Scripture and God in Christianity

tance of the New Testament mythology would be arbitrary, and to press for its acceptance as an
article of faith would be to reduce faith to works." 185 Modern man's knowledge and mastery of
the world has advanced to such an extent that he is no more interested in this pre-scientific and
mythical eschatology, "Man's knowledge and mastery of the world have advanced to such an extent
through science and technology that it is no longer possible for anyone seriously to hold the
New Testament view of the world- in fact there is no one who does." 186 If the Christians want to
save the truth and message of the New Testament "the only way is to demythologize it." 187 The
New Testament itself invites such a revolutionary process, "the principal demand for the criticism
of mythology comes from a curious contradiction which runs right through the New Testament."
188
The demythologization of the Scriptures can be achieved only through "an existentialist interpretation"
of the New Testament. Bultmann and his school have given a great deal of thought to
hermeneutics and scriptural interpretation. They believe that the Christian Gospel is the proclamation
of something God has done once for all in the early decades of our era. That kerygma, as
Bultmann calls it, of the New Testament can be made fully intelligible and acceptable today once
interpreted by appropriate hermeneutic techniques apart from mythology. This kerygma will offer
"man an understanding of himself which will challenge him to a genuine existential decision." 189
The scholars following the existential approach view the Scriptures as the unique place where the
believer encounters the Word of God. To them only the Christ is the Word of God and the Scriptures
are fallible, finite and human witness/response to Christ. The Scriptures become the Word
of God only because God uses them to reveal Himself. The spoken word, says Brunner, "is an indirect
revelation when it bears witness to the real revelation: Jesus Christ, the personal selfmanifestation
of God, Emmanuel." 190 Therefore, the "Scriptures- first of all the testimony of the
Apostle to Christ- is the "crib wherein Christ lieth" (Luther). It is a "word" inspired by the Spirit
of God ; yet at the same time it is a human massage; its "human character" means that it is colored
by the frailty and imperfection of all that is human." 191 This question remains unanswered:
how in the world is anyone going to know the true "Word of God" while the sole source of information
about the Word i.e. the Scripture is imperfect and unauthentic. How could it be that the
Holy Spirit or the Divine Providence preserved and guarded the text and truths of certain parts of
the Scriptures and let the others be suffered and disfigured by imperfect human beings?
For Paul Tillich the Scripture is less revelation itself than record of revelation; revelation takes
place in a dialectical encounter between God and man. The Scriptural text is the report of such an
encounter. "The Bible is a document of the divine self-manifestation and of the way in which
human beings have received it...The basic error of fundamentalism is that it overlooks the contribution
of the receptive side in revelatory situation and consequently identifies one individual and
conditioned form of receiving the divine with the divine itself." 192 The question remains still unanswered.
What are the other forms and ways of receiving the divine and how authentic and objective
are they? Would they not lead us to sheer subjectivity? What would be the methods and
tools of verifying the authenticity and rationality of such forms or claims?
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