The reading from the Hebrew Scriptures in this coming Sunday's lectionary is from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy seems to suggest that one of the reasons God continues to send prophets after Moses is because the people of God say "If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die." (Deut. 18:16b) That people cannot see and know God directly and absolutely seems to be a theme throughout Scripture. Another example is from I John 4: 12 "No one has ever seen God . . ." and a little later at I John 4:20b ". . .for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen."
The reading in Deuteronomy suggests that we continue to need prophets because we cannot see God or fully know God's Word in a direct way. I believe this is a caution against bibliolatry--making an idol or substitute for God out of the Bible. Why, after all, did the people of God need prophets when they presumably had God's word in the form of the Torah, the law, delivered in writing from Moses (this, of course, ignores the fact that scholars no longer think Moses was the source of that part of the Bible we know as the "five books of Moses.")
This raises another point--"God's word" is no where in the Bible identified with the sixty-six books that we Protestants call the Bible. For Christians the supreme prophet, the very Word of God (see the prologue to John's Gospel), was revealed to us in God's incarnation in Jesus the Christ. Even so, we continue to need prophets to remind us of God's revelation in Jesus, and to continue to reveal to us the word that God is still speaking us today. (I hadn't planned to refer to the United Church of Christ's new slogan, "God is Still Speaking"--but it is an excellent statement.)
For those who believe in Bibliolatry what I am saying here is heresy--and yet I believe the Bible itself tells us that God has more to reveal to us than is contained in those sixty-six books of the Protestant canon of Scripture.
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1 comment:
Great post!
There's always questions that rise up on both sides.
I agree with you that the Bible isn't all of the revelation of God. I believe that is attributed to Jesus. It's obvious there that is a lot in the gospels regarding the life of Jesus so that is a good thing, we should be careful students of the Book.
There is a danger though of people just coming up with whatever they want theologically and then saying that the Bible isn't all there is. That's why the life of Jesus is important to me, to help interpret the Scriptures. He said that he was the fulfillment of Torah, which meant A LOT to the people who heard it. I think we should have a more Christological lense when interpreting.
At the same time, you read Acts 15 and read when the Jewish believers where trying to figure out what to do with all of the Gentile believers coming to faith in regards of the law that they only decided on 4 things to impose on them (which were more universial truths to a Jew than just plainly specific to their laws). I like when James says, "It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us..." I mean that really says a lot in regards to your post. You mean the Scriptures don't have the final word here? How does that work? There's a facisnating study regarding this in terms of what "binding" and "loosing" meant, but too long to put here.
Sorry it's so long and stream of consciousness, just love that you posted on it.
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