Brethren, I found this article interesting. Click on the link for an interesting illustration accompaning Mrs. Newton's column. My own prefered analogy is of a tricycle with Scripture being the large front wheel -- without it you don't get anywhere and fall flat on your face! Soli Deo Gloria! Drew Collins DSE, REC http://www.adventbirmingham.com/advent/articles.asp?ID=1486 Sitting on the Wrong Stool by Janice Newton I have often been troubled by the three-legged stool concept of Bible, tradition and reason as the stable grounding for the Christian faith and for the Christian’s faith. I have a three-legged stool at home and when my young grandchildren climb on to it, it is so unstable that it tips over. It is not a good place to try and sit. Three-legged stools were designed in olden times to enable the stool not to wobble when placed on uneven floors. If the basis for our faith is already unstable, maybe we want to compensate by giving our explanation of it as three-legged, so it won’t wobble so much when tested. However, as Christians we have a much more secure base upon which to build our faith. We build on the rock that is Christ, upon his words that supply the firm ground for our belief. [1] I remember in my teenage years how we would leave the young peoples Bible Study on a Saturday evening and congregate in our favourite place - the coffee bar at the end of the High Street. There the high stools with yellow, red, green and blue seats were bright and attractive. Their support was a strong steel pole that brought a stylish, shiny appeal to the whole place. Raised above ground level we would sit and discuss everything, from the passage of the Bible we had been studying to the latest in fashions and music, whilst solving the world’s problems, which our parents had failed to address! It is bar stools like these that seem to me to represent a truer picture of the basis for discerning our true Christian inheritance. As God’s people we are set in the world, in the hustle and bustle of ordinary life. We need a secure basis for our faith so that we are not blown about by the latest fads and theories. [2] God has given us the book of books as our inheritance. Through it the God of Truth has communicated with his people down the ages. This is not a God who lies. He has not misled those Christians who taught us the truth and gave us examples to follow. He does not change his mind on a whim or a fashion or a desire to show how intellectually clever he is. In the Bible God speaks to his people, whether they like what they hear or not. Thus the Bible is like the solid, single supporting leg of the stool upon which we sit. Just as the steel bar stools were set in immovable concrete, so, our God has given us a stable support in his word, both in The Word, - our Saviour Christ [3]- the scriptures given for our learning[4]. These are our main and solidly founded support. Nothing equals them. From the beginning they speak of Christ and Christ used them as his yardstick. [5] How much more should we, his disciples. However, God has also given us means for making that scriptural word understandable. Tradition is one of those means. Different people in my youth group chose a different coloured stool to sit on. We each had our favourite colour. Thus, with tradition. This adds colour to the church. In our denominations, in our reading of the early church fathers, in our choice of creeds, we all find the ones we like most. The ones who provide the most comforting or challenging way of helping us unravel some of the truths about God. The padded seats of the bar stools in their vibrant differences provide a comfortable place to sit upon a Bible which often challenges us to be uncomfortable about our prejudices, judgments and ideas. We could sit on the Bible pillar alone, but the padding of tradition makes it easier. We have the rich inheritance of former learning to prevent us making the same mistakes of heresy and apostasy. Tradition helps the sometimes painful truth of God to become absorbable. Tradition helps us to observe the truths of God within the conduct of worship and fellowship in a way that leads us to acknowledge how the old truths have meaning for our lives today. God’s Bible truths should lift us above our earthly selves towards our Maker. The coffee bar stools were too high to slide on easily. In order to perch on them, we needed help to lift ourselves off the ground. There was always a ring around the steel pillar to aid us, to lift us up and to keep our feet firmly based on the metal, so that we neither swung needlessly around nor fell off. [6] The steel ring of reason helps to keep our thought and intellect firmly concentrated on the truth as we look at the Bible. Reason is a God-given, creative part of how God made us like himself in the very beginning. He intends us to be a thoughtful people. However, that thoughtful reasoning is a support. It is not equal to the mind of God and Christ as revealed in His word. How arrogant of humankind that we think we can re-interpret the truths of God to fit our sinful circumstances, in order to justify our actions and thoughts. How meager is our judgment of what is best, when all along God has a better, fuller life to offer us. How egotistically self-centered is our failure to listen to his loving desire to transform us through the forgiving, cleansing actions of Christ, who died to save us. The three-legged stool only serves to instruct our arrogance. It sets two man-centered concepts, tradition and reason, against the God-centered Bible. It provides a false analogy whereby the created being raises itself to claim equality with the Creator. The ring near the base of single legged bar stool reminds us that our reason is only a support to interpret the word of God. The padded seat provides some traditional comfort as we tackle the hard issues of that word challenging us. The steel beauty of the single pillar of the Bible is the major support and strength of the Christian Faith. This is where God speaks to his people. Let us be humble enough to learn from him. How magnificently, wondrously awe-filling it is, that our God communicates to his people through His written word and reveals the truth about His Living Word, our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1]Matthew 7.24 [2]1 Tim. 1.3-6 [3]John 1.1 [4]II Tim. 3.14-17 [5]Luke 24. 25-27 [6]Ephesians 4.13-15 The Rev. Charles A. Collins, Jr., S.B.R., M.Div. Hospice Chaplain 289 Hastings Dr. Goose Creek, SC 29445 Home: (843) 832-6408 Office: (843) 554-4048 E-mail: evanglican@... Weblog: http://www.palmettoanglican.blogspot.com/ "If there were any word of God beside the Scripture, we could never be certain of God's Word; and if we be uncertain of God's Word, the devil might bring in among us a new word, a new doctrine, a new faith, a new church, a new god, yea himself to be a god. If the Church and the Christian faith did not stay itself upon the Word of God certain, as upon a sure and strong foundation, no man could know whether he had a right faith, and whether he were in the true Church of Christ, or in the synagogue of Satan."-- Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Reformer and Martyr _________________________________________________________________ Share holiday photos without swamping your Inbox. Get MSN Extra Storage now! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es