Jeff Childers: Hermeneutics in Churches of Christ Thomas H. Olbricht The Church of Christ relies on extra-biblical authority just as much as the Catholic Church
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Preface By Jeff Childers Catholic
Those of other traditions discussing the faith with members of the Church of Christ will quickly notice that these Christians have a very unique way of understanding the Scriptures.
Just as quickly, the non-member will discover that these Christians subconsciously believe that their way is the only valid way to interpret the Scriptures.
That's a lie. Even Simple Simon understands that the PATTERN for the Church is in the PROPHETS both inclusivelly and exclusively. Jesus defined Holy Scripture as the PROPHETS and prophecies CONCERNING ME.
Eph. 2:20 And are built upon [Edified-Educated in the Ekklesia]The Apostles including Paul SAW and HEARD the Resurrected Jesus. Peter said that the God's WORD put into the MOUTH of Jesus were made certain and outlawed private interpretation or further expounding.
the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Keith.Stanglin.Private.Interpretation.Rejects.The.Holy.Spirit.html
To claim that individuals cannot read BLACK TEXT on BROWN paper is to call God, Jesus and the Inspired writers IGNORANT.
John 8:26 I have many things to say and to judge of you:John 8:37 I know that ye are Abrahams seed;
but he that sent me is true;
and I SPEAK to the world those things
which I have HEARD of him.
John 8:27 They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.
John 8:28 Then said Jesus unto them,
When ye have lifted up the Son of man,
then shall ye know that I am he,
and that I do nothing of myself;
but as my Father hath taught me,
I speak these things.
John 8:29 And he that sent me is with me:
the Father hath not left me alone;
for I DO always those things that PLEASE him.
John 8:30 As he spake these WORDS, many believed on him.
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,
IF ye continue in my WORD, THEN are ye my disciples indeed;
but ye seek to kill me, because my WORD hath NO place in you.
John 8:38 I SPEAK that which I have SEEN with my Father:
and ye DO that which ye have seen with your father.
Devil Do: poiētai 4. after Hom., of Poets, compose, write, p. dithurambon, epea, Hdt.1.23, 4.14; p. theogoniēn
Epos joined with muthos, 1. song or lay accompanied by music, 8.91,17.519.
2. fiction (opp. logos, historic truth), THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLEDevil Do: LATIN: făcĭo , to make in all senses, to do, perform, accomplish, prepare, produce, bring to pass, cause, effect, create, commit, perpetrate, form, fashion, operor Lying Wonder, poλma, to compose, id. Pis. 29, 70: carmina, Juv. 7, 28: versus, id. 7, 38: sermonem, Cic. Fam. 9, 8, 1; cf. litteram, id. Ac. 2, 2, 6: ludos, to celebrate, exhibit, admirationem alicujus rei alicui, to excite [the Laded Burden],Hdt. 1.23 Periander, who disclosed the oracle's answer to Thrasybulus, was the son of Cypselus, and sovereign of Corinth.
The Corinthians say (and the Lesbians agree) that the most marvellous thing [Lying Wonders]
that happened to him in his life was the landing on Taenarus of Arion of Methymna, brought there by a dolphin.
This Arion was a lyre-player second to none in that age; he was the first man whom we know to compose and name the dithyramb1
which he afterwards taught at Corinth.
1 The dithyramb was a kind of dance-music particularly associated with the cult of Dionysus.
Devil Do: carmen
I.a tune, song; poem, verse; an oracular response, a prophecy; a form of incantation (cf.: cano, cantus, and canto). note, sound, both vocal and instrumental also versus, numeri, modi): carmen tuba ista peregit ( = sonus), Enn. Ann. 508 Vahl.: carmine vocali clarus citharāque Philammon, Ov. M. 11, 317; cf. vocum, id. ib. 12, 157: per me (sc. Apollinem) concordant carmina nervis
barbaricum, id. M. 11, 163.With allusion to playing on the cithara: The Mother o Harlots in John 17 Carminibus Circe socios mutavit Ulixi,Devil Do: Commercium sermonis, 7 In mercant. lang., to practise, exercise, follow any trade or profession: 8. In relig. lang., like the Gr. rhezein, to perform or celebrate a religious rite; to offer sacrifice, make an offering, to sacrifice:
Devil Do: Mousa II. mousa, as Appellat., music, song, m. stugera A.Eu.308 (anap.); euphamos Id.Supp.695
Kanakhan .Clanging Brass
Theias as many as made them hope by divinations, Madness caused by Ritual
worship as divine, Puthagoran [Of the Cosmos, the Ecumenical, Kingdom of the Devil."
Antiluron mousas S.Tr.643 (lyr.); PLAYING THE LYRE
Aiakō moisan phereinI. bear or carry a load, A Laded Burden
To successfully engage in conversations with members of the Church of Christ, one must have a background in the development of Church of Christ hermeneutics--the science of biblical interpretation.
For Catholics seeking to defend their faith or for non-Catholics examining Catholicism, the issue of hermenuetics is of utmost importance. The Church of Christ will often attack the Catholic Church for "adding" Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium to the Scriptures as authorities.
The Catholic Encyclopedia reads of the institution of the living magisterium
Holy Scripture is therefore not the only theological source of the Revelation made by God to His Church. Side by side with Scripture there is tradition, side by side with the written revelation there is the oral revelation.
This granted, it is impossible to be satisfied with the Bible alone for the solution of all dogmatic questions. Such was the first field of controversy between Catholic theologians and the Reformers. The designation of unwritten Divine traditions was not always given all the clearness desirable especially in early times; however Catholic controversialists soon proved to the Protestants that to be logical and consistent they must admit unwritten traditions as revealed.
Otherwise by what right did they rest on Sunday and not on Saturday? Answer: by remembering that the Biblical church met on the first day and not the seventh day. Sunday was granted by the civil authorities where there was no "day of rest."
How could they regard infant baptism as valid, or baptism by infusion? Answer: Certainly the Restoration Movement rejects this on the basis of clear Biblical evidence that only believers who had repented were to be baptized. Therefore, the living magisterium contradicts Scripture.
The Catholic way of supplying what God Incarnate "could not" and to guarantee its correctness is to demand that it comes from the Catholic Church. Therefore, the Catholic church gets extra-biblical authority by claiming that it has the right.
The Bible alone, argues the Church of Christ, is to be the Christian's authority. Any man, they argue, can go to the Scriptures for himself, learn the true and simple gospel, and, upon obeying that gospel, restore true Christianity.
This Catholic article acknowledges that Scripture is "spirit blown." If God is incapable of "supplying us fully for life and Godliness" how is the Catholic church superior to God?
The Catholic will argue biblically against the Church of Christ, demonstrating that the two Churches both accept the Scriptures, but interpret them differently.
The Catholic Encyclopedia has shown us that it is not differences in interpretation but the presumption of authority to add to and subtract from the revealed Words of God.
Members of the Church of Christ who do not simply write off all non-members as being dishonest with the Scriptures will argue that those who fail to arrive at the same conclusions as the Church of Christ are using faulty methods of interpretation--they have bad hermeneutics.
The question should be immediately raised: By what authority are we to accept a method of hermeneutics? If the Church of Christ is to be consistent in it's Bible alone stance,
one would expect that the Scriptures explain how they are to be understood.
If we didn't accept the Bible the way we accept any document where types of speech are quite obvious, then what help would we gain from a Scriptural explanation of how we are to understand Scripture? Wouldn't we have a scholarly fall back to hermeneut' the life out of the inspired explaination?
In his article, Olbricht quotes Walter Scott (1796-1861), one (of) our early fathers, who in 1836 wrote,
The present century, then, is characterized by these three successive steps, which the lovers of our Lord Jesus have been enabled to make, in their return to the original institution.
First the Bible was adopted as sole authority in our assemblies,
to the exclusion of all other books. Next the Apostolic order was proposed. Finally the True Gospel was restored.
This is not unique to the 18th century. No one in church history has proposed that the Bible is not the authority to the exclusion of all other books. Except, of course, the Pope who believes that he is able to add pagan practices as the Vicar of Christ.
This is the major contradiction inherent in Protestantism's sola scriptura and especially poignant (pungent, smelly, sharply painful to the feelings) in the Church of Christ's Restorationism.
There is no contradiction in deriving all faith and practice from the Bible as the single document of the Christian religion. Nor is there any contradiction in excluding the ancient Babylonian story of the triads of Gods, the Mother of God, musical appeals to the lost gods or the clergy system as a blessing as opposed to the Jewish imposition as a curse.
This writer is aware of no church of Christ "doctrine" which is not derived (however faulted) from the Bible. And we are not aware of any secular book which is used as authority for faith and practice.
Because God will send strong delusions to those who do not love the truth, it may be more important to read, study, meditate and try to conform to the universal principles of righteousness and justice than to spend one's entire lifetime as an authority for explaining God to the world.
The member of the Church of Christ is forced to accept an authority outside of Scripture to learn how to understand the Scriptures.
If a member of the church of Christ is forced to consult some book other than the Bible to understand the Words of God then isn't it implied that God is incompetent? We have heard it said, almost literally, "God is not able to communicate to you through the Bible. However, because I am a trained hermeneut, I can -- for a proce."
This has meaning only in the context of using the Bible as a grab-bag for constructing "systems of worship" but has no meaning if the Bible is to be taken en toto as the system of study to inquire about God.
If Jesus said, "Go preach, baptize and preach" it appears that all of the early readers understood that to mean "go preach, baptize and preach." It took the "poignant" fall into professionalism which suggested otherwise. If Paul said "fill up with the Word of Christ and then speak to one another to teach and admonish" then no one could suggest, "well, he didn't say don't use an instrument."
When Jesus said that belief or faith was a requirement to repentance, baptism and salvation which "book" was used to begin baptizing unconscious babies who know no sin?
An ancient lover of the Word who probably didn't understand modern scholarly jargon wrote the Odes of Solomon:
ODE 12. An exceptionally high level of spiritual thought. 1 He hath filled me with words of truth; that I may speak the same;
2 And like the flow of waters flows truth from my mouth, and my lips show forth His fruit.
3 And He has caused His knowledge to abound in me, because the mouth of the Lord is the true Word, and the door of His light;
Let the word of Christ (spirit) dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:16
4 And the Most High hath given it to His words,
- which are the interpreters of His own beauty,
- and the repeaters of His praise, and
- the confessors of His counsel and
- the heralds of His thought and
- the chasteners of His servants.
5 For the swiftness of the Word is inexpressible, and like its expression is its swiftness and force;
6 And its course knows no limit. Never doth it fail, but it stands sure, and it knows not descent nor the way of it.
7 For as its work is, so is its end: for it is light and the dawning of thought;
8 And by it the worlds talk one to the other; and in the Word there were those that were silent;
9 And from it came love and concord; and they spake one to the other whatever was theirs; and they were penetrated by the Word;
10 And they knew Him who made them, because they were in concord; for the mouth of the Most High spake to them; and His explanation ran by means of it:
11 For the dwelling-place of the Word is man: and its truth is love.
12 Blessed are they who by means thereof have understood everything, and have known the Lord in His truth. Hallelujah.
ODE 13. A strange little Ode. 1 Behold! the Lord is our mirror: open the eyes and see them in Him: and learn the manner of your face:
2 And tell forth praise to His spirit: and wipe off the filth from your face: and love His holiness, and clothe yourselves therewith:
3 And be without stain at all times before Him. Hallelujah.
The Church of Christ relies on extra-biblical authority just as much as the Catholic Church.
Well, no informed Catholic would feel insulted if we said that this is a wrong grasp of truth. The Catholic Encyclopedia on Candles note that:
We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and in the rites paid to the dead.
But the Church from a very early period took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendour of religious ceremonial. We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments, etc.
were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular; they were common to almost all cults.
They are, in fact, part of the natural language of mystical expression, and such things belong quite as much to secular ceremonial as they do to religion. The salute of an assigned number of guns, a tribute which is paid by a warship to the flag of a foreign power, is just as much or as little worthy to be described as superstitious as the display of an assigned number of candles upon the altar at high Mass. The carrying of tapers figures among the marks of respect prescribed to be shown to the highest dignitaries of the Roman Empire in the "Notitia Dignitatum Imperii". It is highly probable that the candles which were borne from a very early period before the pope or the bishop when he went in procession to the sanctuary, or which attended the transport of the book of the Gospels to the ambo or pulpit from which the deacon read, were nothing more than an adaptation of this secular practice. Catholic Encyclopedia on Candles
It is clear that a token understanding of Catholicism grasps that there are two levels of authority for faith and practice:
One is the Scriptures in which there is much agreement between Catholics and churches of Christ. We will look at this in detail later on.
The second, however, is the authority of the Pope as the Vicar of Christ with authority to add or subtract, from pagan rites, anything which will "enhance the splendour of religious ceremonial." The Apocrypha notes that music was added by David to enhance the splendour of his civil court.
The critic is bound to suggest (outside of the doctors of the law) any individual, creed or deliberative body which, like Catholicism, makes decisions for the local congregation in churches of Christ.
Because churches of Christ resting on the Biblical principle that when God speaks we are to be silent, it does not rely on extra-biblical authority for candles, incense, lustral water, pagan rites to the dead, music, lights, perfumes ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells vestments.
Treating God's "hole in the donut" as "an exercise for the student to fill" is the practice of churches of Christ. Adding music, predestination, clergy, organizations, tribal conclaves and workshops of error is disrespecting God's silence. It is the adding which relies on extra-Biblical authority. We need no authority not to do what Christ has not commanded. Understand?
The churches of Christ has no Pope and no Bishop over anything larger than a local congregation.
Therefore, this statement is in error.
With the Catholic Church, however, one finds the claim of infallibility and the impressive testimony of history as to a consistent tradition of hermeneutics. In the Church of Christ, on the other hand,
one finds a substantial break with Christian tradition in the Campbell-Stone Movement which lacks historical credibility.
Catholics "claim" to have enough of Peter's bones to make several. They claimed the right to confiscate property and pay priests, bishops, monks and on and on.
A failure to read history misses the point that at one level or another the church has always existed in an attempt to listen to the Bible and conform faith and practice to it. The bedrock of the movement was "speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent." Or authority from God (like the rest of us) is couched in terms of commands, examples and inferences which the loving disciple will grasp willingly. These statements can be found in writings before the existence of the Catholic Church. Before the Reformation there were restoration movements which restored certain practices. Therefore, the Restoration Movement loses credibility only if the Bible is not a credible document because there is no "denominational structure" above the local congregation and sporatic attempts to usurp the role of the elder by mass gatherings or intellectual incest from the scholars.
Baptism for the remission of sins is the view held en toto before Zwingli. Therefore, by picking up where baptism was minimalized is not a break with church history even if it is a break with Christian tradition.
They refused to continue the Catholic trinity which is a Babylonian model.
- See the Egyptian and Babylonian Model
- None of the early church "Fathers" would agree with the Catholic Trinity
They refusal to adopt musical instruments into the worship is consistent with church history outside of the Seeker-Friendly Catholic church where cathedrals in one trade-fair city competed with another down the road. The Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges the church of Christ view of music. Therefore, the Restoration did not break with church history.
The Catholic church has some views about musical "worship" which would surprise most Catholics not encouraged to read the Bible. For instance:
- Catholic Encyclopedia Instrumental Music
- Catholic Encyclopedia Singing
- Catholic Encyclopedia Congregational Singing
- Catholic Encyclopedia Ecclesiastical Music No Instruments for the Pope
- Catholic Encyclopedia The Mass - Restoration of Levitical Music
- Musical Minister - Catholic Precentor - First Heresy
The rejection of a paid ministry (protestant priesthood) by the movement is consistent with the Hebrew priesthood, the Reformation leaders such as Luther and Calvin and is not therefore a break with church history.
"Parasites" like Erasmus understood the clergy mind and attitude and wrote what everyone knew about a band of evil people:
- Against The Clergy
- Against the Monks
- Against the Popes
- Against the Princes
John Calvin tells us why it was absolutely necessary to Reform.
Local autonomy was a break with most of tradition and restored the New Testament principle which is explained by the Greek ekklesia.
The Lord's Supper as a memorial (do this in memory) rather than literally eating the body of Christ was a break with the Catholic view but consistent with the Reformation.
Quite often Catholics who ignore Jesus saying "the flesh counts for nothing" condemn us all to hell for not being able to understand that the Euchrist is "a legal act of cannabalism." Those who are written off as dishonest or being bad hermeneuts are those who refuse to accept statements such as "he that believes and is baptized shall be saved." In all instances, bad faith is attributed to those who add "acts of worship" for which there is no authority. No one can say that they will be lost but everyone can say that they make unity impossible and are therefore sectarian. To examine the issue of eating the literal flesh of the literal body of the literal Jesus is refuted just by stating the error. We have commented on this elsewhere. First Article -- Second Article
The rejection of the Law of Moses as normative for faith and practice broke with the bodies out of which the church came but is totally consistent with most of the ancient fathers. Catholic sources clearly show that the restoration of the priesthood to replace the priesthood of believers brough by Christ came from the Old Testament.
So, the critic is bound to be specific and say where it broke with the thin-blue-line of faithful men reaching back to the Apostles.
In this article, Thomas H. Olbricht, himself of the Restoration tradition, discusses the true foundations of Church of Christ hermeneutics, demonstrating that it's just a little more complicated than "no creed but Christ."
We will not try to follow all of this material but will pick up on
The Centers of Church of Christ Theology The focus of restoration theology is and continues to be the church and salvation, that is, ecclesiology and soteriology--in the language of Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott, "the ancient order" and "the ancient gospel." In 1836 Walter Scott (1796-1861), one (of) our early fathers, wrote,
The present century, then, is characterized by these three successive steps, which the lovers of our Lord Jesus have been enabled to make, in their return to the original institution. First the Bible was adopted as sole authority in our assemblies, to the exclusion of all other books. Next the Apostolic order was proposed. Finally the True Gospel was restored
The dispensations
Our tripartite dispensationalism has likewise played a decisive role in the manner in which we have interpreted the Scriptures.This formula was first explicit in our literature in Alexander Campbell's famous 1816 "Sermon on the Law" presented to the Redstone Baptist Association. Even before that, however, the authority of the New Testament over against the Old for reestablishing the primitive church was implicit. In the "Declaration and Address" Thomas Campbell wrote:
The New Testament is as perfect a constitution for the worship, discipline, and government of the New Testament Church, and as perfect a rule for the particular duties of its members, as the Old Testament was for the worship, discipline, and government of the Old Testament Church, and the particular duties of its members.
In our movement ever since, we have been adamant against employing the Old Testament to support any Christian practice.
This is not strictly true. For instance, how one interprets Scripture is regularly explained by all of the cases where God expressed His Will and mankind disobeyed it: In the garden, the flood event, Egyptian bondage sin at Mount Sinai and the wilderness wandering. The high-handed rejection of the Word through the prophets in favor of a worship like the nations under a human Monarchy is well understood.
The flood event is regularly used as a type of baptism. So is the crossing of the Red Sea. The Law is understood as given "because of transgression" and not as a spiritual guide to bring salvation. Any novice understands the non-use of music in "worship in spirit" based upon the Monarchy which was a national or civil worship. Without the employment of instruments by David under the commanders of the army understanding Paul's "singing in the spirit" while honoring the words of Christ would be only dimly grasped.
Because Israel worshiped in the synagogues and not in the temple rituals the synagogues are used to help define the church.
While enemies of churches of Christ claim some new, radical and even "stinky" and destructive hermeneutic, all of the ancients understood why the Law of Moses was not suitable for Christian faith and practice:
Dialogue of Justin Martyr with Trypho, a Jew
- b. c. 100,, Flavia Neapolis, Palestine [now Nabulus]
- d. c. 165,, Rome [Italy]; feast day June 1
Chapter XI.-The Law Abrogated; The New Testament Promised and Given by God.
"There will be no other God, O Trypho, nor was there from eternity any other existing" (I thus addressed him), "but He who made and disposed all this universe. Nor do we think that there is one God for us, another for you, but that He alone is God who led your fathers out from Egypt with a strong hand and a high arm. Nor have we trusted in any other (for there is no other), but in Him in whom you also have trusted, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. But we do not trust through Moses or through the law; for then we would do the same as yourselves.
But now -(for I have read that there shall be a final law, and a covenant, the chiefest of all, which it is now incumbent on all men to observe, as many as are seeking after the inheritance of God.
- For the law promulgated on Horeb is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone;
- but this is for all universally.
Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one;
and an eternal and final law-namely, Christ-has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy, after which there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance.
Have you not read this which Isaiah says: `Hearken unto Me, hearken unto Me, my people; and, ye kings, give ear unto Me: for a law shall go forth from Me, and My judgment shall be for a light to the nations. My righteousness approaches swiftly, and My salvation shall go forth, and nations shall trust in Mine arm? '22 And by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: `Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt'23 ).
If, therefore, God proclaimed a new covenant which was to be instituted, and this for a light of the nations,
we see and are persuaded that men approach God, leaving their idols and other unrighteousness, through the name of Him who was crucified, Jesus Christ, and abide by their confession even unto death, and maintain piety.
Moreover, by the works and by the attendant miracles, it is possible for all to understand that He is the new law, and the new covenant, and the expectation of those who out of every people wait for the good things of God.
For the true spiritual Israel, and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham (who in uncircumcision was approved of and blessed by God on account of his faith, and called the father of many nations), are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ, as shall be demonstrated while we proceed.
Chapter XVIII.-Christians Would Observe the Law, If They Did Not Know Why It Was Instituted.
"For since you have read, O Trypho, as you yourself admitted, the doctrines taught by our Saviour, I do not think that I have done foolishly in adding some short utterances of His to the prophetic statements. Wash therefore, and be now clean, and put away iniquity from your souls, as God bids you be washed in this laver, and be circumcised with the true circumcision.
For we too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts,
if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined you,-
namely, on account of your transgressions and the hardness of your hearts.
For if we patiently endure all things contrived against us by wicked men and demons, so that even amid cruelties unutterable, death and torments, we pray for mercy to those who inflict such things upon us, and do not wish to give the least retort to any one, even as the new Lawgiver commanded us:
how is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites which do not harm us,-I speak of fleshly circumcision, and Sabbaths, and feasts?
To understand Martin Luther's views which the Campbells would defend Click Here..
To see the views of John Calvin Click Here.
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