by Chris Ritter
Back in 2017, I was honored to author a chapter called “Faithfully Engaging the Scriptures” in A Firm Foundation: Hope and Vision for a New Methodist Future, published by Seedbed for the Wesleyan Covenant Association. Better honoring the Bible was an identified denominational corrective for the Christians that would later form the Global Methodist Church. Now that our church is headed toward its convening General Conference in September 2024, a respectful debate is underway on how to define that honor. The GMC is not really at risk of leaving San Jose like United Methodism crept from its cradle in 1968… not really sure what we collectively believed.* Reaching consensus on GMC doctrinal standards was easy enough. But what doesn’t seem as settled is why we believe what we believe. What is the role of Scripture?
“The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it!” Good enough? Maybe for an individual’s devotional reading it is. But life together requires thinking, believing, and acting together. Reaching spiritual consensus on weighty matters is important and difficult work. The Bible is a complex, multi-layered, and multi-part text with thousands of years of interpretive history. There are bad ways of interpreting it. “Scarce ever,” said Wesley, “was any erroneous opinion either invented or received, but Scripture was quoted to defend it.” Even Satan can quote the Bible (Luke 4:9, 10).
There are also key Christian doctrines that, while derived from Scripture, do not easily jump off the page. It took the Church over 300 years to define how Jesus was both God and man. A neophyte sitting alone on a desert island with a Bible would almost certainly not arrive precisely at the orthodox trinitarian position. The GMC identifies ancient ecumenical creeds like the Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon as essential doctrinal sources. We also re-emphasize Methodist doctrinal standards like the Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith. On the Bible, the Articles (adapted from the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England by Wesley in 1784) affirm:
“The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the church.”
Wesley made no changes to this article from what the Church of England had already affirmed since 1563.
The Evangelical Debate
Many Global Methodists cut their spiritual teeth in the context of American Evangelicalism. This is where words like “inerrant” and “infallible” enter the debate over the Bible. The Late Nineteenth Century presented major challenges in Christianity. One response to Darwin and growing theological revisionism was Christian Fundamentalism. While rejecting modernism, Fundamentalists used a very modernist framework for understanding the Bible. The Scriptures are authoritative because they are true.. true by all measures available. The 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy affirms:
“Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.”
“Verbal” inspiration is meant to guard against views the Bible is inspired by God in the way a poem might be inspired by a beautiful sunset. While the poet took inspiration from the sunset, the sunset is in no way responsible for the poem. No, for Fundamentalists, every jot and tittle of the Bible was dictated by God and therefore true. This definition of inerrancy tended to re-center Christian apologetics on the historical and scientific veracity of the Bible as evidence of its spiritual value. This opened something of an intellectual ghetto for those obliged to defend certain ancient views on geology and cosmology as the prerequisite to following Jesus. Christian flat-earth-ers would be one extreme example. But Ken Ham and “Answers in Genesis” would also fit this general category. Christians like Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health and the Human Genome Project, helped launch Bio Logos, a site dedicated to reconciling Scripture and science. This reconciliation is largely accomplished through a broadened interpretation of the Scriptures.
Biblical infallibility makes the humbler claim that “the Bible is completely trustworthy as a guide to salvation and the life of faith and will not fail to accomplish its purpose.” The mediation of Scripture through human authors accounts for the difficulties denied by inerrantists. The Bible is a book about salvation and is infallibly trustworthy on that topic. Tom Lambrecht has argued that this is view that best matches John Wesley’s convictions. This also seems to be the view reflected in the Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church (written in 1962), part of the GMC doctrinal standards: “We believe the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, reveals the Word of God so far as it is necessary for our salvation. It is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice. Whatever is not revealed in or established by the Holy Scriptures is not to be made an article of faith nor is it to be taught as essential to salvation.” (emphasis added) Is it significant that the Confession says that Bible reveals the Word of God instead of is the Word of God?
The GMC comes together at a time when wider evangelicalism is in the throes of a biblical authority crisis over the ethical and moral teachings of the Bible on marriage, gender roles, justice issues, and human sexuality. After watching a withering attack on the ethical teachings of the Bible by atheist Sam Harris, Andy Stanley proposed shifting the foundation of Christianity from the Bible to the historical event of the Resurrection of Jesus. It made headlines that a high profile figure of such notable Southern Baptist pedigree should argue that Christianity “unhitch” from the Old Testament. Another mega-pastor, Methodist Adam Hamilton, argued that the Bible should be sorted into three buckets: Those passages that reflect God’s will, those passages that once reflected God’s will, and those passages that never reflected God’s will. Global Methodists want to avoid this bucket brigade. But how?
Ancient Solutions
Billy Abraham, of blessed memory and a mentor of many Methodist clergy (including me), recognized the inherent problem of authority in Methodism and spent his academic career offering perspectives from his rich grounding in epistemology. His proposal, “Canonical Theism” has been called Post-Protestant. The central thesis of his work is that “the good and life-giving Holy Spirit has equipped the church with not only a canon of scripture but also with a rich canonical heritage of materials, persons, and practices.” The Christian Canon(s), therefore, rightly includes elements of Tradition. Billy was a theological powerhouse on the orthodox side of United Methodist theological debates. It might surprise some that he viewed the Reformation adage of sola scriptura (scripture alone) as wrong-headed as taken as a criterion for belief. (In its naked form, sola scriptura actually makes every reader their own final arbiter of truth and this can lead only the division.) “[Abraham] believes epistemological conceptions of the Bible [infallibility, inerrancy] to be ‘bankrupt’ and instead views the Scriptures as a means of grace, its treasures daily food for our hearts and minds.” (Morris-Chapman)
Ancient churches do not get in quite the same twist over Scripture that Protestants do. Billy Abraham was a fan of Eastern Orthodoxy which is comfortable viewing the faith in terms of mysteries in which we participate rather than propositions we understand and defend. They rely on something like a consensus of the saints in biblical interpretation. Notable conservative evangelicals like Hank Hannegraaff (“The Bible Answer Man”) have officially converted to Orthodoxy. Stanley Hauerwas at Duke Divinity School was a fan of Roman Catholicism and several United Methodists have officially “crossed the Tiber.” Ancient churches have a toothsome ecclesiology (theology of the church) that allows their magisteria to serve as referee: “Do we believe the Bible? Of course! We wrote it. And we have authority to help you read and apply it.” Roman Catholicism has addressed the epistemological challenges posed by modernism by defining the infallibility of the pope rather than infallibility of the Bible.
One reason why Billy Abraham’s proposals (as I understand the ones not completely over my head) have not become operational among Methodists is that they require consensus on a “Great Tradition” that has yet to be defined in a way that helps the church navigate today’s practical ethical questions. You can find Billy’s advice to the Global Methodist Church in his chapter in The Next Methodism: “Doctrine or Death.” Billy’s influence is evident, I think, in calls for the General Conference to resist the temptation to endorse a particular view of scripture as a theological criterion. David Watson, in this vein, has argued that the GMC does not need a single epistemology that defines how we arrive at our doctrines. But the Global Methodist Church has also endorsed Wesley Biblical Seminary which is committed to inerrancy… just like many of our church members, especially those in the Southern United States.
The Road Ahead
Global Methodist doctrinal standards omit labels like “inerrant” and “infallible” in favor of a general assertion that the Bible is inspired by God and contains everything necessary for salvation. In Question 26, our Catechism answers “How must we receive the Scripture? The Holy Bible is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice.” Many Global Methodists have an answer for why, for example, the ordination of women is acceptable and same-sex marriage is not. But the GMC itself has yet to define an interpretive process that yields these results.
Perhaps the real debate will not happen until after the convening General Conference. The proposed Constitution places a restrictive rule on the GMC’s doctrinal standards and these will likely be received by acclamation. But the Constitution also says, “This restrictive rule shall not apply to the development of a combined Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith as approved by the church.” (Proposed Par. 204) I expect that merger of the Articles and Confession into today’s vernacular will generate a fresh wave of robust conversation, especially in what it says about Scripture as a source of authority.
Notable Media from Global Methodists on Scriptural Authority
What follows is a list of relevant media from voices in the Global Methodist Church on the topic of biblical authority:
- Suzanne Nicholson is quoted in a recent article in Christianity Today about the GMC: “The traditional Methodist approach to the Bible is literalist, according to Nicholson, but that doesn’t mean Wesley or other early Methodists like Peter Cartwright and Francis Asbury read everything literally. Instead, they accepted the plain meaning of the text, which involves an assessment of the genre of writing, the literary and historical contexts, and the larger story of Scripture, moving from original sin to justification by faith, new birth, and inward and outward holiness. Methodists should read commentaries alongside Scripture, Nicholson said, and pray and ask for illumination from the Spirit. They should also look back to Wesley’s historic Bible-reading practices.”
- “Thoughts Upon Christian Orthodoxy (Or, Epistemology Can’t Save You)” by David Watson via Firebrand Magazine. “For the Global Methodist Church, I suggest that the best way forward long term is simply to maintain in our standards of doctrine the statements on Scripture.”
- “Navigating the Future: The Role of Scripture in the Global Methodist Church” by Matt O’Reilly via Theology Project. “I, for one, am generally happy with the language of inerrancy, properly understood to mean that the text of scripture speaks without error in what it affirms and taken in light of its genre and the author’s intent. Nevertheless, I don’t think there’s much potential for some in the Methodist tribe to warm to the language of inerrancy, if only because it comes with a lot of baggage.”
- “A Pentecost Vision for Scripture: A Review of Cheryl Bridges Johns’ Re-Enchanting The Text: Discovering the Bible as Sacred, Dangerous, and Mysterious” by Matthew Sichel via Firebrand Magazine. “The emergence of the Global Methodist Church has initiated conversations on a variety of theological topics. In each case, the objective is to build something that is faithful to Wesley’s vision and theology. One such conversation centers on how Wesleyan Christians handle the Bible, and old positions persist, turning on words like inerrancy, infallibility, and authority. Because of this, moving the discussion forward toward consensus is challenging.”
- “Wesleyanism in the Academy & Biblical Interpretation – A Conversation With Dr. Andy Miller III” by Jeffrey Rickman via PlainSpoken Podcast. Miller, a GMC elder, is an advocate for inerrancy language in connection with Scripture.
- “Scripture and Tradition: Revisiting Henri de Lubac as a Resource for Protestants” by Benjamin Aich via Firebrand Magazine. A GMC elder, a Ph.D. Candidate at Asbury, discusses the interplay of Scripture and tradition.
- “A “Pain in the Brain”: Is the Bible Divine Revelation? [Firebrand Big Read]” by David Watson via Firebrand Magazine. The Academic Dean of United Theological Seminary, a GMC clergy, discusses the divine revelation of scripture via the work of Billy Abraham and I. Howard Marshall.
- “The Bible and Revelation: Another View” by Thomas McCall via Firebrand Magazine. A response to David Watson’s article on the authority of scripture in which this Asbury professor offers the Roman Catholic view as an option for Methodists.
- “The Global Methodist Church and the Quadrilateral” by David F. Watson via Firebrand Magazine. “My point is not to reject Scripture, tradition, reason, or experience, but to suggest that without greater definition the appeal to these will leave us knee-deep in a hopeless swamp of confusion.”
- “Sola Scriptura with Ben Witherington III” by Andy Miller III via More to the Story Podcast. “Ben Witherington III suggests that churches and Christians are taking their signals and sense of direction from the culture rather than the biblical witness itself. That’s why he has written Sola Scriptura, a book that clarifies Scripture as the “final authority in the modern world.” Ben was one of my teachers and has written a commentary on every New Testament book. Baylor University Press calls this a ‘magisterial study’ and it is fitting for a scholar like Ben to give the church this volume now.”
- “Moving Beyond the Wesleyan Quadrilateral” by David Wisener via The Earnest Wesleyan. “I think through Canonical theism, Abraham was trying to incorporate into Protestant consciousness a reality that our Roman Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters have recognized all along, and that is the uncomfortable truth that, in some ways, there isn’t all that much of a difference between the Bible and other forms of Christian tradition.”
- “Biblical Authority Calmly Considered” by Thomas McCall via Firebrand Magazine. “…we of the Methodist family would not be well-served by another internecine “Battle for the Bible.” I don’t think that we will be helped by attacks on the catholic account. But I do think that we should be patient and charitable where there are different understandings and even misunderstandings. We need to stand united in our confessional orthodoxy and commitment to gospel proclamation.”
- “What are the Marks of Methodism?” by Matt O’Reilly via The Theology Project (YouTube). The topic of Biblical Authority is discussed as a mark of Methodism.
*The so-called “Wesleyan Quadrilateral,” a proposal by esteemed Methodist theologian Albert Outler, was baked into United Methodism in 1972. The interplay of Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience would functionally replace an agreed set of doctrines to which all are held accountable. This theological pluralism, David Watson has argued, acted as a slow-acting poison that yielded the decline and division we all have witnessed.
People Need Jesus 
Fascinating and enriching! ”Participation in the divine mysteries” of our faith is the invitation God opens to us all, is it not? Thanks, Chris!
The authority of Scripture is not derived of a theory of inspiration or General Conference vote. We don’t introduce young people first to theory of Scripture before engaging it. The engagement comes first, often through worship, then (if we are interested to pursue certain threads of inquiry) on we go. Scripture is sharp and God-breathed. It’s not an academic trifle.