To be misinformed is more dangerous than to be uninformed. Too many people in the church are misinformed, as well as uninformed. It goes back to the wrong application of all God’s people being ministers. The doctrine of vocation has nothing to do with being self-taught in matters of theology.
Why bother with a pastor? It’s like the commercial where the man is on the phone and the doctor on the other end is telling him how to perform surgery on himself. The man skeptically looks at the knife and says, “Shouldn’t you be doing this?” How can we learn without a teacher? In most skills, when one self-teaches, one runs the risk of mis-learning. I would never expect one of my students to read multiple books on how to use a comma and assume they will pass a test without having guided them through the material; however, in the church we think that learning without a pastor to guide us is what congregations should be doing.
We allow ourselves to read and interpret scripture based on our own reasoning. We read a part of scripture and decide for ourselves what it means, even if it is contrary to what scripture really teaches. We allow ourselves to listen to all sorts of teachers through books, radio, television, others, even culture and develop our own personal theology based on the varying messages our varied teachers tell us. Then our pastor has to undo the incorrect teaching and we say, “No, I disagree with you.”
One caveat here is that there are untrustworthy pastors our there who are doing more harm than good; but a pastor who is trustworthy will not lead his people away from the truth, but rather always pointing them to Christ.We always need to be on guard as to the false teachings out there. You know what the FBI says—the best way to spot a counterfeit bill is to study the real ones. The best way to spot bad theology is to study the real deal. This means we can’t make up our own theology to fit our mood. We need to be solid in what we believe so we can say “no” to bad theology, not to our pastors who are trying to lead us farther into what we believe, teach, and confess.
Whew!
1 day ago
3 comments:
You are exactly right. There are too many bible studies going on where all they do is go around the room and say "what this verse means to me is...." Therein lies the problem. It doesn't matter what it means to you. The correct question is "What does this mean?" Period. Re-stated, "What does GOD mean in this verse?" When we attempt to apply our sinful "reasoning" to the interpretation of Holy Scripture we inevitably put "self" first. But THAT is a 1st commandment issue! :)
Very good points made...yet one reason why we have Scripture in our language, readily accessible is so that we CAN learn, and even so we can hold a pastor accountable to his teaching.
What is dangerous is when we start making our own doctrine, and as you said, decide we don't need a teacher, or The Church. God put them there to guide us, teach us, and call us to repentance as well. Things get dangerous when the Church doesn't do its job, or when the individual believer refuses to do his by learning the Word so that he knows good doctrine or false doctrine when he hears it. The Holy Spirit draws us into the Church so that we can be protected, taught, and comforted -- by the Shepherd and by the body of all believers.
Orianna
I appreciated your comments on the issues I raised on Christian integration on Veith's blog a couple weeks ago. I certainly concurred with your observations then and I do now. I think of the Puritan emphasis on creation of a literate ministry in colonial New England, a goal which helped create one of the greatest minds America produced - Jonathan Edwards. Our post-modern rejection of objective truth has led us to do just what revmlk has observed about modern Bible Study -to ask about personal meaning without first asking "what does the passage say," followed by "what did the passage mean at the time it was written (interpretation). Instead, we move directly into application. Part of the problem is what Os Guiness pointed out in his book "Fit Bodies Flabby Minds." In the US particularly, there has been the tendency since the Second Great Awakening, to allow everyman to be his own interpreter, cast off all past wisdom, and even become proud of his/her spirituality in doing so. It's when you ask a person "what does your church believe?" and are met with the response "Oh, we just preach the Bible." I don't think any of us can interpret the scriptures so objectively completely free from cultural biases. To believe that we can invites arrogance of the worst kind and the kind of blindness that characterized the Pharisees
Orianna - I'd love to hear some of your wisdom on my own blog www.jesusandclio.blogspot.com. It's primarily for educators.
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