final authority

A friend of mine and I were having an “email dialogue” about the Bible recently. The discussion revolved around the Bible being the "... the final authroity." As we emailed, he said, “Dude, why don’t you put this on your blog" … so here it is.

I asked him about the statement that says the Bible is the final authority on all things and said,

Can we consider this? Paul says to Timothy the Text is “God-breathed ...” Was this only one time? Did god just breathe it to the writer's when they were writing or is this part of the ongoing ministry of the Spirit of God? Is he breathing the words to his community so that we may hear them as he also empowers us to receive and understand his words ... all in community?

The statement “Final authority” causes us to be more responsible with what we say about the Text. We cannot say emphatically “This is biblical!” When we rely on the Spirit we are admitting and claiming a reliance on the spirit which brings us to a place of humility. We cannot be arrogant as though we have the only correct understanding and anything else is wrong.

We as a the people of God then hear from God's Spirit through His Word.

It's like the bible is the microphone and the Spirit is the voice. The spirit speaks these words to us. How miraculous is that ... the Spirit in our midst as we hear the words! Many believe that when Jesus said, “Where two are three are gathered there I am in their midst,” that he was actually referring to study! We also then rely on the Holy Spirit to speak to us as a community and we expect to hear from him as together we work through an understanding of the text.

If this is the case, then the final authority is really the Triune God. The Bible points to this. Jesus himself says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28.18). The Bible continually points to God as the one who has all authority (See Isaiah, and Revelation).

Maybe we should say "... the Triune God, who is the final authority on all things, speaks to the community of God through the Text, and empowers them to hear and understand through his Spirit and His ministry of illumination."

So my friend replied:

The conundrum is that the Spirit speaks not only through the Bible. He also speaks directly in messages that agree with the Bible. Also, if we say the Spirit is the final authority are we opening the door to individuals saying, "Well, the Spirit told me?"

I then wrote:
I hear you ... A few thoughts ...
For sure the spirit speaks in many ways … One theologian says,
"The proper principle of authority within the Christian Church must be ... The Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures, which are the product of the Spirit's revelation and inspiration." If this is true then we need to be "on our guard" against rugged individualism that reduces the voice of the spirit to a personal conversation ... the problem of a subjective interpretation, or a relative understanding occurs only when we put the primary focus on the individual and not the community. So when it does come to "illumination" through the Spirit it must happen in community "... where two or three are gathered." We were not intended to always study alone.
As for a person "hearing a word from the Lord." Again, I would appeal to the community and to the Text. We cannot say, the Spirit is the authority therefore the text is null and the community is void. Rather, we must recognize the Scripture as the means through which God reveals himself, and therefore recognize that the Text comes first before theology, personal opinion, and "revelatory messages." With this said then ... if a person was to come and say, "... the Spirit said to me ..." If that were contrary to the Text or the understanding of the community we could stand united and question what he or she said.
So who has the authority? It seems as though it is the God who wrote the Bible. For those who say the Bible is the final authority … it is the Bible tells us that all authority belongs to God.