King of Kings Lutheran Church

2993 MacDonald St. Oceanside CA (760)757-2525

A member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- ELCA

Statement of my Biblical Principles

By Pastor James Jerpseth -- Jan 2008

(With grateful acknowledgement to Pastor Andy Taylor of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church who penned a similar statement for his congregation and shared it with his friends for review. I have liberally used portions of his statements as the basis for mine.) Also available as a PDF. for easy printing.

Whenever we study the Bible, we bring to the study some unspoken assumptions about how Scripture is to be read and understood, what tools are appropriate to use in its study, and how the Bible works to strengthen our faith. Sometimes students bring different assumptions to a Bible study than those held by the instructors or by the author of the study. I'd like to share with you the Biblical principles that I hold and which will govern the ways in which I currently approach the material we will be studying.

1. The Bible is a Collection of Books not one book. Except for the letters and some historical books, most of the books within the Bible began as oral tradition and/or fragments that were collected (see Luke 1:1 and Acts 1:1 for examples.). Each of these books was written at a different time for a different purpose. Some were extensively edited along the way.

The Bible incorporates several genres of writing including:

· gospel,

· historical,

· poetic,

· prophetic,

· allegory,

· law,

· public letters,

· private letters,

· apocalyptic literature.

2. Unlike Mormons and Muslims, Christians do not subscribe to the "Long Pen" theory of the writing of our Holy Book. Mormons have the Book of Mormon, Muslims the Koran. Muslims claim that Mohammed the prophet was given the words of the Koran, and that every word is dictated from above. Joseph Smith makes a very similar claim about the Book of Mormon. We do not claim that God dictated the Bible. We do believe that God gave his word to be spoken by human beings (known in the Old Testament as prophets) for others to hear and learn. Over time, these spoken words were written down (usually by other human beings; that is, not by the prophets themselves but by others who heard them). Over time, God's people retained the writings that proved to speak the truth about God. However, for Christians, the primary revelation in the Bible is the revelation of God at work through the Word of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ our Lord (see John 1:1‑14). When God wanted us to know what he was all about, he didn't write a book. He sent his Son.

3. The purpose of the Bible is to point to God, particularly to God at work in Christ so that people might have faith. In Islam, Muslims see the Koran as the way to Allah (their name for God), You could almost say, for Muslims, the Koran is "the way, the truth and the life. " For us, Jesus is "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6). The function of the Bible is not to be the way, but to be a witness to the one who is the way. The Bible contains the inspired word of God which points us to Christ and helps us have faith. Another way to say this is that Christians are Christ-centered not Bibliocentric. Luther called the Bible, “the cradle in which Christ is laid”.

4. Not every part of the Bible is of equal importance. Those parts of the Bible that preach Christ or show forth God's love and grace are more important than others. Martin Luther called this "The Canon within the Canon," and Lutherans have always claimed that the parts of the Bible which teach us that God is for us are more important that the rest of Scripture. Most people who've read the genealogies of Genesis (Seth begat Enosh begat Kenan begat Mahalel begat ... ) would agree that the genealogies are much less important than, say, the narrative of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We spend more time reading those parts of the Bible that speak of God's plan for the salvation of the world than we do reading laws or genealogies or moralisms.

5. The Bible seeks to teach the Truth, that is, it seeks to teach us about God. It is less interested in other truths, such as science and history. Genesis 1 and 2 prove this. In what order did God create animals, plants, man and woman? According to Genesis 1, God created plants first, then animals, then man and woman together. According to Genesis 2, God created man first, then plants, animals and finally woman. Some of our Christian brothers and sisters look at this and claim that Genesis 1 gives an outline of creation, while Genesis 2 fills in the details. However, that is not what the Bible says. So why would our Christian brothers and sisters lie about what the Bible says? In order to protect their notion of "truth." Since the 1700s, Western people (like Americans and Europeans) have come to believe that for something to be "true," it has to be historical and scientific. If someone tells a "true" story, that means it happened in history. However, the Bible has a different definition of "Truth." Jesus told "true" stories known as parables. They told the truth about God and about how God was at work in the world. However, they probably did not happen in history. For example, the parable of the Good Samaritan is a true story, for it tells the truth about how God serves us, and about how God wants us to serve others. It probably did not happen in history. While it's possible that it might have happened historically, that does not affect its truth in any way, shape or form. The parable of the Good Samaritan is true, that is, it tells the truth about God, even if it did not happen in history.

The entire Bible is interested in telling us that sort of truth. It will tell us some history, but mostly it is not interested in the details of history. It is not much concerned with answering the questions of science ("how does the world work?" "how do plants grow?") Instead, it is interested in answering the "who" question ("Who created the world?") and questions of purpose ("how are we to live?") not in answering questions of history and science.

The Bible is only equipped to answer the questions it asks. It is not prepared to answer questions outside that scope. We must always ask ourselves about the intent and audience of the book prior to posing questions to the Bible.

6. While the Bible is not ultimately Interested in teaching history, it certainly includes many historical facts. We believe that God's choice of Israel, his protection of the chosen people, his choice of David as King, Israel's continuing idolatry, the exile into Babylon, and the calling of Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles, to name just a few, are all historical occurrences. Archaeology has proven that many of the events and people within the Bible actually existed. In the past century there has been more archaeological discovery than the centuries before. For example, since the 1800’s some scholars have questioned the existence of Pontius Pilate since he was not named in Roman records from the time. Just 20 years ago, a bridge was found with an inscription that it was constructed by an engineering garrison under the command of Pontius Pilate. Pottery fragments from the escape from Egypt under Moses have created a record of the proto-Isrealites movement from Egypt to Canaan. Such facts help us understand that the Bible is a testament to God’s actions in time and space.

The primary historical fact the Bible gives witness to, however, is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, the New Testament was written by people who were in a state of shock. They did not expect the resurrection, and in light of the resurrection, tried to figure out what the life and death of Jesus meant for them and for the world. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul all try to understand what God was doing through the death and resurrection of Christ. Therefore, we reject the arguments of those who claim that the resurrection happened only in a spiritual sense. We believe that the resurrection took place in history, that Christ is truly and historically risen, and that the promise of resurrection is assured.

6. The Bible gets to be the Bible. We do not explain it by our culture or world view, but we examine it on its own basis to see what it yields. Therefore we do not try to explain away the contradiction of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, and we reject the argument that claims that nothing in the Bible contradicts itself. We also reject those who claim that the Bible is invalid because of such contradictions. Instead, we ask "What is the Holy Spirit trying to teach us by this contradiction?" In the case of Genesis 1 and 2, there are a couple of things we learn. First, we learn to look at the Bible as a book about God, not about history or science. Second, we see that it teaches us that God created the world for good, that we are created in God's image, that we were made for good, that God cares about us.

7. The Holy Spirit has been at work not just in the writing of the Bible, but in its use. The reason we have the Bible in its current form is because we believe the Holy Spirit has been at work through God's people, helping us through the centuries discern the truth about God. Many "prophets" and "evangelists" claimed to speak God's word. The Holy Spirit helped God's people discern which were truly from God and which would be useful in helping God's people understand Christ. The writings of those who were truly from God got into the Bible. Two examples. First, the early Christian church had at least seven gospels ‑ Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Thomas, Mary and a book entitled The Shepherd of Hermas. However, as more and more churches talked to each other, prayed, and shared their faith, they found that Thomas, Mary, and The Shepherd of Hermas did not teach the truth about Jesus. Therefore, it did not make it into the Bible. Second, in Ezra, which is in the Bible, we have a story about the Jews sending away all their foreign wives and their children born to those wives. We believe this story is in the Bible to help us explain what Jesus encountered in the New Testament ‑ legalism without grace. We do not believe that this story fulfills God's desire for its people. We are free to come to that conclusion because we believe that, in the Bible, the Holy Spirit includes information not only on the right worship of God, but also on how God's people make mistakes.

Study of the Bible helps us understand who God is, how God is still at work in the very different cultural setting of today, and gives strength and peace to continue our walk with God. Our Bible studies will often point out the different cultural and historical context of Biblical times. This is not to diminish the points made by the Biblical authors. It is instead to bring to the surface the enduring presence of God with his people, to show how his grace continues to be at work in our time, to see how we can adapt the two great Biblical principles (love God, serve your neighbor) in our own time. As we are reminded that God is always with us, always forgiving us, always helping us, no matter what the cultural context, we will be strengthened to serve our world through the power of the Holy Spirit.