Opus 2025-524: Discernment Watch: Beware of Experts

I just received a lengthy tome from my friend who has definite theological opinions.  By lengthy, I mean seven pages of 12 point font.  I think that qualifies as lengthy.  What makes it drudgery is that he just is repeating everything he said before.  I’m going to go over it again, looking for anything original and hope to find something.  If nothing else he makes me think and adds to my arsenal of scripture knowledge.

Disagreement has value because it forces us to look at our suppositions.  It makes us examine the foundation stones of our thinking.  That is always good.  Sometimes one of those stones needs to be changed or chipped away a little bit.

My concern though from this is, I’m thinking about definitions of words.  The one that keeps coming to my mind that people use, at least in church circles, is the word “grace”.  Christians love to talk about how they are saved by grace.  That is certainly true.  The Bible is very clear about that.

(Eph 2:8-9 KJV)  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

The problem comes when we define what grace means.  The popular definition that I’ve been hearing all my life is that grace is “unmerited favor”.  If you are a student of theology and have definite opinions, you can parse that so that it might be understandable.  You might even get it to a place where I could accept it along with a big pillow of salt.  My point here is that if I need someone to define a word and all they can do is give me other words that need to be defined even further, then their definition is pretty worthless.  What do we mean by “unmerited”?  What do we mean by “favor”?  The problem with such definitions is they fly in the face of most scripture.

I prefer a definition which is much simpler.  To me grace is “God’s love in action”.  Are there any words there that need to be defined?  Is there anything about that statement that is not clear?  It is a much better definition.  It is simple.  It is direct.  And it does not cause any conflict in the world of theology and understanding of the Bible.

Take this another step.  I am now working my way through Revelation, and I find that almost every word has to be to defined.  Starting in chapter 4 I find that there is nothing that is a simple statement.  You may have heard the term “apocalyptic literature”.  It’s a form of writing, which is nothing but images and literary devices trying to get across some hidden meaning.  That is the book of Revelation.

As I have said other places, I accept the book of Revelation as part of the Bible.  As such it is scripture.  As such it is inspired.  That does not mean that we understand it or can understand it.  Anything in the Bible that needs a commentary or a scholar to explain to me using other words that I don’t understand is something that should be put on a back shelf and gotten to later.

Usually, we don’t really need an expert telling us what it means.  If we continue reading, if we continue thinking, if we keep our mind alive as we look in other parts of scripture, we will find the answers ourselves.  The answers we find will be much simpler, much more direct, and to tell the truth, more accurate.

Trust your ability to read.  Trust the ability the Holy Spirit to interpret.  God wants you to understand the truth.  He’s not so much concerned that you find a commentary that will tell you what the truth is.  Keep in mind that most of what you read in a commentary is not definitions of terms and explanation of tenses.  It is the opinion of the author and to be honest, you opinion might be just as valid as his.

homo unius libri