Press Releases
'THE BIBLE IS STILL A WORLD BEST SELLER' BISHOP HENDERSON
Speaking today at the opening of the Tuam, Killala and Achonry Synod and at the beginning of National Bible Week, the Bishop Richard Henderson, said:
“The Bible has a bearing on very many contemporary issues that perplex us. Its needful truth will be best perceived, and least error-prone when it is studied by Christians together – across our church and denominational boundaries.
“The Bible is still, even in the 21st Century, a world best seller. It is a single volume containing an apparently modest enough library of 66 books of all sorts of religious genres. It has been translated into hundreds of languages, and is available in many, many versions; it is on nearly all our shelves at home and most bookshops. The Bible is an unbelievably precious resource to us, and very significantly, the scriptures are the common text of all Christian people, whether denominational or not; a wonderful point of unity and inspiration.
“Properly understood the scriptures are profoundly disturbing (as well as comforting) and are an astonishing repository of the wisdom of God - and we need them as much as ever in changing times. Truly, they bring the God question, the God reality, into the world.
“What a remarkable thing in such a divided Christendom – never mind a multicultural world - to have a common text, speaking of God! In our inventive desire to fix things by our own effort and imagination, have we missed the primary importance of this? Surely we should be doing all we can to read the scriptures together – across our denominational boundaries?
“The great wisdom of the Bible needs to be understood in community – where there will be different points of view on the same writing. This makes some logical sense; it is the writing of communities, and it speaks of a communal God, Father, Son and Holy Sprit. This is not to say that we cannot study it on our own, of course – we can and should – but not in complete isolation. The greatest safeguard against misuse of the Bible is the community of faith; this can and must be pan-denominational.
"It is truth that we are looking for in a rapidly changing world of many half truths. Revealed truth in the Bible it is most certainly there, but is contained in a whole ecology of writings – poetry, history, prophecy, parable, moral teaching – distillations of faith that has been lived and tested, documented and passed on. Our task is to immerse ourselves in this great Bible story, or drama as it has been called, and to work out our own act in our own time but always firmly based on what has gone before. Notice that I am not speaking about straying from orthodoxy, but of going deeper within it.
“The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13 New International Version
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