Nature before Scripture!

“Divine revelation comes in two volumes: Nature and Scripture”, said Thomas Aquinas. For a believer who always looked inside the Bible first for answers, this quote was a jolt to his systems. Which came first, Nature or Scriptures? The answer is obvious. God’s creation existed before the Bible did. In cosmic scale, the Bible was written during the last second of the last day of the cosmic calendar. As theologian Diarmuid O’Murchu rightly points out:

“The primary revelation of our God is not contained in some set of holy books, but in the unfolding process of the universe itself, an evolutionary story we believe to be several billions of years old…Long before the theologian engages with sacred texts, s(he) needs to be saturated in contemplative gaze! The landscape of creation, and not the realm of academic discourse, is where theology begins today!”

As I mentioned before, until about age 45, I sleep-walked through life. During that period, the Bible was the only book I consulted for answers to life’s questions. I believed that the Bible was the word of God. I never questioned the concept of biblical inspiration until author Diarmuid O’Murchu made me think that “the inspiration of scripture is a highly spurious claim” because the Cannon of the Scripture was compiled in the third century by a group of white males. Females had no say as to which books should be included in the Bible.

Among the white European males who compiled the Cannon, Catholics and Protestants could not agree on the number of books to be included in the Cannon. That is why according to Catholics, there are 72 inspired books in the Bible, while for Protestants, God bothered to inspire only 66 books!

That is why O’Murchu describes biblical inspiration as “elitist, sexist, exclusively European, imperialistic and anthropocentric.”

Bishop Carlton Pearson succinctly summarizes the theory of scriptural inspiration in these words: “I don’t think of the Bible anymore as the inspired word of God, but the inspired word of men about God — and some of it has expired.”

It is a huge shift for Bishop Pearson, a graduate of Oral Roberts University, and a former evangelical pastor, who was dethroned from his congregation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He lost his status in his church due to his belief in universal reconciliation. He was declared a heretic by his peers in 2004. As author Michael Dowd insight-fully states:

“Seen through sacred eyes, the entire history of the Universe can now be honored as the primary revelation of God. Written scriptures, in contrast, are derivative; they are secondary revelations. Stone, vellum, parchment, ink, and human consciousness — all expressions of nature — are prerequisites for the evolutionary emergence of written texts.”

(from Cosmic Kindergarten: Earthly Lessons for a Heavenly Life)