Revelation: Scripture vs. Mysticism Part 3 (Be a Berean)
For part 2 (No Mind Numbed Robots!)see here.
So where is the balance found between a total head knowledge/ Bible information approach to knowing God’s will and the completely subjective/ I’ll do what God “tells” me to do version? In the happy medium of course. (That is medium as in average sense, not the fortune-teller sense…)
There is little to be gained in studying the Bible just to KNOW what it says. The knowledge needs to be brought into every aspect of life and applied. However, there is still a need to know what it says. How can we apply what the Bible teaches if we are clueless about what it says? So read the Bible regularly and often. Then, when times come for decisions to be made, you will have an understanding of the things of God that you can apply, even to situations not specifically addressed in the Scripture.
There is even a Biblical precedent for this approach. In Acts 17, Paul taught in the city of Berea. The people there accepted his teaching, but only after holding it up to the Scripture they had to see if it rang true. Today, if someone claims to have a divine word for the church or a local congregation, their message needs to be heard, but carefully scrutinized to see that it lines up with what we already have from Scripture.
On a personal level, if you have an impression that God is telling you something, you need to test that “message” to be sure it does not contradict something God has already told you through His word. The history of the church is not all that full with new messages from God that were more than just reminders of things He had already spoken in the Bible. On the other hand, it is full of prophets claiming to have new revelation from God that have begun many a cult or a false church.
So where is the balance found between a total head knowledge/ Bible information approach to knowing God’s will and the completely subjective/ I’ll do what God “tells” me to do version? In the happy medium of course. (That is medium as in average sense, not the fortune-teller sense…)
There is little to be gained in studying the Bible just to KNOW what it says. The knowledge needs to be brought into every aspect of life and applied. However, there is still a need to know what it says. How can we apply what the Bible teaches if we are clueless about what it says? So read the Bible regularly and often. Then, when times come for decisions to be made, you will have an understanding of the things of God that you can apply, even to situations not specifically addressed in the Scripture.
There is even a Biblical precedent for this approach. In Acts 17, Paul taught in the city of Berea. The people there accepted his teaching, but only after holding it up to the Scripture they had to see if it rang true. Today, if someone claims to have a divine word for the church or a local congregation, their message needs to be heard, but carefully scrutinized to see that it lines up with what we already have from Scripture.
On a personal level, if you have an impression that God is telling you something, you need to test that “message” to be sure it does not contradict something God has already told you through His word. The history of the church is not all that full with new messages from God that were more than just reminders of things He had already spoken in the Bible. On the other hand, it is full of prophets claiming to have new revelation from God that have begun many a cult or a false church.
Comments
Post a Comment