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Reading the Bible vs. .....

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by wpe3bql, Jun 16, 2015.

  1. wpe3bql

    wpe3bql Member

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    ..... Reading "Other" Kinds of Books.

    When I was in Bible college back in the 1970's, there was this one fellow who condemned folks for taking more time to read "other" kinds of books rather than reading one's Bible.

    Was he right in his condemnation?
     
  2. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    While that sounds great it is a rather simple minded approach to scripture and any other historical or modern document. Just reading the words on a page does little to aid in interpretation of scripture. For example ask him to interpret Matthew 1:17 and Mark 1:2-3. If one were to read those in the context that we interpret in today those verses are wrong. When one understands how to interpret scripture in light of its historical and literary context then those verses make sense and they are correct.
     
  3. HeDied4U

    HeDied4U Well-Known Member
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    No, he was not.
     
  4. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    I remember preachers saying how much insight the Bible gives on commentaries.

    Sure, in theory it sounds good, but there are many reasons for commentaries.

    We can learn much from comparing literature.
     
  5. robustheologian

    robustheologian Well-Known Member
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    He was wrong. The Bible and written word (commentaries) go hand in hand just like the Bible and the spoken word.
     
  6. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    I always like the idea that scripture is much like listening to one side of a phone conversation. Several translations can be helpful just as several good commentaries can be helpful.
     
  7. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Teachers are given to the church to teach the scripture. They are a gift from God to His church. To despise teachers who write what they see in scripture is to despise the gift of God.
     
  8. sag38

    sag38 Active Member

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    Usually the ignorant position spoken by someone who despises education and is too lazy to do any serious study.
     
  9. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    Excerpts from "Practical and Social Aspects of Christianity THE WISDOM OF JAMES" by A.T. Robertson pp. 143-148

    We are not here to think simply of official teachers like Paul's apostles, prophets, teachers (1 Cor. 12: 28f. ; Eph. 4: 11). In the Didache (xiii. 2, xv. 1, 2) teachers are placed on a par with prophets and higher than bishops and deacons. There is no doubt that teaching received tremendous emphasis in the work of the early Christians. Jesus is the great Teacher of the ages and is usually presented as teaching. In the Jewish "Houses of Learning" (synagogues) teaching was as prominent an element as worship.

    The true preacher should be a teacher also, but many preachers are more evangelistic and hortatory than didactic. The best preachers combine all these elements and build up the saints in the faith to which they have been won. Even the mission work of modern Christianity has had to lay new emphasis on the educational side of Christian effort. Teachers are necessary. People ' 'having itching ears will heap up to themselves teachers after their own lusts" (2 Tim. 4: 3).

    Men must not be too eager to teach what they do not know. There is no danger of an oversupply of well-equipped teachers who are masters of the message of Christ.


    There are still too many who are incompetent, and therefore the accent on "teacher-training" in the Sunday schools is most timely. The caution of James is pertinent to-day, but we must not discourage timid souls who can learn to teach and who ought to undertake it. The greatness of the teacher's task must not be overlooked. James warns us against its abuse. There is a mental sloth that is as bad as this eagerness to be teachers, a lazy satisfaction with the elements of Christianity and failure to grow into the position of teachers of the doctrines of grace, continuing as babes unable to digest solid food (Heb. 5: 12).

    Teaching has to be done. There is no escape from that, but those who teach must understand their responsibility. They are doctors of the mind and heart. They cannot escape their responsibility, as spiritual surgeons, for they deal with the issues of life and death, "knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment". In seasons of religious excitement it is particularly desirable that men shall bear this fact in mind.

    There is no escaping the fact that a heavier penalty rests on preachers and teachers who leave a trail of error behind them. This point of view explains Paul's anxiety in the Pastoral Epistles for the future of Christianity, as it had to confront Pharisaism, Gnosticism, Mithraism, the Emperor-Cult, and the hundred and one vagaries of the age. Certainly, a teacher must speak his mind. He must be intellectually honest and tell what he sees, only he is not called upon to give his guesses at truth as truth.

    There is no harm in a teacher's being interesting. He ought to be if he can, but not at the expense of truth. Freedom of teaching is, moreover, quite consonant with fidelity to truth.
     
  10. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    :applause::applause::applause::thumbs:
     
  11. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    :applause::applause::applause::thumbsup:
     
  12. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    Many a dollar has been spent on those who want a degree and got educated to get a job but came without temperature.
     
  13. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Like many things it is not an either /or situation.

    Bible reading is primary and even as we read other writings about the bible, it should only be to enhance our grasp of the truth.
    The bible is not meant to remain a mystery, but we are freely given the truth now.

    4._____ The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.
    ( 2 Peter 1:19-21; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 John 5:9 )

    5._____We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church of God to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scriptures; and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, and the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, and many other incomparable excellencies, and entire perfections thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God; yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.
    ( John 16:13,14; 1 Corinthians 2:10-12; 1 John 2:20, 27)

    6._____The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word, and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.
    ( 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Galatians 1:8,9; John 6:45; 1 Corinthians 2:9-12; 1 Corinthians 11:13, 14; 1 Corinthians 14:26,40)

    7._____All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of ordinary means, may attain to a sufficient understanding of them.
    ( 2 Peter 3:16; Psalms 19:7; Psalms 119:130)
     
  14. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    Many a man thinks he is prepared for ministry but has not made disciples. If he has not made any disciples then what makes him ready for a ministry is which he leads others to make disciples? If his leadership is not already proven in the disciples he has made then what makes one thinks he is capable of leading? If he has not made any disciples then what makes one thinks he can and does reach people? If he does have passion but has never made disciples then his energy must be intentionally directed in such a way that he learns to lead well by starting first in a small situation where he is able to be mentored and guided along the way.
     
  15. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Yes....many run and claim to be gospel ministers but are not called or equipped by God;

    15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

    16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

    17 They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

    18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?

    19 Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.

    20 The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.

    21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

    22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

    23 Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?

    24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.

    25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

    26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

    27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

    28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.

    29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

    30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

    31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord.

    34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house.

    35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the Lord answered? and, What hath the Lord spoken?

    36 And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.
     
  16. wpe3bql

    wpe3bql Member

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    Just FWIW, the brother in my OP told me that he was called to be a missionary to Belize.

    He never did graduate from the Bible college where he was enrolled.

    Nothing inherently wrong with either of the above facts, but the last I heard he was merely "biding time in CA."
     
  17. Van

    Van Well-Known Member
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    What was this fellow's view on functional equivalence translations where you get scripture slanted with commentary?
     
  18. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    He has been called to make disciples and circumstances does not prevent that. He is to be a missionary where God places him and that is where he is located now.
     
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