Let me start off by saying that I have a very high regard for the Bible and its contents. I believe they were written by people who were under the careful and capable influence of God, and I believe that they have been delivered to our generation so that we can learn about what all happened in that ancient world—about what was said, done, taught, and believed. And I believe that the exploits of the faithful, as well as the acts of God and Jesus, shine a great light into this otherwise-dark world, such that we can see for ourselves (if we want to) what it means to be righteous and just and loving and gracious and godly and pure and so on—such that we might be like that ourselves, should we so choose.
I believe that God set the stage in those earlier times, knowing that one of the results of it all would be this collection of writings that could tell these stories to the world forevermore. And I believe that we should be reading it, studying it, reflecting on it, and discussing it as a part of our daily and weekly lives, so that we can be built up and instructed by it.
Now, I had to say all that to defend against the people who might want to attack me about what I’m going to say next:
I’m not sure we have enough information in those texts from which to figure out all the original doctrines and practices completely.
If we did, then we might expect to see much more unity of practice and belief among the multitude of church brands than we do today. Yet they don’t all interpret it the same. Not even half of them do. Not even one quarter of them do. Not even a tenth of them do. In fact, the very reasons for starting your own church camp, as opposed to joining up with another seem to be these:
- You think you have got it figured out better than all the rest do; or
- You just want to be in charge of our own thing, for whatever reasons.
Now, #2 above raises lots of red flags as it smacks of pride and division, but I had to include it for the sake of being sure to cover all the possibilities. If you’re doing #2, maybe you think that only you are smart enough—or only you are devoted and diligent enough—to get things right. But let me just put two passages into the record here, which I believe should be sufficient to warn against this sort of self-assessment:
Romans 11:2b …Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant,…
Romans 12:3 …I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment…
Elijah was making the mistake of assuming that he alone was duly devoted to God, yet at that particular time in history, God had seven thousand more devotees. And Paul assures his Roman audience, many centuries later, that even in his present day, there was also a remnant of faithful people left. And while neither the Elijah story, nor Paul’s letter ventures to speak of our current situation in 2022, we should recognize the wisdom in not assuming ourselves to be unique among all the people on Planet Earth. Indeed, if you can be devoted to God, then why can’t someone else? We had dare not assume that we, personally, or our own church camps, are the only ones who are pleasing God. I understand that, hypothetically, this could be the case, but this is a matter for God’s judgment, and not for our own. And when we set ourselves apart, we are probably making a mistake that can end up getting us into lots of trouble.
And so Paul says to the Romans, later in that same discussion, that they need to be sure to keep a sober estimate of themselves. And even though he was not writing this to us, I reason that this would probably be good advice for us today, too.
What about Doctrine?
I don’t know about you, but I have spent my adult life figuring out, bit by bit, that a lot of what I previously believed about Bible doctrines was erroneously interpreted and reasoned. That is, the more information I have considered all together, the more I have realized that my understanding on small sections of it has been off. But it seems to me that our culture is in such a hurry to get things settled. We’re in such a rush to get it all wrapped up in neat little packages and sorted away, as if this and that and the other thing are long-since understood rightly, and rated with their proper levels of importance, as if little else of import remains to be learned or considered. In fact, if we can point to a doctrinal tradition or “confession”, we seem all the more vulnerable to assuming wrongly, that it must be right! (Even though there are many long-standing traditions that contradict one another, which goes to prove that just because an idea’s been around a long time, that doesn’t make it right. If it did, then all these old doctrines could not be contradicting one another.
Interestingly, we tend to act as if we think that every Bible doctrine is small and simple enough so as to be duly covered in a convenient three-point sermon, or in a 45-minute Sunday School class. But this is the very thing my study experience over the last several decades (I’m 57 years old.) has taught me. Indeed, I don’t think that I’ve ever heard any sermon or Sunday School lesson in which every point is perfectly reasoned and perfectly supported by the scriptures. I find errors, whether large or small, in practically every presentation. And here’s how I find them: I have learned now to emulate what the Bereans were commended for doing here:
Acts 17:11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
For the record, let me confess freely that my examinations have surely been imperfect from time to time in various ways, and there is still the likelihood that when I decide that someone’s teaching is wrong, it is I who am wrong myself. And further, it’s not all that infrequent that we are both wrong! I do find, however, that the more scriptures I consider on such a topic, the more likely I am to get the best-informed view of the thing, and to come up with an understanding that does not contradict any passage of scripture. That’s what the Bereans were doing—searching the whole of the scriptures. And that is by no means a convenient task. On the contrary, it is one of high diligence and responsibility, requiring self-discipline, honesty, good judgment, and the patience not to prematurely declare a matter settled.
And that last part is what I want to talk about, because I think we do that way too much—way too often. So often, in fact, that it’s probably over 50% of the time—if not even much more!
If you’re not familiar with this next verse, it may rock your boat. Let’s read a brief statement Peter made about Paul’s writings:
2 Peter 3:15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.
It may make us uncomfortable, but Peter is suggesting that not all the scriptures are simple and easily understood (correctly). He’s saying that godless people frequently make errors in understanding, and that the Christians needed to be careful to avoid that.
And we have already seen how the Bereans were commended (in scripture, even!) for their approach to being sure what they were considering for belief was true before they believed it. And I should note that they were this careful even when listening to the teaching of an apostle of Jesus who frequently performed signs, wonders, and miracles! How much more careful, then, would they have been in checking out the teachings of some non-apostle with no such commission from God?
So, if the believers in the First Century were vulnerable to such error, by what magic shall we escape such error in our own time? Would we not do well to study in the same fashion as the Bereans did? I think so.
But Is There Enough Information to Figure It All Out?
Now, the way some people view “The Church”, they operate under a predetermined assumption that there simply has to be enough information in the Bible to ensure that we can figure out and understand quite thoroughly everything that was taught by Jesus and his apostles in the First Century. To them, “The Church” is the rightful guardian of this information, and the dispenser of it to the world in its own generation. That’s the way they see it, and they’ll rarely (if ever) consider any other view of what time it is. They’ll not even give proper consideration, in my opinion, of the considerable disunity there is among the camps in understanding these things. Nor do they give proper consideration to how, even among their own congregation, there is difference in understanding. Nor do they properly consider that they themselves may well have understood some passage differently in the past from how they understand it now. So, here’s some logic to be considered:
- If you were wrong about some things in the past, what’s to say you couldn’t still be wrong about it?
- If you changed your understanding of a passage, what’s to say you’ve got it just right this time?
- If the various camps disagree on something, doesn’t this reasonably prove that they can’t all be right? What if your camp happens to be one of the ones that’s wrong on some certain topic?
- Do I have any special promise from God that he won’t let me be wrong in my understanding of some doctrinal matter? Or that he won’t let my church be wrong? Or the leaders? If so, where is it written?
If I go much further, you’re going to start expecting examples, but at that point, this short article would explode into an anthology for which neither of us has the time! But let me say this:
I have in recent years, and even in recent months, backed off in thinking I understood—and was competent to teach about—certain Bible topics. One, for example, is the “Trinity”. I cannot explain exactly the nature of the relationships between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Nor do I see any reason that I must understand it fully at this time. As far as I can tell, if the details are still a bit blurry, that doesn’t seem to affect me much in the here and now. I still need to be faithful and obedient, whether I understand the Trinity or not. And I can be faithful and obedient, even if I don’t understand it.
And so it goes with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As I look around, I find that many seem to think the indwelling involves certain features/functions that I can’t even find taught in scripture. They’ll carry on like they’ve all got it figured out, but when I hear them saying things I can’t corroborate in the scriptures, I think that’s a problem. And I’m not sure that we have enough information in the scriptures to be able to answer every reasonable question someone might have about it. But this doesn’t seem to stop many of the camps from filling in the blanks overconfidently.
But again, can’t I still be faithful and obedient to God—loving and kind and forgiving—even if I don’t understand the indwelling completely? Again, I think I can.
Shutting Me Down
I’ve had questions like this about popular beliefs for most of my life. And most of my life, I’ve run into a brick wall when asking them in church. I have almost never heard, “That’s a great question, Jack, so let’s study all about it and get you some answers.” Rather, what’s more typical is that the leaders make some attempt to distract me from the question, and to get back to business as usual. As one leader put it in his closing prayer (after a question of mine had apparently upset his attempt to wrap up his lesson in a tidy package:
“Lord, please help us to distinguish between what is merely interesting, and that which is truly (of) core (importance).”
It seems I was supposed to learn from his instructive prayer that whatever I wanted to know about the topic was not truly important, and that I was somehow foolish for wondering about it—or, at least, for bringing it up in the class.
It was like the Wizard of Oz (whose presence had just been unveiled by Toto) saying, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”
What would those Berean believers have thought had Paul tried to get them to stop with their questions—to stop looking into it—to stop expecting every good teaching to be verifiable in scripture—to stop expecting things to make sense?
Indeed, Jesus got hammered with questions regularly. Did he ever shut anybody down? Was that his habit? Did he seem generally unwilling to answer? Did he seem unable to answer?
Conclusion
Well, I’ve just seen it too often to keep believing at this point that we’re going to be able to settle every Bible question, such that the right answers are just obvious and beyond dispute. Now don’t get me wrong, I do think that a lot of things can be well-settled like this, and that we really ought to try harder than we do. But not everything. And it’s easy to spot someone from the all-settled camp, who seem to assume that it is all wrapped up and settled.
When you say or ask A, they’ll answer with B. And when you question B, then the conversation generally falls apart, because they don’t know how to go any farther. That is, their understanding is based on believing their Answer B, but not in understanding it and being able to explain it. They’re glad they’ve got an Answer B—that they have something to say when challenged or questioned—but they’ve never stopped to be sure that Answer B really answers the question honestly, rationally, and responsibly. And an honest, rational, and responsible questioner or challenger can see this; he or she can perceive that something’s amiss in the response—even when the respondent doesn’t see it.
By why can’t the respondent respond like this?:
“OK, Jack, I think I understand your question, so let me give you my answer, and then we can sit down to calculate whether it truly answers your question, and whether it’s consistent with the whole of scripture, or alternately, if it seems to contradict some passages.”
It seems to me that that’s what a Berean would say—that that’s how they would think—because they’re still in it for the truth themselves, and not just in it to reassure themselves (or whatever onlookers there may be) that it’s all wrapped up—that their current understanding is good enough, more or less.
And so I see a considerable difference between the guy who is trying to be responsible to all the information available to us, and the one who just wants to play the teacher, or the one who is steeped in this overestimation of his own understanding of the Bible. It’s a big difference in philosophy—in attitude. And so many seem to turn out being the watchdog sort, barking and snarling at whomever would ask questions. If the watchdogs were ever the sort to be asking good questions themselves, they have certainly abandoned that disposition to take on the watchdog role.
I used to be somewhat like that, I regret to say. And I hope that I have finally outgrown it completely, though I had still better keep a close eye on myself.
Surely, I have got some things on straight. But surely, I am still wrong about some things. And surely, somebody else can be right about some of the things I have got wrong. And surely, it would be an error to blow them off without giving the matter a fair hearing. But it seems that very few of us these days even know how to give a matter a fear hearing—to truly listen—to truly and honestly consider. Somehow, we have learned to prefer our habit of presuming that we already get it well enough. And that’s what seems more and more sinful the more I study the scriptures.
