January 28, 2012 7 Comments

I read D.A. Carson’s excellent little book Exegetical Fallacies about ten years ago and have revisited it a few times since then, always coming away with a resolve to read the Bible better. I am currently working through it again with a couple of fellows in our church’s pastor training and the ensuing discussions have been helpful. Here is one of my favorite passages:

Almost twenty years ago I rode in a car with a fellow believer who relayed to me what the Lord had “told” him that morning in his quiet time. He had been reading the KJV of Matthew; and I perceived that not only had he misunderstood the archaic English, but also that the KJV at that place had unwittingly misrepresented the Greek text. I gently suggested there might be another way to understand the passage and summarized what I thought the passage was saying.The brother dismissed my view as impossible on the grounds that the Holy Spirit, who does not lie, had told him the truth on this matter. Being young and bold, I pressed on with my explanation of grammar, context, and translation, but was brushed off by a reference to 1 Corinthians 2:10b-15: spiritual things must be spiritually discerned — which left little doubt about my status.

Genuinely intrigued, I asked this brother what he would say if I put forward my interpretation, not on the basis of grammar and text, but on the basis that the Lord himself had given me the interpretation I was advancing. He was silent a long time, and then concluded, “I guess that would mean the Spirit says the Bible means different things to different people.”

This week it was said to me about the biblical doctrine of hell, “It just doesn’t work for me” (sans any kind of biblical reasoning), and I was reminded for the umpteenth time in a day how important it is to read, re-read, and re-read the biblical text as one submitting to it, wherever it goes, rather than in interpretative-tail-wagging-the-exegetical-dog mode.

“There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy.”
– G.K. Chesterton

If I were to know everything but love, my knowledge would be worthless. A demon can be a well-ordered systematic theologian; this I get. But let’s not fall off the horse on the other side.

We can’t be perfunctory about doctrine. When I read what the Bible has to say about bad doctrine — that it produces sin, that it endangers souls — and what it says about good doctrine — that it ought to be held firm and instructed, guarded, and contended for — I don’t get the impression that right theology is just something on a questionnaire to be glossed over or nodded at. The Scriptures give us no warrant to treat doctrinal orthodoxy like a mere formality.

God is going to do something awesome.
God is going to do something amazing.
God is doing something incredible.
God is doing something awesome.
God is doing something amazing.
God is doing amazing things.
It’s going to be awesome.
Let’s change the world.
God will prosper you.
Fly with the eagles.
Listen to the Spirit.
It’s all about love.
Lives will change.
God is working.
Look to Jesus.
Praise God.
Amen.

Such sensational words are sometimes used in preaching for dramatic emotional effect. Yet, the words themselves must be attached to something or they stir empty praise and emotion.

What has actually been communicated in the above words?