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Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Multiple denominations vs one true interpretation

If God wrote or commissioned a book to be written in his name that was inerrant in it's original form and infallible, It seems that there would be correct interpretation of such a book. 

Granted, this is assuming certain things and does smack of begging the question so, let's step back from the theist vs atheist debate for a moment. 

How would a benevolent, all-knowing, all-powerful god (small g is appropriate as I'm not using a proper name here) who commissioned such a work respond to the many different denominations and interpretations? More importantly, how would such a god respond to those who claim they have the one true interpretation?

There is another subtlety to be discussed related to how do we know what that one interpretation would be, and that is how do we reconcile our fallibility with the infallibility of God and/or scripture? What I mean by that is, if a fallible human says that x is the only correct interpretation, how do we know that the fallible human making a statement claiming infallibility is right, or isn't wrong?

I also see a spectrum from the idea that everyone should interpret it for themselves and interpretation should be carefully considered and arrived at by some authority or corporate entity such as a church, denomination, convention, etc.

One answer would be to say that while there is one correct interpretation of scripture commissioned by an infallible god, no fallible human could ever know for certain. As long as one is faithful to the god who commissioned the work, one could assume that god would be pleased

Edit on 1/24/24: This was written quite a long time ago. I also jotted down a few other ideas for posts that I'm reading through. They might end up seeing the light of day, but they will likely be edited. I'm going to post this one as-is, adding one thing: I've come to understand scripture in a different way than fallible/infallible/inerrant/etc. Rev. Heidi Weatherford of McKinley Memorial Presbyterian Church explains it, if I remember correctly, as we take the Bible seriously, but we don't consider it infallible or inerrant. It is good for learning about Jesus and for learning how to live, but every word in it is not literally true. This is what I've come to believe. I've also been reading both accessible and scholarly works on the nature of scripture and the nature and history of Christianity that have been both eye-opening and thought provoking. Hopefully, I can share more and actually start writing more often as I've tried to do many, many times in the last few decades (at least since my late teens/early twenties and I'm in the last half of my 4th decade.

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