What separates people
People say: how can you judge who's doctrinally on-the-mark and who's not?
Because I have the discernment of the Spirit of Truth in me. Simple as that.
How do you get that?
Regeneration effected by the Word and the Spirit. Then effort to find the rock foundation of Biblical, apostolic doctrine (which is not difficult).
What separates people regarding all this is the reading of the Word of God. Complete readings. You can't regenerate yourself, but leaving that aside, or assuming that (for the purposes of this paragraph), it is the actual reading of the Word of God, Genesis through Revelation, every proverbial jot and tittle, with a pure motivation to pursue Wisdom Herself, that separates the serious from the shallow.
Liberals don't do it. Conservatives don't do it. Moderates don't do it.
In fact: they all mock it. They call it 'pietistic'. They sneer at the notion of reading the Bible in a serious, non-desultory, non-scattered, going-through-the-motions way.
And when one who does do that shows up they instinctively pack together and attack.
In the five sources I list at the right of this blog you'll see four theologians who were unique for one thing: they drank at the pure fountain of the Word of God and made it their foundational sustenance. They didn't treat the Word of God as just any other book that one 'gets the gist of' and moves on to 'more demanding works'. Their motivation in engaging the Word of God was to be in the presence of mystery and pure Wisdom and literal saving sustenance. They actually could 'see' that the Word of God is the very living, saving Word of God itself.
When this is brought up the church level/seminary level Christians get hyper-defensive. They get stung. They get exposed. Some jabber about how they've read the Bible complete fifty times (!!!). They say that the same way weekend joggers say they run five-minutes miles.
The separation that occurs is real, and it manifests.
When you become serious with the Word of God you also become led by the Spirit into more practical levels of the faith. Calvin knew this (read his commentary on Heb. 6:1). Witsius learned this after he'd met a man who knew the more mystical and spiritual aspects of Christianity (yet notice Witsius can hardly be sneered at as a flake, like the seminary fools and the mainstream church leader fools have to do when you point these things out; they are in the prison of the devil's kingdom and resentful of anyone who's not, or they are consciously delighted to be in the devil's kingdom and want others there with them).
These same fools will read this and shiver with the same devilish anger any Roman Catholic devil priest ever shivered with at the height of their devilish, totalitarian power. So be it.
1 Comments:
It's like, "Kip, the H&R Block tax consultant, I saw you jogging down the block last Sunday. No, you did not run eight miles in 40 minutes. No... No, Kip. Buy a stopwatch (or wear a watch or something). You didn't run eight five-minute miles in a row. What I saw, when I saw you, was a (being generous) maybe ten-minute mile pace. Which is pretty good, Kip! Don't get me wrong. You see, a ten-minute mile clip makes you feel like you're actually running. Amateur marathoners are happy to maintain a 10-minute mile pace. They'll actually finish before the sun goes down. But it's not a five-minute mile pace. Not close.
It's the same with Christians and the Bible. They'll read a passage here, a Psalm there, maybe an entire book (shortish one) in a rare moment.
Some will exegete three words from a single book and leave that activity with a feeling like they've conquered the entire Bible.
But they don't ever actually read the Bible complete any more than they pick up a translation of the Iliad and slog through those 13+ of 24 books of seemingly interminable battle scenes. Not that the books with the counsels and Olympian scenes are any easier going in that sense...
But that's what you've got to do (with the Bible). Over and over. Until you get up to speed (and it doesn't hurt to practice on the Iliads and classical historians and so on of the secular world to help you get up to speed).
It's a practical, doable goal, though. Start at page one and put one foot in front of the other until you trek across the continent from coast to coast. Genesis through Revelation.
It takes time! And effort. Dedication. Valuation. "But those books about the Bible are so much easier to read!" Yes, they're like junk food, compared to healthy food.
They also require less attention and effort. It's more comfortable reading books about the Bible than actually reading the Bible itself.
So you have to make it a goal. A project. Knowing the time and effort needed beforehand so you don't quit at the first interval where the going gets tedious.
This is the foundation of Christian practice and faith.
Do it seven times. However long it takes. Dedicated, complete readings. Maybe not as fast as you possibly can (i.e. maybe not starting another one right after finishing one) because understanding needs time to consolidate. And there ARE other kinds of Bible study. But as a general, overall goal, seven times is a good number.
And remember that you're at the fount of the Word of God itself. No matter how many 'pieces of paper' you have on your wall the actual living Word of God is above you. That's not to say they are out of your reach, but it is to say they remain out of your reach if you come to them with any kind of wet arrogance or pride of learning or what have you.
It's what separates the shallow mainstream (and worse) from the few who are living and moving with the Spirit of Truth working in them. The few who are developing real understanding and being led more and more to the practical level doing of the faith.
And anybody can do it.
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