Gabriel Baicu
I
advocate a return to
Christ, not only to the Bible,
not just to the first
Christian communities, the so-called
apostolic Church.
Why? I found
that it takes a
continuation of the Reformation,
a New Reformation even, in order to deepen what others, in the
past have started. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and others reacted
correctly to the development of Christianity in its almost one
and a half millennia of history. The problem is not how far they
went with their Reformation, but from where they started it. In
the mean-time almost another half millennia passed away and many
things have changed in the way that humanity perceives the
possibility of the existence of God and the right approach to
Him, but most importantly in the interpretation of the biblical
texts.
Luther and other reformers took the Bible to be paramount for
the understanding of Christianity, concretizing this idea, in
the principle “Sola Scriptura.” After Luther, countless and very
valuable studies regarding the Scriptures were made. The
Historical-Critical Method involves asking
analytical questions about various aspects of the texts and
their contexts.
Source criticism is the search for the original sources which
lie behind a given biblical text. It can be traced back to the
17th century French priest Richard Simon and its most
influential product is undoubtedly Julius Wellhausen's
“Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels” (1878), whose "insight and
clarity of expression have left their mark indelibly on modern
biblical studies," according to Antony F. Campbell SJ.
Form criticism breaks the Bible down into sections (pericopes,
stories) which are analyzed and categorized by genres (prose or
verse, letters, laws, court archives, war hymns, poems of
lament, etc.). Redaction criticism studies "the collection,
arrangement, editing and modification of sources", and is
frequently used to reconstruct the community and purposes of the
author/s of the text.
In the last period of time, The Dead Sea scrolls and the Nag
Hammadi manuscripts were found and all this cannot be neglected
from the point of view of their influence on Christianity. The
modern sciences gained a lot of ground in the field of human
understanding of life and all must be put in a correct
perspective in relation with faith.
I
find the N.T, filed with many contradictions and I also wonder
about the historicity of many assertions, said to be coming
directly from Jesus. Some things attributed to Jesus are
probably not originated from Him. In the same time, inside the
history of Christianity was a continuous battle between various
currents, opinions, dogmas and doctrines. To me, it seems that
the biblical texts have fallen victim to all this battles and
certain texts bear the mark of a certain interference with the
original texts. More over, through the process of recopying the
manuscripts, numerous times, something is lost and it is not
impossible that some of the copiers were set to live their mark
on the texts, sometime influenced by their own theological
opinions or by opinions that they cherish. All together, I
consider that the principle “Sola Scriptura” doesn’t say
anything today and the only reliable source for the knowledge of
God is the human personal experience with Him. John Calvin
remarked:
"All things in Scripture are not alike
plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things
which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for
salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of
Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the
unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain
unto a
sufficient understanding of them" (<The Westminster Confession>)
I surely agree with Him, but I will also say that, without God,
living in us, the basics for salvation doesn’t make any sense
for us. The N.T. is an utopia for everyone who doesn’t
personally experience its teachings. None can fully receive the
Bible if he or she didn’t yet receive God in his or her
consciousness. We need a guide in the process of reading the
Bible and this Teacher must be in us. Bible doesn’t make any
sense if it is not read with a spiritual mind, in a spiritual
manner.
The Bible contains the basics for salvation; the sacrifice of
Christ on the cross for our redemption and Jesus’ new
requirement to love each other as He loved us. (John 3: 3-6) In
the same time, the Bible doesn’t love for us or in our place and
it doesn’t feel love, being only a collection of books. What I
am saying is that the divine love, the basics for our salvation
is poured in our hearts directly by God and not only following
the study of the Bible. (Romans 5; 5) In order to understand the
divine love we must feel it first in us, and that is more
important that only to study about love. First, God shows us His
love by calling us to salvation and secondly He gives us His
love, in order to have it in us, than the direct work of the
Holy Spirit in us is more important and prior to the study of
the Bible. Second, we should study the Bible and discern all
that God, through the Holy Spirit give us to discern and to
understand, personally not officially or compulsory. For us, the
Bible speaks by itself, lives in us and for us and any official
or imposed interpretation of it is a potential danger for us.
I add to that the fact that the canonized Bible contains only
the texts agreed upon by the Council of Nicaea, but here again we
can see the results of the controversies surrounding the various
opinions about the diverse doctrinal aspects. Many other texts,
which circulated in apostles times and immediately afterwards
were “buried alive” by the religious institution and actually
the form taken by Christianity was determined by an authority,
which had a certain ideological program. They wanted to respond
to present challenges confronting them, at the time and to
achieve a goal linked to a certain image about the future of
Christianity on earth. In order to have a more complete image
about the early Christianity and much more than that, about who
Jesus was and what He thought, we need to consider all texts
circulating in the period following His mission on earth and
above all we need to meet Jesus in Person, in
us.
The Reformers
proselytized the
return to the Bible
and that was a good
thing, but the
Bible opens
the way for a multitude of
interpretations and
these interpretations transformed into
religious doctrines
and dogmas,
contradict each other.
In the Bible there
are many potential theologies and
even if we
make huge efforts
to present NT
as a whole,
differences remain
and make impossible a doctrinal unity of the
Church. Jesus required unity among His followers, but precisely
because the texts of the N.T. such a unity is precluded, at
least in an organizational or institutional sense. The Bible
also presents another kind of unity, a spiritual one. Jesus
prayed for unity to the Father, before being crucified. (John
17; 21) The institutional unity among Christians is not
possible, because the imprecision of the N.T. texts and their
contradictions doesn’t allow for that. The spiritual unity is a
fact, a reality and all people that are in Christ are united in
Him, by the unity of the Holy Spirit.
An
example of conflicting theologies, in the Bible, would be
the difference
between the doctrine of the
justification by faith and the
theological attitude towards women. On
the one hand, we are told that in
Christ, spiritually
speaking, no longer
exists any difference between men and
women, on the other hand in
the first epistle to
Timothy we are told
that women are
saved only by
the birth of boys,
not girls,
if they
continue in faith.
There are two
different theologies
that lead to two
different interpretations of
N.T. fundamentally
different between them.
(Galatians 3: 28, 1
Timothy 2,
15) Paul tells us that we are saved by faith
in Christ, but in 1Timothy, we are informed that women are saved
not by their faith, but by the random selection of their birth
performances, not even by their good works. Such a huge
discrimination, not taught by Christ raises an important
question mark on the reliability of the texts of the N.T. Paul
or the author who wrote the first epistle to Timothy went astray
from the teachings of Jesus and the question is: “How many texts
in the N.T. present another theology, than Jesus taught? Can we
really discern from the N.T. what Jesus wanted to teach us, or
everything is covered by various theologies that in fact it is
impossible today to say what Jesus really told us. We know
exactly what He did for us, but can we know precisely what He
said? Because the answer seems to be negative, the proof is the
numerous conflicting doctrines, we need a primordial personal
experience with Jesus, in order to understand what the N.T
teaches.
In many ways Paul contradicted Jesus and we have to make a very
clear difference between what Jesus taught and what other texts
of the N.T. purport to assert. In fact, even the gospels
sometimes contradict each other about what Jesus taught;
consequently it is impossible to understand His teachings
without Him living in us. For this reason the institutional
chains of Christianity must be broken and the whole weight of
Jesus’ teachings must be put on the individual and on his or
hers personal experience and relationship with God. No religious
institution should stay between us and Jesus and all tradition
and rituals can be just an indication available only within the
limits of such individual spiritual experience.
On
the other side, let us consider the state of the so called
apostolic Churches. Is there someone to believe that they are
truly an authentic picture of the first apostolic church? If
anyone thinks so, in my opinion, is wrong. Why? Today’s
Christian communities, organized in religious institutions, are
not at all like the first apostolic churchs, in which all goods
were shared amongst the members and the apostles and deacons
served the food at the dinner tables. (Acts 6, 2-4) Nowadays
there is a “Christian aristocracy,” which leads with "iron fist"
the communities, under their responsibility. Sins are judged "in
the interest" of the leaders and most spiritual people who make
one mistake, are often marginalized first, because in this way
the management of the church institutions have the chance to get
rid of potential competitors or people with uncomfortable
opinions. First, what is with all these judgments? Institutional
churches have turned to be some judicial courts; they are not
“hospitals” anymore, in order to cure the souls. Christians are
not spiritual doctors among themselves but police who lurk and
wait for mistakes. These spiritual executors find the
opportunity to create for themselves a more favorable image, in
comparison with others. This light is undoubtedly blurred
because the comparison should not be between us and those around
us, but between us and Jesus.
We don’t have to receive
anything, not even some questionable texts from the Bible, if
they are not confirmed in the teachings of Jesus, the one from
the N.T. and living in us. Is there any difference between Jesus
of the N.T. and Jesus in us? It shouldn’t be, but if it is the
One who is in us is bigger than the one transmitted by the
Bible. Why? This is because from reality to the N.T., Jesus
suffered modifications, due to different theologies and
perceptions had by the N.T. authors. Mathew shows a quite
different Jesus than John and probably, in reality, He was
farther different than both images. The Jesus of organized
religion is not exactly the same with the Jesus in us. It is not
even the same with Jesus from the Bible.
The founder of Christianity is Jesus Christ and He is the One
who saves us. Any interpretation of the Bible must be judged
strictly through the teachings of Jesus and any deviation from
these teachings disqualifies a particular interpretation of the
Bible, a certain doctrine or dogma. More difficult it is to
discern what the teachings of Jesus are, but in order to make
this task easier, God have written His spiritual Law, in our
hearts. (Jeremiah 31; 31-34) Through the Holy Spirit, the God’s
Law is written, first and foremost, in our hearts and only
afterwards in the texts of the N.T., which unfortunately
suffered countless alterations. God said that in the latter
times, that we live in today, knowledge will increase and also
said that the last will be the first. (Daniel 12, 4, Mark 10,
31) What does this mean? There are two things to be said, first,
that the modest people in the church meetings can be first in
the Kingdom of heaven. Second, Christians today have better
conditions to have more information about the history of
Christianity, which enable them to understand and distinguish
between spiritual Christianity and religious forms.
Turning
to Christ means not only "Sola Scriptura," but primarily means "Solus
Christus." First, the outmost importance for a Christian is a
personal relationship with Jesus. Second as importance, are the
biblical texts. The latter can not be properly understood except
by those who really have a personal relationship with Christ.
Why? Understanding of the Bible can be made only by spiritual
wisdom, ordinary human wisdom is not enough. (1 Corinthians 2:
13) This is not to say that only a few religious functionaries
hold the privilege to be able to understand the Bible, rather
this important observation means that every Christian needs to
possess this kind of wisdom, in order to be able to understand
it. By a literal reading of the New Testament, for example, we
remove ourselves from Christ rather than to approach by Him.
Many times, when Jesus spoke in parables, some disciples went
away from Him, because the literal meaning of the words seemed
to be absurd or even insane. (John 6, 66) So it is nowadays.
Some Christians interpret the Bible without taking into account
the spirituality, which it contains. What is the result? An
impressive collection of dogmas and doctrines and all they talk
about is what to "do" in order to be saved but little talk about
how a Christian "should be." These are only the visible forms of
Christianity. (John 6, 63) To choose the easy part, the broad
way, means to consider that if one does some good works is
better than doing nothing and consequently that one is a better
person than others. (Matthew 7, 13-14) In fact, authentic
Christianity requires us to be like Christ, to live up to the
fullness of His stature. (Ephesians 4: 13)
Both O.T. and N.T. are only a guide to Christ. The Bible is not
God. The Bible shouldn’t be “deified,” it is not “the word” of
God, but it is the word about the Word of God and the living
Word is Jesus. (John 1; 1) The Bible is equally the product of
God and the object of human misunderstandings about Him. The
Scriptures can become an idol, when a certain interpretation of
them, is imposed upon the believers and when it is presented as
the only possible interpretation. The Bible can unite and also
it is able to separate the believers. They are united when the
Spirit unites them and they are separated when they choose to
interpret too literally its texts. The letter kills, the Spirit
gives life. (2 Corinthians 3, 6) What is the meaning of this
text? I understand by this formula that an interpretation of the
Bible by which we tend to justify our religious doctrines and
institutions and which doesn’t lead the believers directly to
the Person of Christ is a literal, not a spiritual one. A
spiritual understanding is any understanding of the Bible which
leads us in a direct relationship with Jesus Christ and if a
biblical interpretation fails to achieve this goal such an
interpretation separates us from Him.
Without Christ we cannot be saved, so any teaching that claims
to be from the Bible should not do anything else but to guide us
to establish a personal contact with our personal Saviour. We
don’t need only stories about Christ, but we need to be clothed
with His power. The kingdom of God is real power, not only
rituals, doctrines and dogmas; it doesn’t express itself only in
words. (1 Corinthians 4, 20) Jesus spoke to the people and
explained very well in words what the kingdom of God is, but He
didn’t limit Himself to words, because His teachings were
accompanied by the proof of God’s power. Where are the church
officials, who do miracles more than Jesus, did? According with
the N.T. they should do all kind of miracles by the power of God
and through the faith they have in Christ. (John 14, 12-13) They
are not visible, probably with some exceptions. Why? Every one
must answer for himself or for her. Some have replaced the
manifestation of power through living human beings with the
power of relics of dead saints. To preach like Jesus means not
only to tell to the people about Him, but to tell them what He
has to say to nowadays world. Jesus not only told us about the
Father, but the Heavenly Father spoke through His mouth. In all
things we must resemble Jesus because He is the firstborn among
many brethren. (Rom 8, 29)
