THEOLOGY - continued

Covenant, 2nd paragraph - continued

If “having accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior” is the most traditional statement in the Covenant, then “heartily believing in the province of private judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures” may well be its most progressive. The breadth of these two statements demonstrates well the range of theological belief in The United Church of Los Alamos.

The statement on the interpretation of Scripture grants great freedom and openness to the individual in his or her approach to the Bible. But, again, we are reminded that the “private judgment” is made within the context of a community of faith. Our understanding of the Bible is tempered by the guidance of the community of faith, the whole church.

The United Church, with all Protestants, considers the Bible the key instrument for hearing God’s Word today. Humans, through the words of the Old and New Testaments, know the Word of God, Jesus Christ. We do not worship the Bible (bibliolotry) but we believe the Bible points to the figure we do worship, God in Jesus Christ. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. As those who wrote the Bible were inspired, so must we be inspired when we read it, for the Bible to be the Word of God for us.