{"id":6641,"date":"2010-08-06T05:45:04","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T05:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/the-wesleyan-quadrilateral-ste-3.html"},"modified":"2010-08-06T05:45:04","modified_gmt":"2010-08-06T05:45:04","slug":"the-wesleyan-quadrilateral-ste-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/the-wesleyan-quadrilateral-ste-3.html","title":{"rendered":"The Wesleyan Quadrilateral Step by Step (by T) 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WesQuad.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We’re discussing how we build our knowledge of God, our theology, and using Wesley’s Quadrilateral (Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience) as an outline for our discussion.  <\/span>Again, this whole topic was spurred by the argument made by Al Mohler and others that theism, the idea that God is active in the world, is at stake in the age of earth debates; this is an argument I strongly question, especially as I form my belief in theism from Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience. Again, I’m somewhat undecided on many issues concerning origins, but I am not undecided on theism, and my experience of God is a big part of that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is the introduction to the role of “Experience” from the website of the United Methodist Church<\/a>, which I’d like to follow with a personal story.<\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>“A third source and criterion of our theology is our experience. By experience we mean especially the “new life in Christ,” which is ours as a gift of God’s grace; such rebirth and personal assurance gives us new eyes to see the living truth in Scripture. But we mean also the broader experience of all the life we live, its joys, its hurts, its yearnings. So we interpret the Bible in light of our cumulative experiences. We interpret our life’s experience in light of the biblical message. We do so not only for our experience individually but also for the experience of the whole human family.”<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

 <\/span>I
\nmentioned the initial “spur” for these discussions because nowhere
\nshould our experience be more relevant than in forming our belief that God is
\nactive today in the world.  <\/span>The
\nbible can and does promise God’s present activity; it even gives a multitude of
\nexamples we could look for today; and Tradition is full of the same kinds of
\nthings, but it is through Experience that I personally become a witness of
\nChrist and of God, and not merely a person who hears the testimony of
\nothers.  <\/span>I’m not saying that my own
\nbelief in theism isn’t also supported by Scripture, Tradition and Reason.  <\/span>What I am saying is that I am not
\npersonally a theist because of those alone.  <\/span>The first reasons I would give to others for my belief in
\nGod’s present activity are the things I’ve personally seen God do, not my
\nunderstanding of origins or a host of other biblical narratives. <\/p>\n

            <\/span>“Witnessing”
\nwas very important in my corner of Christianity growing up.  <\/span>One might think (and even hear) from
\nthe churches I grew up in that “witnessing” was the<\/i> reason Christians weren’t already in heaven.  <\/span>In the same vein, it was critical that
\none knew his or her testimony<\/i>.  <\/span>One of the ironies I discovered over
\nthe years was that we were actually using the term “witnessing”
\nincorrectly and being unjustifiably narrow in our concept of our
\n“testimony.”  <\/span>You see,
\nwhat we meant by “witnessing” was telling non-Christians about the
\ngospel, which is no doubt good. 
\n<\/span>But that’s not actually “witnessing.”  <\/span>“Witnessing” is prior to
\nthat.  <\/span>Witnessing, whether in legal
\nor biblical usage, is personally
\nobserving<\/i> something or someone. 
\n<\/span>In this case, it was assumed that we had actually seen God<\/i> do something. And what we meant by
\n“testimony” was almost always limited to our conversion.  <\/span>The implication was that our conversion
\nwas the only thing any of us ever really saw God do, or at least the only thing
\nthat mattered.<\/p>\n

            <\/span>But
\nwas conversion the only thing the original “witnesses” of Christ saw
\nhim do?  <\/span>Was their own conversion
\ntheir only “testimony” about him?  <\/span>Is it the only observable thing that the Spirit of God and
\nChrist does today?<\/p>\n

            <\/span>The
\nchurches of my youth would often say that the lack of “witnessing”
\nwas the biggest failure of the Church today.  <\/span>I actually agree with them, but I feel like Inigo Montoya in
\nmy agreement<\/a>.  <\/span>In the Church in
\nthe West, we need to seriously consider the following question: Is God still making witnesses<\/i> of Christ today as a\/the central missional strategy?<\/b>  <\/span>If we answer in the affirmative, then
\nwe’ve just started to realize the critical role that experience must play not
\nonly in our own theology but in the knowledge of God we attempt to give to
\nothers as his witnesses<\/i>.  <\/span>From there the question needs to become
\nmore personal: What have I witnessed the
\nliving God do?  <\/span>What is my<\/i> testimony?  <\/span>What is the significance of what I’ve observed?  <\/span>How does it rightfully shape what I do
\nand what I think about God?<\/b> 
\n<\/span>And it needs to become communal, too:  <\/span>How can we as
\nchurches facilitate our people becoming Christ’s witnesses?  <\/span>How can we train people to observe God
\nwork, whether through them or others or otherwise and the skills to remember
\nand relay what they’ve seen in harmony with Scripture, Tradition and Reason?  <\/span>How can we better embrace and
\nfacilitate our vocation to be the witnesses of Christ?<\/b><\/p>\n

            <\/span>Revelation
\nsays that believers overcame Satan by the power of their testimony and the
\nblood of the Lamb.  <\/span>Personally, I
\nam totally convinced that this testimony contains far more than just our
\nobservations of Christ in conversion. Rather, it is everything we’ve seen God do from conversion forward<\/i> and sometimes
\neven pre-conversion.  <\/span>The fact that
\nsuch experience is placed next to the blood of the Lamb as one of two things
\nthrough which believers overcome Satan should give us all serious pause about
\ndismissing the importance of experience with God.  <\/span>Our victory over the powers of darkness seems to be at stake
\nat least in part because of our experience.  <\/span>Do you see God’s
\nintention as being both\/and regarding embracing his past acts and his present
\nacts with us (the testimony of scripture, of tradition and our own current
\nexperience)?  <\/span>Or do you or your
\ncamp see it, more or less, as either\/or for one of the Quads?<\/b>  <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re discussing how we build our knowledge of God, our theology, and using Wesley’s Quadrilateral (Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience) as an outline for our discussion.  Again, this whole topic was spurred by the argument made by Al Mohler and others that theism, the idea that God is active in the world, is at stake in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Wesleyan Quadrilateral Step by Step (by T) 4 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/the-wesleyan-quadrilateral-ste-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Wesleyan Quadrilateral Step by Step (by T) 4 - 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