Methodist and Baptist

I left my first review of Covenant Community unfinished, primarily because I wanted to digest the experience more. I also wanted explain why I am not currently comfortable with the idea of attending a Methodist Church.

The United Methodist Church does a lot of things well. Mama grew up as a Methodist. My boss is a Methodist. I am currently working with and for good and godly Methodist men and women as we work out a master plan for Lake Junaluska. Methodists have always been active in the community (refer to this). I believe that Methodists and Baptists would agree on major doctrine (the character and nature of God, the deity of Christ, justification by faith in Christ, etc.)

My current understanding of Methodist belief and tradition is that Methodists (as a faith) do not believe in the doctrine of biblical inerrancy (refer to this). The Methodist Book of Discipline says that the Bible contains everything necessary for salvation. I agree with that statement. I would go quite a bit further and say that the original autographs of the books of the Bible were divinely inspired and inerrant. (Go here for a better treatment of the subject.) I am in agreement with Augustine, who states, "If we are perplexed by an apparent contradiction in Scripture, it is not allowable to say, 'The author of this book is mistaken'; but either the manuscript is faulty, or the translation is wrong, or you have not understood". (Book XII, Reply to Faustus the Manichean)

Contrast that statement with this, from Bishop Kenneth Carder: "What is the Bible's authority? As I understand it, the Bible's authority does not lie in its verbal inerrancy or even its factual accuracy. " (source) Or this from Rev. H. Neill McFarland: "Ascribing inerrancy to the Bible is actually the ultimate gesture in subverting its real importance. If the function of the Bible is to define and freeze some status quo ante as a divinely prescribed human norm, the Bible is essentially obsolete and irrelevant in certain details." (source)

There is no need to beat this subject to death; there are a variety of books and sermons on the topic, not to mention a host of blogs and forums where people argue the subject. I know where I am, and I am not comfortable with a a denomination that tries to distance itself from the authority of Scripture. I know that I don't live out everything commanded in Scripture. I will agree that I should.