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NASB | Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the [preaching of the] message concerning Christ. |
Subject: Joe, how do you know the truth? |
Bible Note: Bill: The very atrocities and false teachings you mentioned are precisely WHY there was a Reformation. And it was private study of Scripture that revealed to the Reformers that such teachings were false. For example, Luther was reading Romans 1:16-17 when the "light" of justification by faith alone hit him square in the eyes. However, swinging to the other end of the pendulum ("just me and my Bible are all I need") was never a position advocated by Luther or Calvin or any of the other Reformers, nor of the Bible itself. Luther just as quickly condemned the "enthusiasts" of his day who rejected the sound teaching of Scripture. He would have never advocated that anyone -- most especially a new convert -- try and grow in truth apart from the teaching God supplies in the context of the church. You wrote: "If the 'church' believes that God cannot speak to me from His Holy Word, right here, right now where I am through the enablement of His Holy Spirit and divine power, then the 'church' has once again entered the dark ages." Where did Tim or I make such an assertion? Of course God can and does speak to you through the Scriptures. The question is, how well do you listen? It does require our God-given brains to understand Scripture. We are to love God with all our MINDS as well as with our souls and hearts. Studying and understanding Scripture is not a "no-brainer" process. Some core issues take time and mental effort to wrap our minds around (try finding ten people at random in your church to show you the full doctrine of the Trinity from Scripture), and God did gift some of his people especially in the area of teaching others these truths. Knowledge and wisdom and the intellect are not to be despised, Bill. Solomon said to God, "Give me now WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE, that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of Yours?" (2 Chronicles 1:10). More support? "Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments." --Psalm 119:66 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction." --Proverbs 1:7 "How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge?... Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD." --Proverbs 1:22,28-29 "Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, And he who hurries his footsteps errs." --Proverbs 19:2 "And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment" --Philippians 1:9 "Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness" --1 Peter 1:5-6 God does not despise learning and knowledge the way you seem to; he commands it. The intellect is a key component of adoration of God and understanding His truth. True, the intellect apart from the Holy Spirit will never come to a knowledge of the truth (true knowledge is rooted in the fear of the Lord), but like any good teacher, the Holy Spirit doesn't spoon-feed us his revelation, either. God forces us to use our brains, and has blessed us with keen minds such as Paul and Augustine and Jonathan Edwards and others throughout Church history to be teachers of truth. Do not despise the gift of teaching, and exercise the mind God has given you to its fullest potential for His glory. --Joe! |