These last few posts and the many comments about the Holy Spirit and His role in the life of today’s Christian has really had me thinking, praying, seeking, and desiring truth regarding the matter. In case you didn’t see this comment, I want to post a portion of a comment by David Rogers.
Christianity, as I understand it, is about a personal relationship with God. What good is a personal relationship if He doesn’t keep speaking to you in personal ways? However, this must be harmonized with the equally important doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. I believe this is possible. Scripture gives us all of the eternal principles. Current day Holy Spirit guidance helps us in the application of those principles. And the Holy Spirit never contradicts what He has already revealed in Scripture
What an excellent synopsis of what we have been discussing.
One additional thought I had that seemed to come from outer space was this. And, Dorcas, who has provided some great responses to my questions in her comments, who seems to be very focused on an almost Bible-only approach, led me to ask these questions: When the readers of John read his gospel and he wrote that Jesus was the logos, did they have the written bible we have today (no) and do you think they read what John wrote as referencing the bible as we have it today (without having it it surely would have been difficult)? An even harder question, assuming John preached or taught from his own writings, do you think he said: when I say Jesus is the logos, I am saying that Jesus is these 66 books of what will one day be called the Holy Bible? Same questions of when Paul wrote 2 Timothy 3:16 or any other verse that refers to the word (like when Paul told Timothy to preach the word).
Please understand, I am not trying to question the canon or suggesting that the Bible is not sufficient, not inerrant, or any such thing. I have a profound love for God’s Word, have faith in its completeness, and, it is the main part of my own personal testimony. I simply am interested in how others respond to these, I think, difficult questions, especially this next one.
As we discussed previously in some of the below comments, God clearly can have much deeper intent than any individual author did when writing, but how do you think the first readers read verses like 2 Timothy 3:16, John 1:1, 2 Timothy 4:2, or the first sermons preached those and should that be important to our understanding of the verses today? I have some thoughts, but I’ll let some comments be made first.