The Word of God: Is it Limited to the Bible?

                                                   The Word of God:  Is it Limited to the Bible?

                                                    By Dr. Juan A. Carmona

This essay is designed to stimulate us to ponder on how much, if at all, God is limited.  In this case, we ask the question if God´s self-disclosure is limited to that sacred text that we call the Bible.  Is the Bible the exclusive Word of God?

I will begin by saying, much to chagrin, I´m sure, of many of my Christian sisters and brothers, that I do not believe that the Bible, in and of itself, is the Word of God.  Say what?  You might ask, ¨How can a Bible teacher, minister, and theologian make such an affirmation?¨  My response is that I believe, like theologian and pastor Karl Barth, that the Bible is a witness to the Word of God, which is Jesus the Christ.  Without this witness, the Bible would be like any other book on the shelf. To the extent that the Scriptures witness to
God´s self-disclosure through Christ, they become the Word of God to us.

The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century brought to the forefront the belief in ¨Sola Scriptura,¨ the notion that the Bible is the only rule of faith and practice.  In the Catholic and Orthodox churches, there is the belief that tradition and experience carry as much weight as the Scripture for the simple reason that in a sequential sense, they preceded the Scriptures.  Some Protestant churches believe in the concept of ¨Prima Scriptura,¨ i.e. the notion that the Bible is the primary, though not the exclusive rule of faith and practice. Those who believe in ¨Prima Scriptura,¨ believe that tradition and experience are secondary sources of belief and practice in Christian theology.

This writer (yours truly) is more inclined to the notion of ¨Prima Scriptura.¨  I believe that the Scriptures, along with tradition, experience, and other branches of human knowledge ( humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences) establish the foundation for Christian belief and practice.

Aside from the role of Scripture, we deal with the issue of whether God´s self-disclosure is mediated through the sacred scriptures of other traditions.   Can we find the Word of God in the Hindu Scriptures (Bhagavad Gita, Vedas, and Upanishads), the Islamic Scriptures (the Holy Qua´ran), etc.?  Many, if not most Christians, I believe, would say a resounding ¨No!¨ due to their belief that God´s self-disclosure is only and exclusively found in the Bible.

This Christian writer is of the persuasion that God´s revelation is and cannot be restricted to one book.  There are various reasons for that, of which I will name but a few.

1.  The biblical doctrine of divine sovereignty- The Scriptures, both Old and New Testament emphasize that God is a sovereign being who does what, when, and how He/She wants and is not subject to the whims of human expectations.  The God of Scripture operates outside of the realm of human volition and occasionally surprises us by what He/She does.

2.  The biblical emphasis on a universal God- While the Scriptures do make mention of a God who chooses a certain group of people to be in a covenant relationship with Her/Him, they also emphasize that this choosing is geared towards making the knowledge of God a universal phenomenon.  I think that it would be very arrogant and presumptuous on the part of us Christians to deny that God´s self-disclosure would be mediated via the scriptures of religions that are much older than the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

3.  The fact that the Scriptures, while sacred to us, reflect divine revelation coming through fallible, frail, imperfect, and weak human beings who can only give us a glimpse of the reality of God. To say that the authors of the Bible had it ¨äll together,¨ and had a much bigger understanding of the reality and actions of God than their predecessors leaves room for the development of Christian imperialism, something which the God who speaks through Christ and through the Scriptures never intended.

I could continue to add other reasons for my belief that God´s self-disclosure is not limited to our sacred text, but I will limit myself to the three mentioned above in order to leave room for conversation and dialogue. The readers are welcome to share their comments, views, and perspectives.

In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.

Juan A. Carmona