Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Is Jesus Olson's criterion?

rogereolson says:

Several have raised this question. My standard of goodness is the Bible itself and especially Jesus Christ who is the criterion of interpretation of the Bible (because he is God incarnate). I’ll ask you–would you worship a God who you believe to be evil?

i) This is viciously circular. Olson can’t very well make Jesus his criterion to presumptively adjudicate the Calvinist/Arminian debate, for if Arminianism is true, then Jesus incarnates Arminian theism–but if Calvinism is true, then Jesus incarnates Reformed theism.

You’d have to know which theism is true to know which theism Jesus incarnates.

ii) It’s also simplistic to say Jesus is his hermeneutical criterion. For even though there’s a sense in Jesus interprets Scripture, there’s another sense in which Scripture interprets Jesus. The only Jesus we have is a Biblically interpreted Jesus. 

1 comment:

  1. Olson's proposed criterion is indeed circular. Thanks for the post, Steve. Have you noticed how the Arminians seem to be leaving fewer comments lately, especially when you deal with Olson? Maybe it's just me.

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