Creeds, Cults, and the Bible

Did you know the Table of Contents in your Bible is a creed? Where do you think our Bible came from? It didn't fall out of the sky! It was given to us within an historic context, written over thousands of years. Douglas Wilson has said, "Before we come to the Word of God in Genesis 1:1, we come to the word of the church in the table of contents." In other words, what Wilson means is you won't find anywhere in the Bible itself where it says, "These 66 books are the ones we need to use." The table of contents is a creed (or a statement of belief) because we, as Christians are trusting somewhere along the line that somebody with some kind of authority, recognized those 66 books as the inspired Word of God..and got it right. Keith Mathison has a great book on this; The Shape of Sola Scriptura

Interestingly enough, the Bible must be read, and it must be interpreted. If the final appeal to authority is to the mind of the individual, we've got a serious problem. This is where cults come from; i.e. Jehovah's Witnesses (Arians) and Mormons (Gnostics). Those cults hold to ancient heresies which have already been dealt with in the church. Why do these "newer" cults advocate the same doctrine taught by ancient heretics? Because somewhere along the line, their leaders encouraged their followers to abandon the historic creeds and confessions of the faith.

The Bible is Hugely Typological

I've been reading Mike Bull's book Bible Matrix and it's got me thinking about Bible interpretation and symbols. Maybe because I'm a visual artist I tend to be attracted to biblical typology. Yes, there is a continuity of essence in biblical theology but the Bible does not come to us as a systematic theology. It's history; a history of full of symbols. And yes, many of those symbols have come to end because Christ has come. But understanding them in their historical-redemptive context, helps us better to understand what they have fulfilled. We shouldn't ignore what they were pointing too.

The Bible is hugely typological, i.e,. 7-day creation week, tabernacle and all the symbols therein, the temple, dietary laws, man himself is created as a symbol: "imago Dei." Indeed, all of creation is symbolic, "the heavens declare the glory of God." Paul calls the church the "body of Christ." The sun and moon are symbols that rule: "And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars."

Symbols that are repeated time and time again are like a musical refrain. If you watch The Empire Strikes Back and you hear that deep, dark, brooding, powerful tune: Dum Da Da Dum, Dum Da Dum, Dum Da Dum, you don't have to be a genius to know who's coming up in the next scene: Darth Vader'! The Bible has very similar patterns and to ignore them is to miss something. Why does Acts 15:29 say they were to stay away from things that were strangled? "I don't know....let's just skip over that part!" No, we can't do that. The writer had a reason for including that and our task is to understand why he said it.

Sure, typology can be overdone and has been abused, but typological patterns are there and they have something to teach us about covenant theology. Chiasms are there too and ought not to be ignored when doing biblical exegesis. Sorry, but if we ignore them we are not seeing the forest for the trees.

Table of Contents as a Creed

As soon as someone sets out to read the Bible, the next logical step is to interpret it and formulate doctrine. The Bible does not read itself and it needs to be understood as a collective unit. Unfortunately even the best of Christians can misinterpret the Bible. That's why the Holy Spirit has given various gifts to the Church and those gifts, ie. teaching, wisdom, etc. are to be used collectively, as a body. The Bible did not just "fall out of the sky." It has it's own history.

Someone once said, "Before we come to the Word of God in Genesis 1:1 we come to the "word of the church" in the table of contents of the Bible." And my point? Those who boldly proclaim, "No creed but the Bible," unwittingly hold to at least a couple of creeds:

1. The creed which says, "No creed but the Bible." (Try though you might, you will not find it in there! Neither will you find "God helps those who help themselves," nor "Cleanliness is next to godliness."

2. The Table of Contents in the Bible is itself a creed. Again, the Bible did not just fall out of the sky. Somewhere down through the course of history we're trusting that when someone acknowledged the 66 books of the Bible were indeed the Word of God, they got it right!

The Westminster Confession of Faith is not on the same level of authority as The Bible and neither are our moms and dads. However this does not negate that creeds such as The Apostle's, The Nicene, Etc. along with the Three Forms of Unity, and others carry authority. When a parent says, "Eat your peas, Junior!" that's authoritative, and God supports that kind of authority. The creeds and confessions are authoritative as long as they correctly interpret and stand under the Bible as secondary authorities.

If you are interpreting the Bible ONLY as an individual, you are not holding to the doctrine of sola Scriptura but rather SOLO Scriptura.