For two centuries now in Protestant communities the Bible has been under suspicion.
It is accused of being factually false, spiritually wrongheaded, ethically irrelevant, and antihuman in its overall influence. Once, most Westerners knew something of what was in the ‘Good Book’; nowadays, however, very few know or care what the Bible teaches. Though the criticisms and doubts about Scripture have been compellingly countered over and over again, that does not change the secular mind-set or banish biblical illiteracy from our midst. Yet ignorance of the Bible remains tragic, for it virtually guarantees ignorance of God. To re-establish in people’s minds the truth and wisdom of the biblical message is perhaps the church’s most urgent task today.
Who’s there?
Taking faith seriously means taking seriously the fact that Christianity has a given and abiding truth-content, and that therefore we must take the Bible seriously as the authoritative, self-revealing Word of our authoritative God. From this it follows that we must take God seriously in the terms in which the Bible displays him.
