JonD has stated, "Either the scripture is the word of god or it isn't."
I fear that many mainstream Christians fall into this same type of dichotomic logical fallacy (see Wikipedia Article). And many of these Christians deal with the conflict by stating that ALL scripture found in the Holy Bible is flawless, literal and directly from God. (This is at best anecdotal on my part, I have no statistics on the number of Christians who believe this or who do not.)
If we are to reject a portion of a single book in the Bible, say The Song of Solomon, then the whole book should be thrown out of the cannon. Sounds a lot like what King James had done back in the early 17th century by going through all available script written about Messiah and comparing them to the first five books of Moses omitting books that disagreed. The Bible is a compilation of books written by many different authors it would be silly to decide the cannon is false or true altogether based only on the writings of one author.
Having been compiled in this analytical way should at least lend to the individual Christian the same write to omit what they will.
But Jons real question is, "If you have the sense to decide what is best, independent of the doctrine, then what is the purpose of scripture?" This is a good question that all Christians should keep in mind as they study.
If I know the law of Moses has been fulfilled by Christ then what is my purpose in studying it. As well as if I know and recognize the discrepancies in the gospels Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, and recognize that they were written by finite men who have faulty memories then what is the purpose of my reading their accounts?
This puts scripture in a new light, we see and recognize the hand of finite men in the scriptures, and the scriptures ability to be flawed.
4 comments:
I'm a little late on this one, aren't I? All I have to say is: the scriptures never claim God wrote them.
“. . . from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Mark 13:31)
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." (John 1:1-5)
There are more...
And from the book of mormon.
"Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants it is the same" doctrine and covenants 1:38
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