The Logos Receptus

What great risk do we run with our "love and acceptance"? I don't mean to sound like a "fundamentalist." But just the same, I am not a "liberal," so to speak. To be honest, these titles scare me. It seems like a label really only serves two purposes: to make it easier to judge another while hiding oneself. The problems seen in our culture can be seen and outlined by my personal new favorite field of study: textual criticism.

You see, when multiple manuscripts with variant readings were first discovered, many immediately lost their faith. It didn't appeal to many Christians to believe that what they understood as the Word of God might have problems. This caused some to cling more tightly to what they had been handed without considering the possibilities of the truth. They wrapped their pudgy fingers around the King James Version and condemned text critics as heretics. This was the system of faith they had received, and, of course, this was enough. It was true enough for them, anyway. The system has worked, so why change it? Even until today, there are those who cannot fathom the possibility of variation.

By now, there has become an adequate response to that view that simply tosses Scripture into the wind for failing to maintain its own integrity. These, led by Ehrman, have studied textual criticism in detail and have deemed the Bible as unknowable in truth, and therefore all copies now extant are unreliable. Ehrman and those in his camp have decided that the system which was handed down is flawed. It is full of errors. Therefore, the book and the religion are unreliable.

In my life, I see a great battle raging between the "conservative traditionalists" and the "liberal relativists." There are those who cling to the way things have always been, and they are opposed who feel lied to by such traditions. One loves to condemn the outsiders, while the other continually justifies the actions of the "sinful" (and therefore their own habits).

It only makes sense to me that both models fail to evaluate each situation as an individual phenomenon. My life lacks rational eclecticism. I have doctrines and policies that I force upon myself. Whether they are conservative tendencies of so-called "orthodoxy," or my liberal acceptance of all people. Instead, I should avoid what can only be called legalism, and evaluate every spiritual experience through the "supply of Jesus Christ's Spirit."

I do believe that the Bible is the perfect word of God. I also believe that the Logos of God speaks to us today through it. We should never lack in diligence to critically evaluate the "variants" in our lives based on the Truth of God, revealed by his Spirit through his Book.