Biblical Truth..an Oxymoron?

It has always been interesting to me how so many churches can claim Biblical truths but interpret scriptures vastly different. I have to laugh..I heard a priest today say that the Biblical truth is always in a state of flux. How does truth change and who makes the decision that truth is no longer valid and that the new wisdom is correct? I grew up with the belief that the Bible was the infallible word of God. WHY? Because that was what my parents and church told me to believe. As I have grown in my own faith, I see how ridiculous it is to assume that the Bible is the unquestionable, written Word of God. I am in no way saying that it is not, however, I am equally saying that the possibility that the Bible is a document written by fallible men is also a distinct possibility.

After a great deal of research, I find that the Bible was written by men of God who chronicled observations of the events of their day. The gospels written in the later years of the authors’ lives, possibly to preserve the record of Christ’s life, before their deaths. Others were letters written to churches and individuals and were incorporated into the messages delivered to the early christians. Much later, the scriptures were finalized by either tradition (including books by historical precedence) or as a formal canonization by consensus. Armed with this knowledge, when did the idea that the Bible was in infallible occur? Good question. I have found no credible authority to convince me that it did not merely happen within the sermons and teachings of subsequent preachers. However, in that the Bible shows example after example of man’s inability to follow God and demonstrates how God’s people have largely been a disobedient lot, why would we not believe that scriptures were written by mere men?

Here’s one possibility: The Bible is literally the only authoritative text that those who preach the scriptures have to validate what they want their congregations to believe. Without that authority, how does a minister convince his flock that what he says is true? Absent biblical infallibility, the individual is left to sort out the writings of those who lived before and after Christ and to determine for themselves what Christ’s true message was. I believe that our adherence to church doctrine may have caused us to miss the true message of Christ.

I will always add the caveat that I am a layman, and being such will never tell you what to believe, i.e. Adam and Eve, the flood, etc. What you believe is totally between you and your God. I will let you know what I believe. However, I want you to question your faith and live with conviction, those truths you find as you study the scriptures, and much more importantly, the life of Christ.