SCRIPTURE AS RAPPORT

'Scripture is the ongoing rapport between heaven and earth.'

Herman Bavinck in Matthew Bingham, A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation, p.91.

GOD SPEAKS TWO LANGUAGES

'Communication is relational. God did not have to speak to us. He communicates because he wants to reveal himself. He gave his word and his world to invite us to know relate to him. He gave this invitation in two languages, and the completeness and clarity of the language of Scripture has not diminished our need to hear God's word in creation as well. Scripture itself is filled with references to God's world - from mountains and stars to sparrows and wild flowers and the morning mist that evaporates in the rising sunshine. God never intended for us to choose one language and ignore the other.'

Seth Lewis, The Language of Rivers and Stars: How Nature Speaks of the Glories of God, p.32.

THE REALITY OF THE BIBLE

'...the Bible does not exists to explain away mysteries and complexities but to reveal and explore them with respect and restraint that resists conclusion.'

Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.19.

THE HUMAN AUTHORS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

'...the Bible itself indicates no anxiety about association with human minds, words. lives, and passions. This is a notable instance of our having a lower opinion of ourselves than the Bible justifies.'

Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.5.

THE BIBLE AS THEODICY

'The Bible is a theodicy, a meditation on the problem of evil. This being true, it must take account of things as they are. It must acknowledge in a meaningful way the darkest aspects of the reality we experience, and it must reconcile them with the goodness of God and of Being itself against which this darkness stands out so sharply. This is to say the Bible is a work of theology, not simply a primary text upon which theology is based.'

Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, p.3.

THE EVANGELICAL CRISIS OF CREDIBILITY

'If the Reformation was a crisis of authority - one that rightly gave the highest authority to the Bible rather than the priests - then this reckoning (or perhaps even a new reformation) is one of credibility: Do we who profess to believe in the authority of the Word present ourselves as credible witnesses of that Way, Truth, and that Life?'

Karen Swallow Prior, The Evangelical Imagination, p.231.

SCRIPTURE IS...

'Scripture is a virtual forest and a simple shade, a bare wood and a glorious orchard.'
Ronald Blythe, Next to Nature, p.136.

HOW TO GET TO KNOW A CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

'One of the most interesting things to learn about any Christian community is which passages they allow themselves to quote out of context.'

Gregg A Ter Elshof, I told me so, p.39.

READ SCRIPTURE SUBMISSIVELY

'We will be spiritually safe in our use of the Bible if we follow a simple rule: Read in a submissive manner. Read with readiness to surrender all you are, all your plans, opinions, possessions, positions. Study as intelligently as possible, with all available means, but never merely to find the truth, and still less merely to prove something. Subordinate your desire to find the truth to your desire to do it, act it out!'

Dallas Willard, Hearing God, p.155.

NONREADING THE BIBLE

'Having and defending and celebrating the Bible instead of receiving, submitting and praying the Bible, masks an enormous amount of nonreading.

Eugene H Peterson, Eat This Book, p.140.

PRAYER IS ENGAGING GOD

'Some of us are taught to think that reading the Bible means sitting in God's classroom and that prayer is politely raising our hand when we have a question about what he is teaching us in his Deuteronomy lecture. The Psalms, our prayer text within the biblical text, show us something quite different: prayer is engaging God, an engaging that is seldom accomplished by a murmured greeting and a conventional handshake. The engagement, at least in its initial stages, is more like a quarrel that a greeting, more like a wrestling match than a warm embrace.'

Eugene H Peterson, Eat this Book, p.104.

THE WHOLE BIBLE CONTEXT TO EVERY BIBLE VERSE

'It takes the whole Bible to read any part of the Bible.'
Eugene H Peterson, Eat this Book, p.48.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS A STORY

'The Christian life is conducted in story conditions. The Bible is basically and overall a narrative - an immense, sprawling, capacious narrative.'

Eugene H Peterson, Eat this Book, p.40.

SCRIPTURE & TRADITION

'The history of the church is a history of debate in which the truths of the Bible have been been successively defined so as to exclude the opinions of those who have questioned, obscured or denied them.'

John Stott, But I Say To You...Christ the Controversialist, p.35.

THE NEED FOR A LIMITED RANGE OF MEANINGS

'If a work of literature can mean anything to anyone then its's not very meaningful at all. But if a work of literature has a limited range of meaning that cannot be boiled down to a single idea, then it can be meaningful for many readers.'

Matthew Mullins, Enjoying the Bible: Literary Approaches to Loving the Scriptures, p.64.

THE CLARITY OF SCRIPTURE IS FOUNDED ON THE CHARACTER OF GOD

'...a confession of the clarity of Scripture is an aspect of faith in a generous God, who is willing and able to make himself and his purposes known. God has something to say and he is very good at saying it.'
Mark D Thompson, A Clear and Present Word, p.170. 

HERMENEUTICS IS HALF-DRESSED?

The hermeneutical emperor is certainly not naked, but we might say he is not properly attired for a meeting with the word of the living God.'

Mark D Thompson, A Clear and Present Word, p.139.

THE NEED TO BE AWARE OF HOW WORD PLAY IS POWER PLAY

'Awareness of the way an authoritative text, or appeal to the clear meaning of an authoritative text, can be used to coerce or manipulate others adds a somber note to the practice of biblical interpretation. The Bible has been repeatedly misused in the interests of power over the past two thousand years. There have been sub-Christian understandings of biblical authority, which have led to torture, murder and forced conversions. The refrain "this is the word of the Lord" is meant to provoke thanksgiving, yet it can also be used as a weapon to bludgeon people into conformity, to shortcut the process of Christian persuasion. We cannot afford to close our eyes to our own history - even, perhaps, especially, evangelical history. Yet the answer is not to jettison the text or locate real authority elsewhere. This is the word of the Lord. It is his gift to us and by this means he rules his people. Believers seek to be shaped in thinking and behaviour by God's revelation of himself and his purposes. The problem is not with the word God has given, but with the use made of it by sinful men and women. Hard questions need to be asked about just whose interests are being served by our explanation of a particular biblical text. Are we prepared to have those interests challenged by the text? This does not mean surrendering at the first sign questions such as these are asked by those who oppose what we might be saying. After all, the claim that a particular interpretation is in reality a covert exercise of power may turn out to be itself a covert exercise of power. What it does mean is that we should be asking those questions of ourselves.'

Mark D Thompson, A Clear and Present Word, p.131.

HOW GOD'S SPIRIT DISCIPLES THROUGH GOD'S WORD

The Holy Spirit, therefore, has generously and advantageously planned Holy Scripture in such a way that in the easier passages He relieves our hunger; in the more obscure He drives away our pride. Practically nothing is dug out from those obscure texts which is not discovered to be said very plainly in another place.'

Augustine of Hippo in Mark D Thompson, A Clear and Present Word: The clarity of Scripture, p.110.

MARRIAGE & THE BIBLE

'The marriage metaphor...keeps popping is again in the Bible like rocky granite outcrops revealing what underlies the whole landscape.'

Julian Hardyman, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, p.100.