Date: Sat, 02 Aug 1997 01:23:06 GMT
From: (Nigel B. Mitchell)
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian

Rowland Croucher: Now here's a pretty kettle of fish: a liberal Anglo-Catholic taking something in the bible literally while the people who'd be happy to call themselves 'literalists' don't.

Nigel: Rowland, I am disappointed in you. A 'basket of fish' would have been more apt.

You should know by now that there is almost nothing in the Bible that I take 'literally', whatever that means. The scriptures were written by people of faith, in order to pass on their faith, but there are three things - our minds, the fellowship of other Christians (ie the Church), and the Holy Spirit acting in our own lives, which work together to enable us to interpret and understand the scriptures. If the Bible was absoloutely true and self evident, we would not need those things (intelligence, church, Holy Spirit) - we would just need the Bible.

Having said all that, I do believe in the real presence of Jesus in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. I know from the scriptures and other sources that this is what the early Church taught and believed, and although sometimes there have been arguments about definitions, and doomed-to-failure attempts to describe HOW Jesus is present in the sacrament, this understanding has persevered amongst most Christians to this day. I am not silly enough to pray to a biscuit and a cup of wine, nor do I condemn anyone who holds a different understanding of the sacrament as 'unchristian', but when I receive Holy Communion, which is almost every day, I expect an experience of the presence and strengthening power of Jesus such as is described in John 6 and 1 Corinthians 10:16-17. I am seldom disappointed, and when I am it is invariably due to my inattention or preoccupation with something else.

I also believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to act in a person's life through Baptism and the laying on of hands. I hope nothing I have written here would give the impression that I deny the power of the Holy Spirit to act in the Church, and in the lives of individual Christians, in the world today. I have seen, and experienced, too much to ever say that. My argument, with Michael and others. is when they deny the Holy Spirit's freedom to act "according to his will" (1 Cor 12:11), stating that if one particular gift of the Holy Spirit is not present then the Christianity of the person, the ministry of the their church, and the action of the Holy Spirit in their lives, is bogus. This I cannot accept.

On a lighter note, I have always understood that anyone who takes the Bible 'literally' is obliged to believe that Herod was a fox (Luke 13:31-32)

Cheers

N+

Nigel Mitchell