Summed up in a single meme:
A wag once observed that Protestantism is the triumph of Paul over Peter and Fundamentalism is the triumph of Paul over Christ. I would add that hyper-bibliolatry is the triumph of MacArthur over John, who rather pointedly writes:
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. (John 21:25)
What lurks behind all this sort of stuff is the unwritten contract (ironically found nowhere in Scripture) that the real Word of God is not Jesus, but a book. It is a theology indistinguishable from Islamic belief in many ways (something MacArthur would be horrified to realize). Reducing God to a book makes him manageable. Reducing him to a book that explicitly tells us he cannot be reduced to a book makes MacArthur incoherent, not to mention hilarious. The prospect of being damned for heresy for supposing that Jesus said, “Please, thank you, what’s for dinner? and Pass the salt” is something only a MacArthur, in his grim, controlling literalism, cannot appreciate.
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One Response
Well put! The Bible tells us some things about God, but not everything. How could it? It isn’t God himself but a repository of what the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, decided we needed. Not to mention the Church gave birth to the Bible, not other way around.