How Did We Get Confused?

Introduction

Perhaps you have been paying attention to the news reports lately coming out of the state of New Jersey. According to reports, the current Democratic Senator decided to withdraw from the race. It appears that the Republican challenger was about 20 points ahead in the polls and the Democratic Senator realized he had no hope of winning. The Democratic party proposed that the current Senator be replaced with another candidate in the interest of giving the people of New Jersey a viable alternative to the Republican challenger. The New Jersey Supreme Court agreed unanimously. The Republican Party disagreed with the idea. They pointed to the New Jersey law which says that a candidate can remove his name 51 days before the general election. The New Jersey courts decided that the intent of the law was not to keep a person from being on the ballot later than 51 days. Instead, they ruled that the law said nothing about 50 days or less. Thus, the law was open to interpretation.

What do you think of that? Forget the political parties involved. What do you think of the interpretation of the law? Do you think it is an adequate interpretation? Why or why not? We live at a time in which objective truth is giving way to subjective truth. Lying is an accepted practice. Officials with Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom stand as examples. But not even on an upper level, subjective truth rules. The only real truth is what I like. We notice it in phrases such as “Different strokes for different folks” of the sixties; “do your own thing” of the seventies; and more recently “you have your belief and I have mine.” When it comes to values and principles, our culture says that everyone has a view and every view is not only possible but to be accepted. Rejection of a view is to be intolerant—the most recent criticism available. It is more disgraceful to be intolerant than to be a liar.

And this view has spilled over into the religious world. No longer is there objective truth; we are left with personal preferences and ideas. While most in Christendom will agree on the fundamental evils of murder, adultery, even lying, there is great divergence of views on forms of worship, modes of conversion, and doctrinal practices. How did we get so confused? How could it be that people who claim to believe in the same God could come to so many different views and so many different practices? The answer is found in the understanding of the centrality of scripture and an interpretation system which exalts personal preference. Let’s look at each of these views as seen in scripture.

Centrality of Scripture

Even before Luther’s declaration that Scripture alone was to serve as our guide for understanding the will of God, the writers of scripture themselves understood that God’s will was being revealed in written form. In the text read, Paul says that he passed on to them the intent and meaning of the Lord’s Supper. What was originally passed on orally was written. Paul understood that his written word reflected the intent and purpose of God for taking the Lord’s Supper. In 1 Corinthians 14:33, just before Paul writes about a woman’s participation in the assembly, he states that all the congregations of God’s people have this same teaching. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul says that scripture is several uses. All of those uses has a central idea that scripture is to change the person reading it, not the person reading it to change scripture.

When we begin to assert our preferences, then scripture becomes a tool to use to make our points rather than the means to change our lives to be more consistent with will and purpose of God. It is only in scripture that we can come to know the will of God. Some have suggested that we can count on the Holy Spirit to lead us. It is believed that the Holy Spirit will tell us what the will of God is. Assuming that assertion to be true would mean that the Holy Spirit would have to lead us all in the same direction, that is, any teaching from the Holy Spirit would have to be the same to all. Otherwise, God violates his own law by becoming a God of chaos. Second, if the Holy Spirit is going to provide further instruction (revelation) about God’s intent, does it seem reasonable that God would allow instruction which goes against that which he has recorded and preserved, Scripture? To say that the Spirit will lead us is not against the word of God (Galatians 5:18), but if he is going to lead us he will not go against the very word which God himself has commissioned and preserved. Otherwise, God is divided and this opens up another set of difficulties.

Last week we spent time trying to demonstrate that the Bible can be trusted and because it can be trusted we can read it knowing that God’s word is available to us. The next step in this process is that the Bible can be read, understood, and agreed upon. But here is where things begin to fall apart. Traditions, cultural bias, and intellectual limitations often make it more difficult to come to an agreement. Add to this that we live at a time in which objective truth is not valued, tolerance is the keyword of our time, and personal preferences are valued; then maybe we can appreciate why the religious world is confused. It is valid to call for scripture to be our authority for knowing the intent of God. We do not study scripture for their own sake but we study scripture to know God and his will and purposes. It would be wrong to exalt scripture above God or as Jesus says to believe that we can find eternal life in them (John 5:39). We do not study scripture for their own sake but so that we can come to know the one in whom is life—Jesus.

Personal Preference

Perhaps the most difficult cultural bias to overcome is that of personal preference. Most often the idea of personal preference is expressed most candidly when a religious practice is somehow found to be in conflict with something in scripture. Expressions such as “I like” or “I don’t think God would” often precede the personal preference statement. For instance, in regards to the use of an instrument in the assembly, a person may express his desire to continue using instruments because it is pleasing to the ear or even simply “I like it.” This preference can be stated for almost any practice.

The real question is this: “Is God’s will open to personal preference?” The further question may be “what is God’s will?” and that question is often debated; however, when God’s will is determined, can we alter or change that will to fit what we want? Much of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians seems to be directed to changing the thoughts and attitudes about God’s will. Their preference for human wisdom had led them to believe all sorts of things which conflicted with Paul’s previous teaching. His correction was to remind them that what mattered was not wisdom or signs but God’s plan and intent. They were to begin practicing love rather than preference. In Romans 14, Paul states that opinions or preferences do exist, but they are never to result in the division of Christ’s body.

Preferences are to be in subjection to the will of God and it is through scripture that we can know what God’s will is. Learning God’s will is not a once and for all proposition. Instead, we must study for ourselves. We must approach scripture with a reverence for it being the word of God and a determination to understand it and follow it because it is God’s word. There is no room for smugness or arrogance when approaching God’s word. There must instead be a desire to read, know, understand, and be changed by God’s word. We may disagree on the practical application of scripture. We may disagree over how to understand a text. But that should never distract us from the goal of coming to know God and his will better through the study of scripture. This is not to suggest that others have not come to scripture with an open mind and a willingness to understand God’s will. Neither is it to suggest that the process of reading and understanding the Bible is an easy process. The long history of vigorous religious disagreement is proof enough that the process is not an easy one. However, it is to suggest that all who come to scripture must come with the intent to alter thinking to coincide with God’s, to set aside personal preference, and to believe that scripture is our written revelation of God’s will. Anything less will result in confusion.

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