Thread: Interpretation: Seek the Balance of Scripture
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Interpretation: Seek the Balance of Scripture
Posted : 3 Jun, 2010 08:09 PM
From D.A.Carson
(A Bible scholar you should know!)
(1) As conscientiously as possible, seek the balance of Scripture, and avoid succumbing to historical and theological disjunctions.
Liberals have often provided us with nasty disjunctions: Jesus or Paul, the charismatic community or the "early catholic" church, and so forth. Protestants sometimes drop a wedge between Paul's faith apart from works (Rom 3:28) and James' faith and works (Jas 2:4); others absolutize Galatians 3:28 as if it were the controlling passage on all matters to do with women, and spend countless hours explaining away 1 Timothy 2:12 (or the reverse!).
Historically, many Reformed Baptists in England between the middle of the eighteenth century and the middle of the twentieth so emphasized God's sovereign grace in election that they became uncomfortable with general declarations of the Gospel. Unbelievers should not be told to repent and believe the Gospel: how could that be, since they are dead in trespasses and sin, and may not in any case belong to the elect? They should rather be encouraged to examine themselves to see if they have within themselves any of the first signs of the Spirit's work, any conviction of sin, any stirrings of shame. On the face of it, this is a long way from the Bible, but thousands of churches thought it was the hallmark of faithfulness. What has gone wrong, of course, is that the balance of Scripture has been lost. One element of Biblical truth has been elevated to a position where it is allowed to destroy or domesticate some other element of Biblical truth.
In fact, the "balance of Scripture" is not an easy thing to maintain, in part because there are different kinds of balance in Scripture. For example, there is the balance of diverse responsibilities laid on us (e.g. praying, being reliable at work, being a biblically faithful spouse and parent, evangelizing a neighbor, taking an orphan or widow under our wing, and so forth): these amount to balancing priorities within the limits of time and energy. There is the balance of Scripture's emphases as established by observing their relation to the Bible's central plot-line; there is also the balance of truths which we cannot at this point ultimately reconcile, but which we can easily distort if we do not listen carefully to the text (e.g. Jesus is both God and man; God is both the transcendent sovereign and yet personal; the elect alone are saved, and yet in some sense God loves horrible rebels so much that Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and God cries, "Turn, turn, why will you die? For the LORD has no pleasure in the death of the wicked."). In each case, a slightly different kind of Biblical balance comes into play, but there is no escaping the fact that Biblical balance is what we need.
Lord, have mercy on us, and incline our EARS to HEAR YOUR Word,..
I, personally, think there is no Biblical balance in scripture becaue people are NOT READING the Word to seek God's knowledge, or to make changes within their own lives. Many read the Bible to find scriptures to use against others, and not for themsleves.
Many pastors are also not preaching God's word as they should, because they themsleves are in SINS, and many are afraid of offending the congregation. Hardly, no one attends Bible Study classes anymore, or prayer services, which these are the building foundations of the church. Many preachers only preach on scriptures relating to tithing and receiving blessings from God, but John preached about SIN, and Jesus' first sermon was REPENTANCE.
A Dynamic church as in the book of Acts was built on prayer and the word of God. And we're told that those who heard Peter and Paul preach searched the scriptures to see if what they were saying was of a truth. People don't search the scriptures to see if their pastor is speaking the truth for balance, and many don't even carry their Bibles to church on Sunday morning.
Therefoe, we will have an unbalnce in interpretaion of scripture when no one is reading, no one is repenting no one is a DOER of the Word, and can only quote scriptures that make them feel good.
Most can't even witness to the lost or those who are backsliders from the church because they know not the proper scriptures or proper interpretation of what scriptures have to say...
It is not important Church I am part of James it is that have accepted a lie Calvinism as the truth, and you want others to follow you, if you really knew the lord according to his word you would not say that you do.
Obviously I am part of a church that believes the word of God is true!!
Jesus said take head what you hear, why because you will eventually, believe what you hear even the lie.
PJ, do you really feel that it is unimportant, or are you concerned that somebody might come be your stalker if they know where to find you on Sunday mornings?
