Opus 2026-034: Starting Blocks

Where do we start?

I’m reading a book that is so full of things I disagree with that I wonder why I keep reading.  Possibly because it’s been given to me by a friend who endorses the ideas.  That troubles me.

As I read, I noticed that everything in the book goes back to a twisted interpretation of one verse.

(2Ti 2:15 KJV)  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

For over nineteen hundred years Christianity as a whole has interpreted this verse to mean that we carefully interpret what the scripture says; that we handle the scripture as it was meant to be handled.  Then somewhere around 1830 a man named Darby came out with his idea of dispensationalism.  One of his key scriptures was this.  I haven’t read Darby or followed a lot of standard dispensationalism, but I assume that they would interpret this verse to mean that you take a pair of scissors and cut the history in the Bible into segments and that there are different rules for each segment.

Most of us can see some of the logic in this.  One of the common quotes of Christians is, “We’re not under law; we’re under grace.”  That in a sense is a basic form of dispensationalism.  But this book takes it to rabid extremes.  Where they have taken this is to the point where anything not written by the apostle Paul himself is subject to suspicion and rejection.  Of course, this only applies to the verses they don’t like.

So what is my starting point?  What verses do I always come back to?  My first point of foundation would be a scripture, also from II Timothy,

(2Ti 3:16 KJV)  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

The second point is a little more widely spread out and it is the existence of Yahweh.  It is a belief that there is a God and that He is a personal God who created and is involved.  Everything I believe has to be founded on those two truths.

From there I might go to John 3:16.  There might be other basic scriptures that I would start branching out on, but ultimately it comes back to the two things that I cannot prove, but I have to accept totally on faith:  The Bible is the word of God and God exist as described in that Bible.  I can’t think of any rational way to explain and prove those two things.  Many people come up with all kinds of clever schemes, and I salute them, but I can’t put much confidence in their proofs.

If you looked at the Catholic Church, I think their core scripture would be where Jesus told Peter that He would build His church on this rock.  If you looked at Calvin, they would probably take the verse that says we’re saved by grace and some verses about foreknowledge and predestination.  Pentecostals would tend to go with verses about the gifts of the Spirit.

I think it’s a good question.  Where do you start?

homo unius libri