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Ideas & Answers Foundation Stones What do we mean by Biblical Christianity?
Ideas & Answers Foundation Stones What do we mean by Biblical Christianity?
| What do we mean by Biblical Christianity? |
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| As Christ entered this world through the submissive obedience and co-operation of a willing human being, without violating her will or person, so we believe that God graciously co-operated with human authors to bring His written revelation into the world. It is through the written Word that we gain information about Jesus Christ, and through the written Word that we come to know Him as the Living Word. There are no contradictions between the two, and no legitimacy in pitting one against the other. The Christian Scriptures, consisting of the sixty-six canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, are the infallible Word of God, verbally inspired by God, and without error in the original manuscripts and the gracious revelation of the infinite God to us about Himself, His intentions towards us, and our relationship with Him. He continues that work today through the illumination of the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit. This revelation is communication in human language to us, His creatures. We are not surprised at this, as we would expect the Author of Life to take the initiative to communicate with those He created. As the author, God is able to preserve His text and the message He wants to communicate to us. Our final authority is God Himself, “Who has spoken in these last days to us by His Son”, Who stands behind the Christian Scriptures and speaks through them. The Church, led by the Holy Spirit, recognised those texts that were divinely inspired, in the same way one might recognise the inherent authority of a banknote. God’s intentions, revealed in the Bible, are the final authority in testing all claims about what is true and what is right. In matters not addressed by the Bible, what is true and right is assessed by criteria consistent with the teachings of Scripture. The Bible claims divine inspiration for all that it affirms, and therefore also claims to be infallible in its teaching. This is true whether it is addressing matters of faith and practice, or matters of history and the created order. The human authors did not introduce distortion or falsehood into God's communication through their sinful nature or finiteness. We consider this written revelation to be true for all history and cultures. We acknowledge and expect there to be some things we do not fully understand, for we are inherently limited beings, and further limited by our times and circumstances. |
