Jan 12
28

Christian Smith – What is Biblicism?

4 Comments

“If scripture is as authoritative and clear on essentials as biblicists say it is, then why can’t the Christian church—or even only biblicist churches—get it together and stay together, theologically and ecclessiologically?” –Christian Smith

1. The words of the Bible are identical with God’s words written inerrantly in human language.
2. The Bible represents the totality of God’s will for humanity.
3. The divine will for all issues relevant to Christian life are contained in the Bible.
4. Any reasonable person can correctly understand the plain meaning of the text.
5. The way to understand the Bible is to look at the obvious, literal sense.
6. The Bible can be understood without reliance on creeds, confessions, or historic church traditions.
7. The Bible possesses internal harmony and consistency.
8. The Bible is universally applicable for all Christians.
9. All matters of Christian belief and practice can be learned through inductive Bible study.
10. The Bible is a kind of handbook or textbook for Christian faith and practice.

Smith quotes Princeton Seminary theologian Charles Hodge, “If the Scriptures be a plain book, and the Spirit performs the functions of a teacher to all the children of God, it follows inevitable that they must agree in all essential matters in their interpretation of the bible.”

The problem with Biblicism, according to Smith, is that it does not work.  Intelligent, sincere Evangelicals cannot agree upon a universal interpretation of what the Bible actually teaches on virtually any single passage of Scripture.  Thus, the Bible, rather than bringing Evangelicals to unity, produces disunity.

Perhaps both Smith and the Evangelicals have a grain of truth and are completely wrong.

Where does the bible say that the Bible says that the Bible will unite all Christians to understand the Bible harmoniously?  It does not.

By what measure is the veracity of any book, proposition, event or testimony judged by its universal believability or consensus of opinion.  Is there universal agreement of our understanding of the US Constitution, why we sent troops to Viet Nam, did Bush lie, is a “Marxist communistic political economy…a viable long-term project in the world today”?  To the latter, Smith claims that “reasonable, qualified observers” have more than enough good evidence to draw “the conclusion that it is not.”  Is Smith an economic Biblicist?

That “reasonable, qualified observers” differ in their account of an event says more the diversity of witnesses that the event described.  Differences of interpretation of the Bible say more about the interpreters than the content of the Bible.

 

 The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture by Christian Smith

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Posted in Biblicism by Dennis Wilhoit 4 Comments

  • Wayne Brooks

    What is that quote….”We are our own worst enemy”?  Oh….that we could “agree” on the simplicity of the Biblical narrative.  I listened to a sermon a few months back, where a Pastor took and hour and a half to explain why about “5 or 6 verses” did NOT mean what they obviously meant!  If you read the passage, it is clear what it is saying….no commentary is even needed–just apply the Scripture as it is written.  But….he was coming from a Calvinist point of view and so had to ”explain away” what these verses were obviously saying in order to agree with his ”preconcieved views” as presented within ”Calvinism”.  I think the Bible was written so that it “could be easily understood”….we let Pride, and Earthy Wisdom, and Personal Preferences, and Preconceived Ideas get in the way of what God is attempting to get through to us in His Word.

  • Wayne Brooks

    What is that quote….”We are our own worst enemy”?  Oh….that we could “agree” on the simplicity of the Biblical narrative.  I listened to a sermon a few months back, where a Pastor took and hour and a half to explain why about “5 or 6 verses” did NOT mean what they obviously meant!  If you read the passage, it is clear what it is saying….no commentary is even needed–just apply the Scripture as it is written.  But….he was coming from a Calvinist point of view and so had to ”explain away” what these verses were obviously saying in order to agree with his ”preconcieved views” as presented within ”Calvinism”.  I think the Bible was written so that it “could be easily understood”….we let Pride, and Earthy Wisdom, and Personal Preferences, and Preconceived Ideas get in the way of what God is attempting to get through to us in His Word.

    And the toilet paper illustration fits perfectly….LOL

  • http://www.christianconversationsnow.com Dennis Wilhoit

    Yes, the bible reads differently because we begin with an agenda of what the bible must say. Then it becomes merely an illustration for our truth.

  • http://www.christianconversationsnow.com/2012/02/09/bible-%e2%80%93-christian-smith/ What is the Bible? – Christian Smith | Christian Conversations Now

    [...] the bible is what the biblicist claims it is it cannot accomplish the purpose for which the biblicist claim. The biblicist will claim, [...]