Emerging Conversation

A conversation with an emergent may go something like this:

Is the written word of God, for you, in your life as a believer, the final authority in all matters of your faith, and practice?

God is the final authority in my life. I can't confine to the bible because he clearly is so much bigger than the bible itself and of course he is God and can really do as he pleases. The bible is not the beginning and end of God.

So then your answer to this question: “Is the written word of God, for you, in your life as a believer, the final authority in all matters of your faith, and practice?” would be NO, correct? Just trying to establish some basics here.

I suppose it would. The bible is not the final authority in my life God is. Do you believe that God can only do what is mentioned in the bible? (From Examining Emergent Blogspot)

Not a chance, however, we can only know Him as he has revealed Himself to us, and the Scriptures are the source of that revelation. All else, that is, all other means of obtaining information about God is unaided human speculation, which is the fastest way to heresy in existence ...since we are inclined as human beings to always formulate God in our own image and to our own liking. This is not to deny the importance of historical studies in an aide to understanding, but it denies it as revelation. That is why David Wells says, "In religion of a Christian kind, we listen; in spirituality of a contemporary kind, we talk." Christianity is not a horizontal conversation using democratic methods to decide who God is. He has already plainly made Himself known to us in Christ as revealed in the text of Scripture. The Holy Spirit illumines the text that we might understand. We are not meant to speculate outside the boundaries of Scripture lest we create an idol

Of these type of speculators the Apostle Paul (speaking of contemporary Jews) said, "Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Romans 10:1-4)