Thank you sir for putting forth this work for us readers. As one who attempts to lead an adult S Sch class I'm going to share some of this. MERE CHRISTIANITY by Lewis was one of the most moving, even sanctifying books I have ever read.
As one who attempts to lead an adult S Sch class I'm going to share some of this.
Here's the way that I'd suggest that you launch such a study and discussion in your class --
� Have the participants prepare beforehand by first taking a red-letter New Testament and reading just the red print (the words of Jesus), noting especially what He specifically identifies as requisites for the favor of the Father, His love, entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, forgiveness, etc.
The "secret" is to let His words speak for themselves, unalloyed with the base metal of later biases. After all, what counts first, last, and always is what Jesus Himself says. What I've written is merely explanatory, clarifying notes on the meanings of His terms as He and His hearers knew those concepts at that long-ago time.
Our understanding has to be brought across a gulf of misunderstanding and revisionism that didn't separate His clearly intended meanings from the existing understanding of His hearers. Through the centuries of language change and inadequate translations, we've been taught concepts that cripple our understanding but didn't do the same damage to His hearers' understanding.
"Good enough" isn't.
Always take your responsibilities seriously but never yourself.
Today I had to take my folks to the doc. Before I did, I took the liberty to print out you above study so I could read and ponder it.
When I arived home, I looked at a thread I started over on huntamerica. There is a new Bible student. Again I took the liberty to use your stuff to help him get started.
Thanks for the very good post.
"Only Christ is the fullness of God's revelation." Everyday Hunter
Very refreshing to read your description of commitment to the plain word of God...
I had always struggled with defining faith. Waded through the popular "Christian" bookstore heretics on faith many moons ago and it took a long time to get that garbage out of my subconscious mind.
Have you ever read that old Methodist theologian Ralston? Back when Methodists feared God and studied the bible?? One of the best plainest theologies I have ever read.
He comments on Heb 11: 1-... He comes up with this... that faith is to be fully persuaded based upon incontrovertable evidence.
In any case faith is somewhat of a mystery to me but Ralston points out two facets...
1) to be fully persuaded as to what is factually true. 2) to trust.
Now you bring out this aspect of commitment. I am gonna study on that some.
Have you ever read that Puritan, Goodwin- "The Objects and Acts of Justifying Faith" ??
Or William Gurnall's chapter on faith in his massive work, "The Christian In Complete Armour"
My spiritual edification and growth were exceedingly slow when I immersed myself in classic post-Biblical Christian literature. They took-off like rockets when I dropped that approach and went deep into the Scriptures with classic techniques of intrinsic literary analysis ("let the Word speak for itself").
One of my favorite stories in this vein tells of the young black brother (rural preacher) down south whose powerful preaching caught the attention of his bishop "up north." On a visit, the bishop was appalled to find that our young brother had no study helps, so when he got back to HQ, he sent the young preacher a set of commentaries. On his next visit a year later, he asked the young preacher what he thought of the books that he'd sent down.
"Oh, them's good books," he said, "good books -- a little cloudy in places, but the Scripture throws a lot of light in there."
What I've wriitten in Who Shall Enter ... comes from long, intense study of the key terms (a) in context in the original texts, (b) as clarified in extensive lexicons by classical linguistics scholars -- not from what post-Biblical Christian stalwarts have written under the twin yokes of the English translations and centuries of biased church doctrine. What I've written about the key words is how they were already understood by Jesus's hearers when He used them in His special spiritual applications. (Yes, I've had to flush a lot of pious error out of my mind and slough a lot of sweet fluff off my understanding! This is a vital component of repentance.)
"Good enough" isn't.
Always take your responsibilities seriously but never yourself.
Where in India? Spent some time there in the 80"s Where in P.I. Had several friends there in the 80's Did you work for Aramco? Bechtel?
If I ever knew the sites of the Christian college in India and the church conference in the Philippines, I've forgotten. It ain't easy being senile.
What's worse is that I've lost track of the missionaries (the Bennetts) who built the college and turned its management over to local Christians, and the missionaries (the Rhodeses) who built the Philippines churches and led their conferences have since died.
In Saudi Arabia, I worked (1984-1985) for Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) at the Flight Crew Ground Training Center in Jeddah. (It was during this period, flying back and forth between New York City and Jeddah, that I discovered that New York City was not Hell -- as I'd long thought -- but merely Purgatory.) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
"Good enough" isn't.
Always take your responsibilities seriously but never yourself.
I am greatly refreshed by your stance on the word. You are absolutely correct. I couldn't agree more. Nonetheless how do you wrestle with the early church creeds, like Chalcedon and even Nicene? Don't you think that is edifying to study? BUT some of that metaphysical reasoning is way beyond me...
It always comes back to the word. And it seems you have to try and fit in somewhere, (but I ain't found that place yet) and you need to know more or less what other Christians believe if you are to relate to them intelligently. For instance; I have no prejudice against Catholics but I would gladly discuss Trent or a propitiatory mass with them and explain in detail why I reject their errors...
But I agree- MAN! I got to studying theology hard and heavy night and day and after about a year I cried out with Melancthon- "Deliver me from the fury of the theologians!" I found myself having less vital day to day trust in the Lord and just a head full of arguments. Well not that bad- but you know what I mean.
... how do you wrestle with the early church creeds, like Chalcedon and even Nicene?
I don't. Faced with questions and error, churchians in those days felt compelled to form a complete body of doctrine and did the best they could under their particular circumstances. But they paid too little attention to Scripture and let church tradition bring too much of its incorporated paganism into their beliefs and practices.
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Don't you think that is edifying to study?
Not if it doesn't square with the heart and spine of the Scriptures. I don't need any more edification in error than what I've already had to unlearn, reject, renounce, and escape.
[/quote]... you need to know more or less what other Christians believe if you are to relate to them intelligently.[/quote]
No, I don't. I need to know what the Scriptures say, and to know how to share that knowledge clearly enough to make it easily understandable with those who want to know, not to argue or debate it.
Edification is literally building up, not knocking down. The positive and true, clearly presented, is enough to reveal error to those who'll receive it. I'm not interested in trying to knock anyone else's error in the head. If he's ever going to be free of it, that freedom will come only with his own acknowledgement and rejection of his erroneous beliefs and loyalties.
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I got to studying theology hard and heavy night and day and after about a year I cried out with Melancthon- "Deliver me from the fury of the theologians!"
Oh, how well I know! I'd been teaching theology for years -- long after I'd learned the futility of getting "the straight of the goods" from post-Biblical writings and had turned to intense, intensive study of the Bible itself -- growing ever more uneasy with the graduate-school tone of it, when I cried-out in anguish for the Lord to take me back to the basic simplicities of what He and His disciples had discussed on those dusty roads and sunny hillsides. In a voice just a few decibels shy of audible to the neighborhood, He told me to get out of the epistles, to go upstream above Acts, and listen to Jesus and only Jesus for the basics.
It was soon obvious that Jesus was laying foundational word about what's necessary to be loved by the Father, to be included among the forgiven, to enter into and reside forever in the Kingdom of God. So I started over, with those key passages as my foundation.
That's the beginning of the study that led eventually to Who Shall Enter ... ? in written form (after years of sharing it piece by piece in letters and lectures).
"Good enough" isn't.
Always take your responsibilities seriously but never yourself.
When I was a new believer, I arived home from work about 4PM. I did whatever needed to be done and sat down with the Word about 5PM. Within three months, I prety well knew what Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament had to say. After that grounding I went to the rest of the New Testament. When I had a little grasp of that, I went to the Beginning.
A concerned brother heard about my studies and sent me a book. I started reading it. Within a few pages I discovered error. I burned it. Another book arived in the mail. I started reading it. Again I discovered error and burned it. This went on for about two years. One day Sue answered the phone and recogognized his voice. She suggested, "Send him a presto log. It will last longer!!"
Most Christians percieve me as arrogant. I don't agree. At the same time, I am convinced those who don't agree with me are wrong. Why? Because I base my beliefs on only the Word of God. Ken had to do a lot of hard plowing to get where he is now. I started in the easy field and stayed there. What Ken wrote is to put my beliefs about the Bible into easily understood words. (Thanks, Ken.)
Years ago a friend of mine was in Bible college. In science class the entire class and the teacher laughed in his face when he mentioned he believed God created the heavens and the earth in six twenty-four hour days. He called me.
I opened the Word of God to Genesis one and two. After this I showed him Exodus 20 and 31. Then I reminded him of Noah. I convinced him to ask the question, How many theologians and teachers were correct when they told the world Noah was wrong?
He never doubted the Word of God again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
"Only Christ is the fullness of God's revelation." Everyday Hunter
Dad had to drop out of the seminary (Candler) in the 1920s (financial reasons) and go into full-time pastoral ministry. In 1947, another seminary (Westminster) recognized and rewarded his service with a scholarship that enabled him to go back to seminary and complete -- finally -- his studies for the STB degree (Bachelor of Sacred Theology). I was in high school, so I remember those years well.
Dad was "supply" pastor of a little church and was home on weekends. He car-pooled with other nearby supply pastors who were also theology students at Westminster. The conversations on those long twice-a-week drives back and forth were predominantly theological discussions. The twenty-few years age difference between Dad and his modernist classmates was often obvious in the nature of the ways they viewed matters of Scripture.
The topic on one drive was miracles. Dad (as usual) said nothing as the younger fellows explained-away several miracles as ordinary natural events locally misunderstood and misinterpreted -- until they got to one miracle that the younger fellows rejected because they couldn't explain it in natural terms.
"Do you mean," Dad asked, "that because you can't explain it, God couldn't do it?"
That ended that discussion.
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Most Christians percieve me as arrogant. I don't agree.
I've been there too. The usual allegation is "You think you're better than us." My answer is that I think that what I believe is truer than what they believe, not that I'm any better than anyone else in any way.
"Good enough" isn't.
Always take your responsibilities seriously but never yourself.
