Sources of Wisdom and Authority Flashcards
What is authority?
The power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.
What is meant by authority of the Bible?
The extent to which it has the right to demand obedience or belief.
What is the Bible?
A collection of books and holy scriptures of the Christian religion
What are then2 parts in which the Bible is split up?
The Old Testament
The New Testament
What is the Old Testament?
39 books that contain laws, prophecy, histories, wisdom, poems, stories and songs.
Describes the events that took place before Christ.
Also is the Jewish holy book, the Tenakh.
What is the New Testament?
Contains 27 books.
Records the life and teachings of Christ.
First 4 books are gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Why is the authority of the Bible still so important?
Bible is generally seen as one of the central pillars of the Christian faith.
The amount of authority it has therefore influences how a believer might approach and interpret it.
What does Timothy 3:16 say about the use of the Bible
“All scripture -s God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training righteousness”
What are criticisms of the Bible?
Contradictions which confused followers.
Some texts were written long after the events which scrutinizes its accuracy.
Translation errors when people translated it within different alphabets.
What are contradictions?
A combination of statements, ideas, or features which are opposed to one another.
Give an example of a contradiction found within the Bible
The 2 different accounts of the creation story within Genesis.
What are the similarities of the Genesis creation stories?
Both hold the understanding of God’s continuous relationship with his creation.
Both monotheistic (1 God).
What are the differences of the Genesis creation stories?
G1 claims creation took God 6 days whereas G2 implies it was 1 day.
G1 says God created man and woman together but G2 says woman was created from the man in 2 separate acts.
God was shown to be transcendent meaning outside of humanity grasp in G1, G2 shows God to be immanent meaning knowable and graspable.
What are the possible answers to Genesis’ contradictions?
There are two separate creation stories.
There are different authors wrote these stories instead of just Moses.
TheBibleis not inerrant if contradictions exist in the first two chapters.
How does contradictions affect the Bible’s authority?
People have different views on how the Bible was created
What are the 3 different views on how the Bible was created?
Revealed by God
Inspired by God
Human
What does it mean if the Bible is revealed by God?
It is the word of God
Inerrant (no errors)
Completely authorative
What does it mean if the Bible is inspired by God?
Bible is written by human authors who were inspired by God.
Messages might be authoritative but the writers may have made mistakes.
What does it mean if the Bible is human?
Bible is simply a testament or witness by human authors to the work of God.
Bible might not possess any more authority than the other individual witnessing or experiencing the work of God.
Requires careful deliberation and interpretation to filter out authorial bias and mistakes.
How does Neo-Orthodoxy’s view the Bible?
Bible contains scientific and historical errors.
Scripture is a vehicle through which God may be experienced.
God does not reveal himself in the words of the Bible; instead God reveals himself in Jesus.
The Bible is not the word of God but instead contains the Word of God.
How do Christian liberalism view the Bible?
The Social Gospel reject the idea that the Bible is literally the inspired Word of God and believe it’s more important to put the Gospel into practice.
Progress Theology says Bible is an entirely human document due to scientific proof that the Bible cannot be true.
How do Christian conservatism view the Bible?
Catholics think that scripture is the ‘word of God’ put down in writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Evangelical protestants believe God literally wrote the Bible and the text is therefore without any mistakes because religion is more authorative than science.
What is a denomination?
A group within the religion that shares similar beliefs and practices
Give examples of Christian denominations?
Quakers
Baptist Church
Church of England
Roman Catholic Church
What are Quakers?
Founded by George Fox
A religious society of friends
Don’t pray in churches
Anti-violence
Have no leader
What is the Baptist church?
Protestants that believe in baptizing voluntary believers.
Bible is the only authority
They also believe they should spread the word of God amongst everyone.
Everyone is equal in church.