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Vick writes, regarding the authority of Scripture -
Authority which has to be demonstrated and then attributed to the Bible is secondary and not primary. Christians do not believe the Bible because of something else, this E, this extrinsic thing. They believe it on account of its effectiveness. That is the kind of authority it has. They have already experienced its effectiveness. They do not need persuasion by argument….
And have a short, but powerful stance against the need to prove the Bible, he writes,
The Bible whose authority can be demonstrated is not the church’s ‘Word of God.’ Archaeological evidence is interesting. Here it is irrelevant. Between historical demonstration and religious authority lies an unbridgeable gulf. (98-99)
And regarding fundamentalists and the “literal” debate, he writes,
It is not then a question for the fundamentalist that the Scripture can be taken literally. It must be taken so as not to compromise its inerrancy. (129)
All I can say is…. bam.
Where is your faith? What do you have to demonstrate the authority of Scripture? Why? Because your faith is not in Christ, but in the merits of your own demonstration.
Bam.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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