Results 1 - 5 of 5
|
|
|||||
Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | What Does a Text SAY? | Eph 4:11 | kalos | 119312 | ||
What Does a Text SAY? '...There are times when certain scriptures are difficult to understand and that our opinions on these verses might be equally valid. If they contradict each other, they cannot all be valid. Furthermore, I pointed out that we must not subject God's word to our opinions. It is a mistake to have a group of people look at a Scripture and offer varying opinions on what it means as though God's word means only what it means to us at that time and that we can contradict each other and that's fine. 'Instead, we should ask ourselves "what does a text SAY?" 'We should work hard at trying to discover what the best single possible meaning to the text is -- if that is applicable. We should not view God's word as a well from which we draw whatever feeling, sensation, or opinion that suits us for the time. Instead, we must do our best to find out what the word actually says to the best of our ability instead of "feeling" our way through the scriptures using relativism as a guide. Otherwise, we would be saying that God does not actually mean anything specific when He inspired the writers of the Bible. If we were to say that God's word can mean different things, then the word of God doesn't mean anything at all. The problem here is that relativism [is] creeping into the Bible study. (...) 'So I ask you. When you study God's word devotionally, or otherwise, do you hope to find what it actually means so you can subject yourself to what it says, or do you try and find a meaning for Scripture that suits your needs, your feelings, and your desires?' (http://www.carm.org/newsletter/2002/08-23-02.htm) (Emphasis added.) |
||||||
2 | What Does a Text SAY? | Eph 4:11 | Hank | 119318 | ||
Kalos, your instructive post regarding how to handle the word of truth properly recalls to mind a set of personal experiences of days gone by, one involving my wife and the other involving me. When I was a child growing up under the nurture of my parents and the church, it was my understanding that when the hymn, "Bringing in the Sheaves" was being sung in worship service, they were saying "Bringing in the Sheep." My wife thought (she told me after we were married) that they were saying "Bringing in the Sheets." Both of us were mistaken, of course, but then the words we thought we heard made at least some sense to us because I knew what sheep were and she knew what sheets were, but neither of us at that tender age had any idea what sheaves were. Even if we had, it wouldn't have contributed much of anything to our understanding of the spiritual implications of the phrase, "bringing in the sheaves." We were young, we were immature, we were lacking in language skills and, most important of all, we didn't at that time possess the ability to understand the concept sufficiently well to discern the spiritual message that the hymn's author intended by the hymn. ...... To a greater or lesser degree we all of us, young and old, spiritual babes and spiritually mature, are like that. None of us I suspect will ever reach a plateau, a spiritual utopia, in which everything in the Bible becomes perfectly clear to us. In a recent post to this Forum I observed that though we spend a thousand years in arduous and diligent study of God's word, we would have just begun to skim the surface. ....... But two things come to mind that can help us immeasurably in our study of Scripture. I believe the most important guidance we can ever obtain comes through the illumination by the indwelling Holy Spirit. And second to that is the collective wisdom of the saints who have trodden the same path we now trod. It is unwise indeed to ignore this source of help in understanding the Bible. It is vain of us to think that the illumination of the Spirit is a gift uniquely ours and not a gift given also to other saints through the ages. Their insights are often quite able to deepen our own. ...... One reads on this Forum from time to time the accusation that the Bible contradicts itself. Little do the authors of such absurdities realize the breadth of ignorance and shallowness of mind they display to the world by their foolish talk. Likewise, neither do they who are so full of their own opinions that they have little capacity left in their heads to absorb the truth. --Hank | ||||||
3 | What Does a Text SAY? | Eph 4:11 | CDBJ | 119320 | ||
Hi Hank, Coming from a mechanical background I always thought, in that song, that they were talking about a pulley or block and tackle setup? Is the English language messed up or what? CDBJ |
||||||
4 | What Does a Text SAY? | Eph 4:11 | Hank | 119323 | ||
CDBJ: __"Is the English language messed up or what?"__ ...... Apparently Churchill thought so. Once someone criticized Sir Winston for ending his sentences with a preposition, telling him that he was breaking the rules of grammar. Churchill replied, "Grammar is something up with which I cannot put." ..... We Forum users aren't the only ones who struggle to write clear prose. Former Vice-President Dan Quayle is a master of murky diction. Some examples: "If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure." ....... "One word sums up the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared.'" ....... It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurites in our air and water." ...... Upon returning from a trip to Latin America, Quayle observed, "The one regret I have is that I didn't study Latin in school so I would have been able to converse with them better." ...... People remark how strange it is that in the KJV suffer means allow and conversation means citizenship. But we haven't advanced much today when we put down our boss and put up with him at the same time. We greet our friends by asking them how do they do, and I wonder why they don't respond, "How do I do what?" ..... We get up in the air, down in the dumps, under the weather and over the hill. Rarely do I get the first three, but this silly post is evidence enough that I'm over the hill :-) --Hank | ||||||
5 | What Does a Text SAY? | Eph 4:11 | CDBJ | 119342 | ||
Hi Hank, Everyone say that I am over the hill and I don't even remember getting to the top! CDBJ |
||||||