There are certain approaches to the Scriptures today that are subtly undermining the authority of God’s Word. I’ll focus on 2 of them here…
1) Science is the first area used to subtly undermine God’s Word. I love science. I am a graduate engineer. We have the history of the church being so literalistic, that they thought the “four corners of the earth” meant the earth had to be flat! When in reality of course this is just a figure of speech that has nothing to do with the science of the earth being round! However, when science is raised to a level of authority completely above God’s Word, problems emerge. For instance, a very popular music group, Gungor, a Dove Award winner, recently came out that they believed the story of Noah was mythical and totally figurative, and did not happen as such. And, that Jesus was mistaken about His references to Noah. Or worse, lied about it to make it relevant to the Jews. And that this is all true due to science saying it was an impossible event. Ugh! That is bad science! Science does not dictate what God can or cannot do! On top of all that, good science realizes the fossil record supports the flood!
While Gungor still affirms the important points of the divinity of Christ, His redemption accomplished on the cross etc., to me, if you are going to treat the Bible in this low way, and elevate all “science” above God’s Word, then it’s a just a matter of time before you deny or change something more important! Very dangerous. Very subtle. Very devil.
2) The second area I call “red letter” theology. It goes like this. Jesus is the supreme revelation of who God is. (Hebrews 1.3. To this we agree.) Then they take the words of Jesus and apply them to the Old Testament in an arbitrary way. Actually in a humanistic way that minimizes the deep problems of sin in the human heart and in our world. For instance, Jesus’s love of children is juxtaposed against the OT texts where God had Israel destroy an entire enemy nation. This was in the OT of course, and was prior to Christ, but the historical story is true. “Red letter” theology would say this story is NOT true. The values espoused by Jesus in the NT are used arbitrarily and in a soft, humanistic way against other passages of Scripture. That Jesus is kind and He could have never killed anyone! I’m sorry, Jesus is the Lamb of God, but He is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah! He redeems, but He also judges! Just read Revelation 19. Thank God for His love and kindness! But at the same time a realization that God will judge sin is just plain healthy!
So, let’s continue to honor God’s Word, and not undermine it with either science or humanism!
We live by God’s Word! It’s our spiritual food! (Matthew 4.4) Let’s be careful to not allow our food to be contaminated, spoiled or poisoned!