A Random Thought for Thursday Noon: Why all the fuss over "the Authority of Scripture?"

Feeling a sense of frustration I am sure over the seemingly endless struggles within the Anglican Communion today, I recently heard one person say, "Does anyone really think it necessary to have all of this discussion over the authority of Scripture?  After all, the Bible isn't God talking to us directly.  It is, at most, what someone a long time ago thought that God was saying."  After giving my standard answer that I believe in the Bible as man's recordation of God's revelation of Himself (and through "God breathed words"), I wished that I had had a Scripture passage readily available.  Reading in 1 Peter today (1 Peter 1:24-25), I found myself fixed upon this passage:  "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever."  Amen, and surely it is because of the fact that God's Word, like God himself, transcends all things and all of time that we do indeed need to remain focused upon the authority of Scripture, the foundation and the rock of our Christian faith.  Can there ever be enough discussion about it?

God's peace. <><