Thursday, April 04, 2019

Contradictions - Article 20/39

XX. OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH
THE Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies of Faith: And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation.

Who, or what, is 'the church' in this article? Same answer as in the last part of the previous post. The one true church is the catholic (meaning worldwide, because of the lower case c) church. All of us erring institutions are part of that yet we are not, in any one place, a complete representation of it.

Percy helpfully draws our attention to the analogy Jesus used – he is the vine and we are the branches. This suggests interdependence rather than independence (chopped off branches don't do well) and a need to acknowledge the existence of the trunk, or the whole vine, to stick with the metaphor.

Individual churches should not over-stress their particularity (these days that is often on sexual matters, which have taken over from initiation rites as the cue for division). 'The consequence' says Percy 'is that the branches attempt to define the vine.'

There are some hidden gems in this Article. It keeps Scripture as the reference point (we have got used to that by now) but it doesn't allow what we call 'proof-texting'. You can't call a verse in your defence if the opposite is also in Scripture. This behaviour is described a 'repugnant'. In early debates with non-Christian friends the argument was often raised that Scripture is contradictory. The solution is that the same advice does not work in all circumstances.

My College Old Testament tutor John Goldingay showed us, in a lecture on Proverbs, that 26:4 and 26:5 were contradictory. He said, I try to recall, 'The Bible understands that some things in life are paradoxical; so it puts them next to each other.' There will be times to worship in faith and times to respond with works. Lifting a verse from the Bible that recommends one or the other is not clever.

Can we track the 'lawful' of the first part of the sentence into the second? Not sure. Maybe. But we are not so down on illegality these days as the reformers were.

Being a witness to Holy Writ is a great responsibility. We should not deny any of it nor add to it. The job of the church member is to either be a Bible student or to listen to those who are. One job of the church leader is to increase the number of Bible students in the congregation. This will enable the load of ministry to be shard and the orthodoxy of the particular church to be constantly re-evaluated.

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