How do Lutherans understand scriptural authority? How do Lutherans stay united as Lutherans?

1. How do Lutherans understand scriptural authority?How do Lutherans stay united as Lutherans?

2. Our sameness, our differences in understanding the Bible • Our sameness on the nature of the biblical text • The Bible’s authority is lodged in its central saving message • We recognize that the Spirit empowered the biblical writers to make a good confession • Our differences on the meaning of specific texts in biblical times and/or the applicability of these specific texts today • We recognize that the authors were humans who lived 2,000-3,000 years ago, and these authors wrote from their historical and social contexts (including the “limitations” of these contexts)

3. The inspiration of Scripture • Πᾶσα γραφὴ All Scripture- the entire Old Testament in the LXX version–θεόπνευστος - God breathed 2 Tim 3:16 • Lutherans affirm the divine and human authorship of Scripture • At the time of authorship, did the authors think they were writing the Bible?

4. The Canon • The canon of the New Testament is a selection from a wider collection of writings that were considered “inspired” in the early church • The inspired books that made it into the NT canon were of sound doctrine, wide usage, and apostolic in origin. There were other inspired books that did not make the cut.

5. Unity is gift and demand • Our unity comes from the gospel and the sacraments, from one Lord, one faith, and one baptism • Our unity is sealed and empowered by regular reception of the means of grace • Our daily prayers are for the unity of the church • Through mutual conversation and consolation, we seek to overcome all impediments to unity • Our unity is within reconciled diversity

6. The role of the Bible in the history of the church

7. Methods of exegesis in the Middle Ages (3rd to 16th centuries) • Literal method • Allegorical method • Tropological or ethical method • Eschatological method • And the faith was maintained! • We learn much from these mothers and fathers in the faith, but we are 21st century Lutherans who read the Bible with our own methods, from our own chronological and sociological locations in modernity or post-modernity

9. Luther’s Preface to Hebrews • Luther: Hebrews was not written by an apostle and it denies and forbids to sinners any repentance after baptism.

10. Luther’s Preface to James • Luther: James is opposed to all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works; James does not mention the Passion of Jesus, the resurrection, or the Spirit of Christ • 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God. • 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. • 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? • 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. • (James 2:23-26)

11. Luther’s Preface to Revelation • Luther: “The apostles do not deal with visions, but prophesy in clear and plain words… I can in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it [Revelation] ….He [the author]seems to me to be going much too far when he commends his book so highly.” • 1546 Luther changed his mind. Identified sixth evil angel with Mohammed, and the mighty angel with the rainbow and the bitter scroll (10:1, 9-10) with the papacy.

12. Canon within the Canon • All the Scriptures show us Christ; and St. Paul will know nothing but Christ. Whatever does not teach Christ is not yet apostolic, even though St. Peter or St. Paul does the teaching. Again, whatever preaches Christ would be apostolic, even if Judas, Annas, Pilate, and Herod were doing it. • Prefaces to the New Testament, 45.

13. Question by a Pollster: • Do you take the Bible literally? • Yes, I take the Bible literally and I recognize its historical context.

14. “Word of God” in the ELCA • We confess first of all that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate (2.02a) • The proclamation of God’s message to us as both Law and Gospel is the Word of God, revealing judgment and mercy (2.02b) • The canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God. Inspired by God’s Spirit speaking through their authors, they record and announce God’s revelation centering in Jesus Christ (2.02c)

15. Authoritative source and norm • This church accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life (2.03). • What we preach • What we believe • How we live (ethics) • Are there other sources for our proclamation, faith, and life?

16. First published 1983; 2nd ed 2007

17. Braaten’sPrinciples of Lutheran Theology • It cannot be overly stressed that, for Luther, what counted was the material contents of the book and not its formal position within Scripture. Thus although Luther retained the established canon of the ancient church, he discovered within it a canon by which all its parts could be judged. • Authority of Scripture = gospel content • Lutheran orthodoxy: authority because of inspiration and inerrancy

18. Braaten’sPrinciples of Lutheran Theology • The authority of Scripture, for Luther and his followers, was affirmed with respect to its chief purpose of declaring the gospel of Christ for faith and salvation; in modern Protestant fundamentalism, which ironically claims to bear the legacy of the Reformation, the authority of Scripture is extended to include infallible information on all kinds of subjects. Carl Braaten

19. Braaten’sPrinciples of Lutheran Theology • The Bible can only be studied as Holy Scripture within the context of the church. • The authority of the Bible as the church’s book is centered in the authority of the church’s Lord. Carl Braaten • The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins (Matt 9:6) • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. (Matt 28:18-20)

21. Methods of Reading the Bible Today • Historical Critical Method • Exegesis is the most ecumenical of the theological disciplines • A Lutheran hermeneutic • Reading the Bible from one’s social location • As women and men • As persons of color, languages other than English, majority culture/other cultures • As Lutherans in the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin and in Chicago • As scholars, pastors, SAMs, AIMs. Diaconal ministers, and lay people

22. Limitations of the biblical authors? • Biblical authors carried with them presuppositions about life and society that we no longer share. • Polygamy, slavery, blood vengeance, death by stoning and by burning, Holy War, genocide, and patriarchy

23. Joshua 10:40; Deut 20:16 • So Joshua defeated the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings; he left no one remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as Yahweh the God of Israel had commanded. Josh 10:40 • You must not let anything that breathes remain alive. Deut 20:16

24. Biblical writers in their contexts • The biblical writers lived in an agrarian, slave-based, patriarchal, polygamous society, and they presupposed beliefs about the physical world and social relations that we can no longer accept. They expressed their insights in terms appropriate to the times in which they were writing, and it was therefore inevitable that they should reflect the attitudes, outlooks and beliefs of the people of their age. Eryl W. Davies, The Immoral Bible: Approaches to Biblical Ethics. London: T & T Clark, 2010.

25. Binding and Loosing Biblical Commandments (Mark Allen Powell) • I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matt 16:19 • Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matt 18:18 • Different from: If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. John 20:23

26. Binding and loosing • How has this worked out in various ecclesiastical decisions? • Binding: 5th commandment—abortion, capital punishment, and participating in the military—although these decisions have not been easy or without dissenters • Loosing: Be fruitful and multiply—one is not to reproduce oneself without any limits • Binding and loosing assigned to the church as a whole

27. New Testament – 1946; Old Testament - 1952

28. These Bibles must be read with extreme care

29. Authority of the Bible—what we have said so far • The authority of the Bible deals with its announcement of judgment and salvation • It is a significant challenge to determine the meaning of the Bible in antiquity and its significance for our time • The Bible advocates a high ethical standard that accuses us all. • The Ten Commandments offer a clear ethical word, but the Decalogue is by no means comprehensive in its implications

30. The Ten Commandments

31. Jewish First Commandment • I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

32. Martin Luther on the Bible • “Luther recognized that some laws in the Bible were outdated or did not apply in his time and place.” Mary Jane Haemig, Lutheran Study Bible, 1522. • Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. • What does this mean? Luther offers a new commandment! • We are to fear and love God, so that we do not despise preaching or God’s Word, but instead keep that Word holy and gladly hear and learn it. Small Catechism

33. 3rd

34. The freedom of negative commandments • You shall not murder or You shall not kill • Can one be a soldier? • Capital punishment? • Taking someone off life support systems • Euthanasia? Abortion? • You shall not commit adultery = a man sleeping with another man’s wife • Married at 14/15; entered into by a contract between parents • For us: marriage is much delayed; entered into through the dating process

35. How should we appeal to Scripture in moral debates? Charles H. Cosgrove, Appeal to Scripture in Moral Debate. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002

36. Hermeneutical rule #1 • The purpose or justification behind a biblical moral rule carries greater weight than the rule itself. Charles Cosgrove

37. The logic of the rule on interest • Major premise: Do not exploit the poor • Minor premise: Lending at interest exploits the poor • Conclusion: Do not lend at interest • The minor premise is no longer (or not necessarily) valid in our society • The purpose behind the law still stands: Do not exploit the poor.

38. Hermeneutical rule #2 • Analogical reasoning is an appropriate and necessary method for applying Scripture to contemporary moral issues. Charles Cosgrove • Abolitionists in the 19th century applied the story of the Exodus to the issue of American Slavery

39. Hermeneutical rule #3 • There is a presumption in favor of giving greater weight to countercultural tendencies in Scripture that express the voice of the powerless and the marginalized than to those tendencies that echo the dominant voices of the culture. Charles Cosgrove • The Bible is against those cultural institutions that serve the interests of the powerful in ways that harm the powerless

40. Hermeneutical rule #4 • Scientific (or “empirical”) knowledge provides a new context for Scripture. Charles Cosgrove • The age of the earth • The capabilities of women • The dietary regulations of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 (see also Acts 10)

41. Hermeneutical rule #5 • Moral-theological considerations should guide hermeneutical choices between conflicting plausible interpretations. Charles Cosgrove • Any interpretation of Scripture is wrong that separates or sets in opposition love for God and love for fellow human beings. The Presbyterian Church, 1983

42. What I have said • The central authoritative role that Scripture plays is in announcing the grace of God to us all • There is often not an easy, one-to-one equation between biblical words and their applicability in our times and cultures • The limitations of the biblical writers • The complexities of the hermeneutical rules that get us from there to here • Our own limitations

44. How do Lutherans stay united as Lutherans? • For this is enough for the true unity of the Christian church that the gospel is preached harmoniously according to a pure understanding and the sacraments are administered in conformity with the divine Word. Augsburg Confession, Article VII

45. Braaten’sPrinciples of Lutheran Theology • The basic premise [in Lutheran orthodoxy] was the clarity of Scripture; the Bible is not a dark and obscure book that only a few professors can understand. This does not mean that all the passages are clear, only that all that is necessary for Christian faith and life is clearly revealed in Scripture. Carl Braaten

46. Historically specific texts • The Hebrew Bible [and the New Testament] should not be regarded as the deposit of timeless, universal principles; what it contains, rather, are historically specific texts which were intended to address some of the burning issues of the day. Eryl W. Davies