What is the meaning of:
The Bible as Authority,
as Norm and 'basis',
as Canon,
The Scriptures as a Standard (with Benchmark, Yardstick, Criterion, Scale, and Gauge), and Touchstone
Also, a note on Christian freedom.
Spiritual Resources > Words About the Bible > norm or standard
The words described here deal with matters of authority and measure. Christians read the Bible to learn what it says about God, ourselves, and our world. It does this through the story of the history of the Israelites, of the earliest Christians, and most of all, through the reports about Jesus of Nazareth's life, death, and return to the living. We look to the Bible to tell us what being a Christian is, and sort out our own lives and deeds, as persons and as a fellowship of followers of Jesus, based on what it tells us.
Authority figures have wide influence in their field, sometimes using it to bring order to otherwise-chaotic situations. The Bible is held by most churches to be the sole authority for most matters of faith and Christian living. Christians can argue, but they turn to the Authority to make their case. Christians in developed countries are becoming ever more restless with the idea of an 'authority'. They fear any 'authority over' them, religious or otherwise. But the Bible is firstly an 'authority to' or 'authority for'; it has a purpose for which it and it alone is well suited. Also, there is One who is 'authority over' us (unless we are foolish and egotistical enough to think of ourselves as if we are God), and this One communicates to us firstly through the Bible. The Bible is authoritative because of the One who stands behind it - the Author of all. And it is authoritative because of the report it makes, the story it tells, the truth it shares, about a loving God's dealings with our wayward species, especially about Jesus the Christ. And the God of the Bible, through the gospel message in the Bible, gives us the 'authority to' live freely in a manner fitting to God's purposes.
There are many terms used for saying what the Bible has authority for. The most common words which describe what's been meant by that over the years are :
Norm : A 'norm' is something by which other things are measured and judged. When the Bible is called the 'norm', it means that what we think, teach, and do must measure up to the standards of Scripture. A norm helps stop us from getting carried away with ourselves and our supposed wisdom. Many traditions speak of the 'norming norm' or 'norm within the norm' or 'material norm' : the Gospel message of God's forgiving love in Jesus Christ. This means that all the rest of the Bible is measured according to (or is 'normed' by) Christ and the Gospel message. The Bible is the 'norm' because of who stands behind it and whose story it tells. This puts the main focus where it belongs -- Christ, not Moses or David or Paul or John, or even the Bible. A word like it is 'basis' (a basic foundational principle; an underlying state of affairs).
In everyday talk, the term 'normal' doesn't mean 'according to the measure'; it means 'average', 'typical', 'usual', 'everyday', and 'common'....(yawn).... The Bible is decidedly not 'normal' in this sense. It's quite unique and unusual. What it tells us is in many ways very different than what we take in from our 'normal' world. The world and the Bible operate under different norms.
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You can also check out how the dictionary defines 'norm'.
A related word is 'canon', which is Greek for 'measuring rod'. In our times, the term usually refers to the books of the Bible. The list of measuring stick books are different with different believers : the Catholics and Orthodox have additional First Covenant (OT) books. Jews have several 'layers' of their Scriptural tradition: the five books of Moses come first, then the prophets, the histories, and the writings (such as Job, Psalms and Proverbs). There are also some writings which aren't part of a formal canon and aren't intended to be canon, but are sometimes used to measure things up. The Talmud is not a 'canon', but a resource of continuous discussion of matters of living the life of Jewish faith; even so, the Mishnah has some measuring-stick effects. For creedal Christians, the ecumenical creeds have some measuring-stick uses, but the use is derivative. The creeds are norms only by being a short version of the key truths taught by the canonical Scriptures. Whenever you hear things about what the Bible says about Scripture, remember that the Scriptures Jesus, John, and Paul referred to are "the Law and the Prophets", not the Gospels or Paul's letters, perhaps not even some of the Hebrew Writings (though by their time, Psalms and Proverbs were treated canonically by all Jews). To Moslems, the canon is the Qur'an as given to Mohammed, with no other books or measuring sticks of authority.
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Standard [ < Old French estandard (a place to make a stand or rally the troops; a stronghold), < assumed Frankish standhard- (stand firm, hold fast)] something used for measuring, or for evaluating how good other things are. A standard is chosen because its quality is already known and highly esteemed. The Bible's quality has been established as a standard by thousands of years of use, and by its ability to surprise us and prompt us to change even today. As with the other terms about the Bible's quality level, its being a 'standard' comes not so much by the work itself, or by the church leaders who first called it the standard, but by the One who stands behind it. Other terms with a meaning like 'standard' are 'benchmark', 'yardstick', 'norm', 'gauge', 'criterion', and 'scale.
There are two similar words of note: model and touchstone.
model [Latin modulus (small measure), from modus]
Touchstone : a dark stone (like basalt or jasper) used as a standard or norm for figuring out the quality of precious metals. The metal would be drawn across the stone, and the streak would be compared with the streak of a standardized alloy to see if it was at least as good. In the *Formula of Concord* (Epitome, Rule & Norm, 7), Lutherans called the Bible the touchstone by which all teaching must be recognized and judged. This leads to the question, how does my life and thinking streak out on the Bible touchstone?
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You can also check the definitions of 'standard' in the dictionary.
A reader writes:
>You wrote that "Experiences that are not
found in Scripture can be Christian,
>so long as they adhere to the gospel as
>found in Scripture, and to Paul's concerns for order, and
can be tested
>by all the means of discernment at our disposal." Where
does Scripture say this?
Some people say, "if it's not in Scripture, it's not Christian". That would be to miss the whole point of Scripture. Scripture was not meant to be the bare limit of what we can do in the faith. If it were, we couldn't worship the way we do, we couldn't be organized in congregations (as we know them) or denominations, and we certainly couldn't use the Internet. Our work, play, art, romance, political systems, music recordings, and "nuclear family" (a modern construct) wouldn't be able to be put to use for God. The truth is, Scripture simply doesn't directly cover such things, and isn't meant to. Scripture is there to teach you about Christ and what it means to follow him. It gives you ways to sift and evaluate, and helps you develop a God-pleasing way of looking at the world within you and around you. Scripture shows you the way God works so you know it when you see it, or when you do it.
The apostle Paul speaks of Christian freedom, that we are not saved by following Law (Romans 8). All is permitted in Christ, but not all is good or right (1 Cor 6). Scripture teaches you what good and right are, what evil and wrong are, what the fruit are, what the commands are. New things are happening all the time. Through the Bible, God gave us ways to discern how and where the Spirit is leading us, mostly (but not only) by showing us what God is up to. We have to test our experiences: how does it reflect, or help us reflect, the gospel or the love of Christ, how does it help us become Christlike, how is God's will for the human race, or for you, furthered by this? If your experiences, or anything else, fall in line with the Gospel, and has the character of what Scripture teaches as the Spirit's fruit, God may well be at work in it, no matter how strange or contradictory it seems.
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"The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden."
G.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, 01-03-1920
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| ver.: 19 March 2011 The Bible as Authority and Standard. Copyright © 1997-2011 Robert Longman Jr. |