1 – Has God spoken?
Spirituality is in the cultural air that we breathe. According to the latest Census, people’s participation in organised religion continues to decline whilst interest in spirituality has increased. The Oxford dictionary defines spirituality as the quality of being connected with religion or the human spirit. This reflects that people are still searching for that which is lasting and eternal to give their lives meaning.
But in our post-truth culture, spirituality is seen as self-determined, a spirituality based on what suits a person. Our culture shuns truth because it is a barrier to unfettered individual autonomy. Free from any authority, personal choice and preference is at the heart of this worldview and the reason many describe themselves as spiritual rather than religious.
But post-truth, which captures the mood of our culture, is rebellion from the beginning. “Has God spoken?” (Genesis 3:1). This was the ultimate question in search of autonomy “Has God given us His Word?” The answer to that question meant life or death. Adam and Eve were driven from the garden because they reached for knowledge that distrusted God and sought to exclude Him. They wanted to determine their own destiny and so dishonoured the One who knew them first.
Through God’s revelation, we discover that all authority belongs to God. The Bible is authoritative because it is the trustworthy record of God’s self-disclosure that invites us into a life of communion with Him and participation in His eternal purpose. God’s authority is based on His character for He is a loving, wise and good Creator who is active in His world through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
“The authority of Scripture when unpacked offers a picture of God’s sovereign and saving plan for the entire cosmos dramatically inaugurated by Jesus Himself and now to be implemented through the Spirit led life of the church precisely as the Scripture-reading community.” (Wright, 1991)
How can this ancient text be authoritative for our students in the 21st Century? Many of the influential voices in the lives of our students are master story-tellers. When you tell your students a story you invite them into a different world to see reality and themselves in new ways. Those who led revolutions told stories about the past, the present and future. They invited people to participate in their story and lives were changed. History reveals the pain and suffering of many who believed in those who led them astray.
How wonderful is it when God our Creator and Redeemer breathes through His Word. So it is important that in our role as teachers that we read and understand the Bible as many diverse stories, some very complex and surprising which come together in Christ. Our calling is to draw each generation into the plot of this story and inspire and equip our students to carry it forward.
“God’s Word places us in the timeline of a coherent history, delivering us from the deceptions of the enemy, telling us who we are, and where we came from, what is wrong with us, how we are made whole, and where we are going. We are placed within a story of which we know and celebrate the outcome, even as we wait for it through time and trial. In Christ, history’s outcome – its ultimate end is revealed. Dark days may follow, but the ending is known. It is a story neither deficient, nor untrustworthy.” (Carattini, 2012, p. 1)
What an amazing story. What a privilege to proclaim it to the students in our care.
Grace and Peace
The Excellence Centre
References
- Wright, N.T. (1991). How the Bible be authoritative. The Christian Faith & Action Trust.
- Carattini, J. (2012). Deficient Stories: A slice of Infinity RZIM