Private property. . .

One of the most unfortunate changes over time is in how we Christians view the Scriptures, the Bible, the Word of God.  As I have written before, many more conservative leaning churches see the Scriptures as a book of facts, rules, and information.  The Scriptures are seldom described as they would describe themselves -- the living voice of God addressing His people and the means through which God acts for us and for our salvation.  Scriptures can be inerrant and infallible, apparently, without being efficacious.  This is one area in which confessional Lutherans find themselves parting ways with those who might seem to be our allies.  What good is there in preserving a Bible without error if it is not also the efficacious voice of God doing what that Word says in its speaking?

On the other hand, liberal and progressive Christians would limit Scripture's truthfulness and therefore its relevance simply to salvific matters and even then cannot seem to agree on how much of that Word is actually necessary to be believed in order to be saved.  Certainly, for example, the creeds are too much to believe and many of their words must be cast to the side in the pursuit of that which is truly necessary (think here of born of a Virgin).  Furthermore, the doctrinal lines keep shifting in this camp of Christians and the lines are in a state of flux with regard to even such universal statements of the Scriptures regarding marriage, gender, sexual desire, and children. 

Part of the reason why the Scriptures seem so easily manipulated is that the Word of God has become largely a private Word or, at least, that Word is private property.  It belongs to the individual reading it and not to the Church and even less to those who went before us.  It is not only private property but its message is private, personal, and individual.  We can, it would seem, agree to disagree and still remain somehow connected within the loose framework of what God has said and done.  All of this, however, would be shocking to the early Church.  Without individual copies and generally presumed reading skills, the Word of God was not the domain of the individual Christian but heard and in hearing it believed within the larger sphere of the Church.  It was even more then a voice and a Word preached or spoken than it could ever be today with the Word of God seen as words printed on paper.  In this way the Scriptures are by nature a liturgical book and have a sacramental character.  Unlike how the Word of God is seen today as both informational and propositional, the early Christians and the liturgical Churches understand this book to be a living voice which accomplishes that of which it speaks.  You can see this even in the traditional ceremonies attached to how we deal with the Word of God.  We honor not a books with words on paper but the Word that is God's voice speaking.  It was not until late in history that the Scriptures became a public and private book, owned and read and therefore interpreted by the reader.