Authority of the Word of God II (finally!)

But what about the authority of Scripture? –or, How do you know Truth?

Your Q on authority of Scripture is one I keep coming back to myself. I don't place any greater value on the Bible as the final arbiter of Truth than anything else--not because God couldn't assure that every version in every language said exactly what he wanted it to say, but because quite clearly He didn't since the various versions, translations, and manuscript copies disagree with each other and with themselves. The argument then usually comes back that only the original manuscripts (or the King James’ Version, which is scholastically absurd) were inerrant. That logic defeats the purpose, I think, of placing any authority in documents.  What is the point of having non-existent documents be inerrant when the documents we do have are full of errors (or at least questions and contradictions)? Ultimately, in practice, inerrancy lies then in picking the right interpretations of the Bible and whose interpretation do you choose and how?

Determining a “correct” interpretation comes down to a rational decision, made either personally or by assuming that your religious guru made the decision.  Since I don’t like to leave these sorts of things up to anyone else, I study the resources myself and determine what interpretations of Scripture to accept. Then, using the same logic that I apply to choosing a reasonable interpretation of the Bible, I realized that the authority to determine Truth must reside in myself—I have come to know the Divine beyond reason and logic and I hold that visceral knowing as my arbiter of Truth: a doctrine or interpretation of doctrine or Scripture must be for me both intellectually rational and congruent with what I know of God. Or actually the other way around congruent with my mystical knowledge of God and, secondarily, intellectually rational—because there are definitely things I am sure I know that I can't explain.

There are in German (and many other languages) two words that translate into English as "knowing": wissen and kennen. I wish that English had a similar differentiation between rational intellectual knowledge and experiential personal knowledge—the difference between book knowledge and knowing a person.

I kenn God through personal experience therefore I can weis (work out intellectually) doctrine and theology.

It is important to note, however, that kennen, experiential knowledge, is not just some touchy-feely emotional response. It is more like in physics class there are two ways to prove a theory—the least preferred method is to work out a conclusion logically, to derive it mathematically from a previously known law. The most preferred method is to demonstrate a conclusion through replicable experiment. To know experientially is the gold standard of scientific knowledge.

When I know God experientially, it's not a one-off feel-good warm fuzzy in a worship service or a touching sermon; it is a reliably replicable experience of the Divine—my experience replicates the knowledge and it is replicated over and over in the experiences of mystics in every religion from every era.

As a fundy evangelical, I was taught to doubt strenuously my own experience, my own knowledge in favor of "the Word of God", which in practice came down to the interpretations du jour of my dad and/or church. I had to walk away from Christianity entirely (for a very long time) and learn about seeking and weighing Truth from all kinds of secular and heathen sources before I could accept that the same rules applied to spiritual Truth as well. And that they applied universally whether I accepted it honestly or disguised it with doctrines of inerrancy that required the same work in practice.


(Part I of this two-part post can be found here)

A Tech Q

I notice that my Follow Me on Facebook widget... or gadget (what really is the difference between the two things?)... is not working more often than it works, at least on my MacBook.  To those of you who read this on the webpage, how does this page appear?  To those of you who subscribe by email, can you take a minute to visit the page (here) and let me know if you can see and interact with the widget?  


Does anyone know how to determine where the technology is breaking down? At Facebook? Blogger? Is it my Mac? All Macs? Or should I just remove the widget altogether?


Thanks for helping keep this blog a functional place to meet, converse, and think new thoughts

Moses and the Shepherd

Moses heard a shepherd on the road praying.

"God, where are you?  I want to help you, to fix your shoes

and comb your hair.  I want to wash your clothes

and pick the lice off.  I want to bring you milk

and kiss your little hands and feet when it's time

for you to go to bed. I want to sweep your room

and keep it neat.  God, my sheep and goats are yours.

All I can say remembering you is aaayyyyy

and aaahhhhhhhhhhhh."

             Moses could stand it no longer.

"Who are you talking to?"

           "The one who made us and made

the earth and made the sky."

                                        "Don't talk about shoes

and socks with God!  And what's this with your little

hands?  Such blasphemous familiarity sounds like

you're chatting with your uncles.  Only something

that grows needs milk.  Only someone with feet

needs shoes. Not God!"

                                    The shepherd repented

and tore his clothes and wandered out into

the desert.  A sudden revelation came then to Moses:

You have separated me from one of my own.

Did you come as a prophet to unite or to sever?

I have given each being a separate and unique way

of seeing and knowing and saying that knowledge.

What seems wrong to you is right for him.

What is poison to one is honey to someone else.

Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence in worship,

these mean nothing to me.  I am apart from all that. 

Ways of worshipping are not to be ranked as better

or worse.  Hindus do Hindu things.  The Dravidian

Muslims in India do what they do.  It's all praise,

and it's all right.  I am not glorified in acts

of worship.  It's the worshippers!  I don't hear

the words they say.  I look inside at the humility.

That broken-open lowliness is the reality.  Forget

phraseology!  I want burning, burning.  Be friends

with your burning.  Those who pay attention to ways

of behaving and speaking are one sort.  Lovers who

burn are another.  Don't impose a property tax

on a burned-out village.  Don't scold the lover.

The "wrong" way he talks is better than a hundred

"right" ways of others.

                               Inside the Kaaba

it doesn't matter which way you point

your prayer rug!

            The ocean diver doesn't need snowshoes!

The love-religion has no code or doctrine.

                                                       Only God.

So the ruby has nothing engraved on it!

It doesn't need markings. 

                                        God began speaking

deeper mysteries to Moses, vision and words,

which cannot be recorded here.  Moses left himself

and came back.  He went to eternity and came

back here.  Many times this happened. 

                                      It's foolish of me

to try and say this.  If I did say it,

it would uproot human intelligence.

 Moses ran after the shepherd, following the bewildered

footprints,

                       in one place moving like a castle

across a chessboard.  In another, sideways,

like a bishop.

                   Now surging like a wave cresting,

now sliding down like a fish,

                                     with always his feet

making geomancy symbols in the sand,

                                                recording his

wandering state.

                            Moses finally caught up with him.

"I was wrong.  God has revealed to me that there are

no rules for worship.  Say whatever and however

your loving tells you to.

                                    Your sweetest blasphemy

is the truest devotion.  Through you a whole world

is freed.

                    Loosen your tongue and don't worry

what comes out.  It's all the light of the spirit."

 The shepherd replied, "Moses, Moses,

I've gone beyond even that.

                                  You applied the whip,

and my horse shied and jumped out of itself.

The divine nature and my human nature came together.

Bless your scolding hand.

                                 I can't say what has happened.

What I'm saying now is not my real condition.

It can't be said."

                             The shepherd grew quiet.

When you look in a mirror, you see yourself,

not the state of the mirror.

                                       The flute player

gives breath into a flute, and who makes the music?

The flute player!

                                 Whenever you speak praise

or thanksgiving to God, it's always like

this dear shepherd's simplicity. 

(By Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks)                      

I AM

I am, you anxious one.


Don't you sense me, ready to break
into being at your touch?
My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.
Can't you see me standing before you
cloaked in stillness?
Hasn't my longing ripened in you 
from the beginning
as fruit ripens on a branch?


I am the dream you are dreaming.
When you want to awaken, I am that  wanting:
I grow strong in the beauty you behold.
And with the silence of stars I enfold
your cities made by time.


--Rainer Maria Rilke
from for lovers of god everywhere