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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Church of the Word or Word of the Church | Rom 10:7 | DocTrinsograce | 243322 | ||
"The Reformers called this 'enthusiasm' (literally, 'God-within-ism') because it made the external Word of Scripture subservient to the inner word supposedly spoken by the Spirit today within the individual or the church. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul's letter-Spirit contrast refers to the law apart from the gospel as a 'ministry of death' and the gospel as the Spirit's means of justifying and regenerating sinners. Gnostics, enthusiasts, and mystics throughout the ages, however, have interpreted the apostle's terms as a contrast between the text of Scripture ('letter') and inner spiritual knowledge ('spirit'). "If only it were that easy to identify the 'two sects' in our day. Tragically, 'enthusiasm' has become one of the dominant ways of undermining the sufficiency of Scripture, and it is evident across the spectrum. Rome has consistently insisted that the letter of Scripture requires the living presence of the Spirit speaking through the Magisterium. Anabaptists and Pietists have emphasized a supposedly immediate, direct, and spontaneous work of the Spirit in our hearts apart from creaturely means. Enlightenment philosophers and liberal theologians -- almost all of whom were reared in Pietism -- resurrected the radical Anabaptist interpretation of 'letter' versus 'spirit.' 'Letter' came to mean the Bible (or any external authority), while 'spirit' was equivalent not to the Holy Spirit but to our own inner spirit, reason, or experience. By the mid-twentieth century, the synods and general assemblies even of denominations historically tied to the Reformation began to speak of the Scriptures as an indispensable record of the pious experiences, reflections, rituals, beliefs, and lives of saints in the past, while what we really need in this hour is to 'follow the Spirit' wherever he/she/it may lead us. And we now know where this spirit has led these erstwhile churches; but it is the spirit of the age, not the Spirit of Christ, that has taken them there. "William Placher finely described this broad tendency in modern faith and practice as the 'domestication of transcendence.' In other words, it is not that revelation, inspiration, and authority are denied, but that the surprising, disorienting, and external voice of God is finally transformed into the 'relevant,' uplifting, and empowering inner voice of our own reason, morality, and experience. "Such domestication of transcendence means that the self—or the 'community' (whatever name it goes by) -- is protected from the surprising, disorienting, and judging speech of our Creator. Yet this also means that we cannot be saved, since faith comes by hearing God speak his Word of salvation in his Son (Rom. 10:17). This is not something that bubbles up within us, either as pious individuals or as the holy church, but as a Word that comes to us. It is not a familiar Word, but a strange and unsettling speech that strips us of our moral pretenses, overturns our most intuitive assumptions, disturbs our activistic programs. Basically, we are told to stop talking to ourselves as if we were hearing the voice of God. Through the lips of other sinful messengers, we are put on the receiving end of our identity. We do not discover our 'higher selves' but are told who we really are: treasonous image-bearers of God; we do not find our bearings 'in Adam' toward a fuller sense of inner peace and security but are driven out of ourselves to Christ, who clothes us in His righteousness. ... "While the church is not the master of the text, it is the amphitheater in which the Word creates the reality of which it speaks, the place where a valley of dry bones becomes a resurrected community (Ezek. 37). Just as we come to God with empty hands to receive Christ in salvation, we come to his Word as hearers rather than as judges and lords. Yet even this emptying of our hands is the judging and liberating work of a God who is too gracious to let us have the last word." --Michael S. Horton from his essay "Church of the Word or Word of the Church?" |
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2 | Church of the Word or Word of the Church | Rom 10:7 | EdB | 243324 | ||
What the author fails to mention that there are two distinct differences between being spirit lead and claiming to be spirit lead. True leading will not take a believer outside the boundaries set by scripture. While those only claiming to be to be spirit lead often stray outside those boundaries. Because of this many want to deny the possibility that there is more to true Christianity than what they possess. Their relationship with God is one of silence where God only talks to them through His written word. They miss the fact God will and does verbally converse with us through His spirit. They fail to trust scripture that says the spirit will lead, will teach, will be a real companion. They only see the abuses because they never have the real relationship that takes man beyond acting like a Christian and being a Christian. They let their fear of being deceived over ride the promised gift of discerning spirit. They focus on the abuses so common in anything man is involved in and lose sight of what of the possibilities of a spirit led being. Thankful the Apostle's did not do this. Is that say they were always on track? No many times the had to be brought into correction. ( Paul and Peter) Today we have very specific boundaries provided for us, scripture does that today. The important thing to remember is not to seek the manifestations of the Holy Spirit but instead to develop a 2 way relationship with the Holy Spirit in which the individual has yielded his will to God. Sad commentary where the author focuses on the possible abuses and fails to talk about about the real capabilities of living a Spirit Filled a Life. How sad! |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Rom 10:7 | Author | ||
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