such cases is to defend the biblical doctrine of Scripture, which ultimately is a defense of God.<\/p>\n Having said all this, my suspicion is that this situation may actually\u00a0be reversed. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Perhaps it is not the view of God that yields the expectation of Scripture, but the theological need for a certain type of Scripture that yields\u00a0a particular view of God.<\/em><\/p>\n Ot maybe a little of both?<\/p>\n Either way,\u00a0our view of God and our view of\u00a0the\u00a0Bible go hand in hand\u2014paying attention to the one will always tell us\u00a0something about the other.<\/p>\n **An earlier version of this post appeared on my old blog in April 2012. The view expressed here eventually found\u00a0its way int0 The Bible Tells Me So<\/a><\/em>, which I began writing in earnest later that year.**<\/p>\n [Comments are monitored because some\u00a0people on the internet are just plain crazy. I mean, really. It sometimes takes me a few hours\u2014or even a day\u2014before I get to it, so please be patient.]<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"ENNS_BibleTellsMe\"](\"https:\/\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/ENNS_BibleTellsMe-300x300.jpg\")
passages of Scripture are\u00a0given priority and assigned prescriptive value for determining the \u201cnature of Scripture.\u201d Passages, such as 2 Tim 3:16,\u00a0are elevated as a super-authoritative\u00a0standard that trumps any alleged \u201cevidence\u201d to the contrary.<\/p>\n