Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" And that's the eternal question that has haunted us forever. How do we know the truth? How do we know what is true? Where do we turn for guidance?
Well, there's a pretty good answer to those questions. And it's an answer that the church has kept pretty well hidden. I, for example, never heard of the answer until long after I had graduated from seminary, served as a pastor, and came back to teach in seminary.
Have you ever heard of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral? THAT'S the answer!
You will remember from your junior high geometry class that a quadrilateral is a four-sided figure. Any size or shape will do, as long as it has four sides.
Wesley ran every theological idea through four tests before coming to any conclusions, and 300 years later, Outler named this theological method the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.
So what are those four tests?
1. Scripture
For the Christ follower, the Word of God is the longest edge of the quadrilateral. For anything to be trusted as true, it must be consistent with Scripture. Every quest for truth starts here.
2. Tradition
Any new idea must also be consistent with 30 centuries of Judeo-Christian tradition (see my post about tradition). For me, our tradition starts with Abraham, who obeyed God when he was called to leave his home and go to a new place. Ever since then, the people of God have been building a legacy of truth. And all new truth claims must not only be consistent with the Bible, they must also be consistent with tradition.
3. Reason
We are made in the image and likeness of God. God is a reasonable God. God has the capacity to think and reason. Because we are made in His image, we too have the capacity to reason. In our quest to discover truth, a thing must be consistent with the Bible, with 3,000 years of theological tradition, and it must be reasonable.
4. Experience
Many Christian groups affirm the first three sides of this quadrilateral, but they stop short of experiential truth. The Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). If something is true, it will be true in the Bible, in tradition, in reason, and in our personal experience. "You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!"
So there you have it, my friend. Jesus' promise that we shall know the truth is fulfilled. We know what is true by putting it to these four tests. Praise God for simplicity, for clarity, for understanding, and for confidence in our beliefs.
I always enjoy connections to my past (and present since I am still licensed and not yet retired) as a math teacher, so I jumped at the Wesleyan Quadrilateral when I first encountered it in the Constructive Theology class research I was doing. Keeping scripture as the 'base' and allowing the other side lengths to change based on one's individual and denominational experience is part of the way I see it. So, depending on the lengths of the sides of our personal experience of Reason, Tradition, Scripture and experience, everyone likely has a unique quadrilateral. The prevalence or importance of each of these helps to explain some of the differences in practices among many evolving groups during the long day of denominationalism.
ReplyDelete