christianitycouldchristianitysurvivewith
Christianity
Could Christianity survive without Bible?
Could Christianity survive without the Bible?
I think before we move on with the discussion, we should first make clear the meanings of the words we are discussing.
· Christianity is a Christian belief and practice.
· Survive is to remain alive or in existence.
· Bible is the sacred scriptures comprising the Old and the New Testament.
And base on this mutual understanding of the words, I will pursue my reasoning in areas as follow:
First is from the historical fact. We all know Christianity started in around A.D. 36 as recorded in the book of Acts 11:26. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. In the history class, we learned that the term outside the Bible was first used when Tacitus recorded that Nero blamed the "Christians" for the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64. As we read on the history, we see that Christians have been facing with tremendous persecution of some kind somewhere right from the first day at Antioch until this very moment I am writing this article. Yet, Christianity prospers throughout all these difficult years. Is Bible the source of the survival?
We will not go into length to discuss the Hebrew Torah or the Greek Pentateuch or Latin Vulgate of the Bible history. Bible etymologically means the papyrus roll and first printed in English by Coverdale in 1535. From the time the first papyrus roll Bible was scattered in 2nd century Christian churches until Coverdale, history had witnessed that Bible never did play a major role in the survival of Christianity. When the Latin Vulgate was the main Bible edition used in the Catholic Church, Christians were not allowed to own or read Bible. The interpretation of the Bible was solely in the hand of the Church leaders. The Bible was never used as the sole authority of God’s word. Church teaching was based on both the Bible and Church Traditions.
Worse, Bible was intentionally or negligently misinterpreted to the benefit of some Priests. The situation deteriorated so badly to the point where Martin Luther protested the Indulgence Decree initiated by the Pope with his 95 thesis on the church door at Wittenberg. Was Christianity survived during this period of Biblical abuse and scandal? Again history told us “yes”, it did.
During the Chinese Cultural revolution from 1963 to1969, China was under the iron-hand communist ruler Mao Se-Tung. His communist economic policy known as “The great leap forward” turned out to be a total disaster. Ten and thousand of people died out of starvation. Christian was brutally persecuted. There were no meeting, no praying, no worship, no church and certainly no Bible. Was Christianity survived?
“Yes”, it did. But not only survived, it multiplied. Christians in China actually tripled during this time known as the silent period. We were praying for them at the time. We could not do anything much besides praying in tears for we heard some of our brothers in Christ were gunned down for leading house meeting secretly to worship God..
A few years ago, our Cambodia neighbor ran into the Chinese style Christian persecution. At least 1 million people were killed under the communist Poi pot regime. We were gathering money to buy Bibles to dump into the sea coast in hope that fishermen will pick them up for their Christian family. The idea was pulled back for fear that Christian may suffered harsh penalty if our activity was discovered by the Cambodian authority. Christians in Cambodia today are still suffering persecution. They do not enjoy the luxury of Christianity you and I do. But they have survived and thriving. History again tells us that Christianity could survive without the Bible.
The Bible itself confirms that God never intends the Bible to survive Christianity. Our survival depends on God Himself. For “the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible quality – His eternal power and Divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse - Rome 1:18-20
Jesus Himself clearly stated that He is the One, not the Bible, who survives Christianity. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand - John 10:28. Paul further echoed Jesus’ teaching in Ephesians 1:11-12, “In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will…”
The purpose of the Bible has never been to make or to give or to restore or have any thing directly to do with the survival of Christianity in the sense as to remain alive or in existence as defined earlier. The purpose of the Bible has many folds and chief among them is the revelation of God Himself.
Paul said in Ephesians 3:3-6 that Christ revealed Himself and His Gospel to us in writing. God intends His Words – Himself – Bible as Good News He has made in the 2 Testaments for “those who ever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”. Paul again said that the Holy Scripture has a purpose to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus - 2 Timothy 3:15. Simply put, it is to let you have the wisdom, knowledge and make you understand the revelation of salvation by faith.
The subordinate purpose of the Bible is to teach, rebuke, correct, and train in righteousness so that man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work, 2 Timothy 3:16-17. And we should obediently let the Bible do the works as such as intended by God. Thus, I would conclude that Christianity could certainly survive without the Bible.