Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology)

by Zondervan

Special and general revelation need to be read in the light of each other. To be sure, biblical revelation has epistemological priority over God’s revelation in creation, but both come with divine authority. God speaks to us through the very structure of creation—

the existence of the church itself as the missional community of those who have responded to, and entered, the kingdom of God by repentance and faith in Christ, and who now seek to live as a transformed and transforming community of reconciliation and blessing in the world.

The Bible, taken as a canonical whole, tells the story of God’s mission in and for the whole world, and with it the story of the people of God whom God has called and sent to participate in that mission. Interpreting any specific biblical material thus requires attending to this pervading story of which it is a part.