Last night was quite enjoyable: a Call of Duty marathon over the network, six-v.-six. It is early in the morning, and I woke up just a few minutes ago. I am going to get dressed and run off to breakfast with Forest, attend three classes, go to Gold's Gym for a four-mile run, then head down to Kentucky Christian University for the game. A bunch of us are going down there to root on the Eagles. It should be fun times; I plan on reading "More Than Equals" on the way there, sleeping on the way back. Tomorrow I have dedicated to reading (I have so much reading to do this semester), and on Sunday I have the privilege of teaching the Junior High kids at Southwest Church.
I am beginning to study the Pauline Epistles, again. I have already paved through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, but I realized that I was reading into the material too much. In other words, I was saturating it with my own ideals, theories, and personal contemplations. I have been influenced so heavily by authentic Christian authors such as Brian McLaren, Dallas Willard, John Eldredge, and Eugene Peterson, that it is hard for me not to apply my personal ideas to the text. I have to leave the option open that, perhaps, those authors are wrong on points that I agree with. I know it's impossible to approach the texts without bias, but I am going to try as hard as possible.
God has been speaking to me a lot lately. I'm sure a long post is coming.
I am beginning to study the Pauline Epistles, again. I have already paved through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, but I realized that I was reading into the material too much. In other words, I was saturating it with my own ideals, theories, and personal contemplations. I have been influenced so heavily by authentic Christian authors such as Brian McLaren, Dallas Willard, John Eldredge, and Eugene Peterson, that it is hard for me not to apply my personal ideas to the text. I have to leave the option open that, perhaps, those authors are wrong on points that I agree with. I know it's impossible to approach the texts without bias, but I am going to try as hard as possible.
God has been speaking to me a lot lately. I'm sure a long post is coming.
2 comments:
Bet you didn’t expect the long post to be mine…
I've found myself revisiting your blog. Last summer was the first time I really looked at any blogs ever and ended up keying on a couple of interest, ultimately launching my own just to get a better understanding of what blogging was all about. Like you, reading the bible and connecting with our creator is a real love and a lifetime achievement of mustard seed proportions. However, I don’t believe a lot of the things I hear preached or taught about the bible. I truly feel like a fish out of water, a square peg. I understand it all “differently” (the why of which still baffles me since to me it seems obvious, ha ha). I went searching for blogs that highlighted God, Jesus, bible, church, etc. to hear those ideas that would help me better understand the “other” point of view. As an aside, it was interesting to me that blogs listing interests as above actually spent no time expressing their ideas on the subject. I think I come back to your blog because of the regularity with which you post and that “trying to make sense of it all” appears to be the central focus of your blog as you work through school. You make a point reflecting wisdom beyond your years here in this latest post that really sits at the centre (Canadian spelling, sorry) of what’s been truly frustrating me about mainstream, corporate Christianity. That what we read into the text, our biases, shapes our understanding. And while you won’t be able to avoid it, the fact that you expressed a recognition that this situation exists is refreshing. So I will pray that God grants you the understanding you are seeking and ask you to do the same for me.
Let me kick off this adventure with a couple of thoughts that rattle around in the back of my brain as I struggle in my own search for understanding…
Even while the apostles were alive there were false teachers among them. Those seeds that were planted while the apostles walked the earth have, for two thousand years, flourished. I’m not just talking about the David Koresh’s, Benny Hinn’s and Reverend Billy’s of the world but wish to point out that only by having extremists are the mainstream false teachers(good people, nice people, people with passion, people with the gift of public speaking, people that love God and are loved by God, love their fellow man but that have been handed a convoluted message down through the ages from other good people) been made acceptable by contrast. We teach, our bias says, salvation now IF you ask for it. But Jesus Christ is the saviour of the whole world. Salvation therefore will be given to all as Jesus promised since he is good to his word. Only by knowingly and explicitly rejecting it will it be denied and you can’t reject it today because it isn’t plainly understood. More importantly, it was part of God’s plan because if you knew it plainly and without error today while Satan still has free reign, you might reject it in a moment of weakness and that would be unpardonable and Christ will not allow that. Our present understanding, teaching and doctrine based method of obtaining salvation falls far short of "the whole world" and relies too heavily on our ability to win "one more over the line for Jesus".
I believe Christianity today can’t understand what it does or worship God the way it does by the bible alone. That Christianity regardless of its denomination has at its roots the historic influence and teaching of the Catholic church. I wonder what the world would have been like without the influence of Satan? What names does God have for the planets? For example, what name does God have for Mars, the god of war? Have you wished anyone a Happy New Year, the first day of the Gregorian calendar as decreed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to replace the Julian calendar, without which we couldn’t count the days to Easter or Christmas? What about Santa Clause as the all seeing, all knowing judge of what’s bad and good, making his list and checking it twice? The Easter bunny and brightly coloured Easter eggs, ancient symbols of fertility? The Sabbath (Canon 29) is a squishy topic I don't even want to touch. Moved, didn't move, celebration of the resurrection, deductive vs scriptural, church tradition, any day as long as it's A day. Does God really love a good comprimise? Is any of this important? Can you critically ask yourself these questions and still write the answers on your tests and reports you need to that will keep your high grades and not alienate everyone you know and love in the process? Sorry to dump this on you but you asked about bias.
Yours in Christ.
Thanks, Rink Rat! I don't have it all figured out, hence the journey of faith which I am undertaking. I appreciate your words and your bravery for posting a comment that many may disagree with.
It is very difficult to read the scriptures without bias. One thing I have been doing to try and aide my interpretation of the scriptures is looking into the cultural settings and situations in which the scriptures were written. It's a difficult task; sometimes we make it sound easier than it really is.
Thank you for your blessings on my journey!
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