It’s no secret that the United Methodist Church is in the midst of difficult conversation about who we are as a church, who we are called to be in the future, and how we interpret scripture. These conversations, however challenging, do present us with a unique opportunity to return to the basics of our faith and learn, and hopefully appreciate, our Wesleyan tradition.
In this series I will share what guidelines come from our Methodist tradition regarding how and in what fashion a Methodist is encouraged to read and interpret the Bible.
I’m going to try and stick to what should be Methodist-common-ground. What I mean by common ground is this: all United Methodist Bishops, Elders, and Deacons have stood before their Annual Conferences and taken vows acknowledging that they have studied the church’s foundational documents, that they agree with them, and pledge to teach, uphold, and maintain them. While It’s true that each minister may apply these rules in their own particular fashion, we have at least all agreed to the same set of rules found in the United Methodist Book of Discipline.
Reviewing these gives us a unique opportunity to look at our history and see what we have kept, changed, or added along our journey (as we have progressed from Catholic to Anglican to Methodist to United Methodist). These documents are supposed to reflect how we understand Christianity, what we believe, and how we believe the church should be run.
Our Articles of Religion
John Wesley, upon forming the Methodist Episcopal Church took the Anglican Articles of religion and made only a few revisions to them in order to create our Methodist statements of faith. When the Methodist Episcopal church joined with the Evangelical United Brethren to form the United Methodist Church in 1968 there were two sets of “articles of religion”. They had many similarities. At that time, the United Methodist Church decided not to combine the two sets into one, but rather recorded both statements of faith together in our Book of Discipline. Our congregation (in Downs since 1833) was a Methodist Episcopal church before the 1968 merger, you can even see the abbreviation M.E. Church on the front of the old building.
You can read these documents in their original form here: The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church (umc.org) and here: Confession of Faith of The Evangelical United Brethren Church (umc.org) These statements of faith provide the basic understanding of what we believe as United Methodist Christians. They speak specifically about the Bible in Articles V and VI of the Methodist Church, and Article IV of the Evangelical United Bretheren’s Confession. Altogether they make the following points about the Bible:
- Scripture contains everything you need to know in order to be saved. Another way to say this is: The Bible reveals the Word of God so far as it is necessary for our salvation.
- Anything that is not read in or proved by scripture is not an article of faith and is not necessary to be believed in order to be saved.
- The 66 books of the Bible in the Protestant tradition (excluding the Catholic Apocrypha) are considered to be canonical. This means that we, as a church, do not doubt their authority.
- The Old Testament is not contrary to the New. We interpret the Old testament by dividing the laws/rules of the Old Testament into three categories: Ritual (which are non-binding to Christians), Civic (which may or may not be received by the government we live under), and Moral (which are still considered binding and applicable to Christians).
- We receive scripture, through the Holy Spirit, as the “true rule and guide for faith and practice.”
So, what does all this look like In Application:
As I mentioned, all United Methodist ministers and leaders have agreed to these foundational documents and pledged to uphold and maintain them. How has this been done at Downs UMC over the past 10 or so years?
- When we teach the Bible, we do so with a focus on salvation and discipleship. Our foundational documents share what kind of information is found in scripture: Saving information. This is all about having a right relationship with God. The bible teaches everything we need to know to experience the loving gift of salvation through Jesus Christ: forgiven sins, the gift of heaven, and the chance to be a part of the work of God here on earth.
- As a side note, if you approach the Bible expecting to learn about human history, ancient cultures, or any other such topic, we have no doctrine stating that the Bible says “all you need to know about this”. The Bible is not a full record of human history (even though it has some very good, relevant, and accurate historical info), The Bible is instead a full record of what we need to know in order to be saved.
- We treat the Bible differently than any other book. We consider it to be the inspired Word of God, and believe that prayer should be a part of Bible Study.
- We both believe and expect that any work with the Bible has the potential to be an experience with the Holy Spirit.
- We teach “Biblical Theology” which is the union of the Old and New Testament.
- We do take seriously the caution that is encouraged by our foundational documents. It is important that the work we do in ministry and teaching not add something to the scriptural record that isn’t already there, OR remove something from the scriptural record that is clearly present.
These are the guidelines set by our tradition on how we read and interpret scripture, and a few notes about how it has been done at Downs UMC in the last decade. I hope you find them encouraging, thought provoking, and helpful guidelines for reading scripture. In the next article we’ll take a look at the sermons and notes of John Wesley and the General Rules of the Methodist Church.