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The fight against dogmatism

Johnv

New Member
Actually, it would be nice if you explained why you think "there is nothing in the statement that suggests that"
The explanation is that those things don't exist in the statement. The statement is self evident. There's nothing in it that suggests the person is a theological liberal, nor is there anything in the statement that suggest the person has abandoned biblical truth, nor is there anything in the statement that suggests that the person denies the Bible as the Word of God.
 

ReformedBaptist

Well-Known Member
The explanation is that those things don't exist in the statement. The statement is self evident. There's nothing in it that suggests the person is a theological liberal, nor is there anything in the statement that suggest the person has abandoned biblical truth, nor is there anything in the statement that suggests that the person denies the Bible as the Word of God.

Ok, so I see you just like to reassert your take on it as your reason.

I see I wasted my time explaining myself.
 

Aaron

Member
Site Supporter
It's somewhat ambiguous to say "I am strictly dogmatic about God’s Word". I'd venture to say most people would concur with that phrase to describe themselves. Simply bring "dogmatic" about God's word does not solve the church's woes, nor does it resolve debate and dissention amongst Christians. A Calvinist can be dogmatic about God’s Word, and an Arminian can be dogmatic about God's Word. Yet they will have diverse opinions about scriptural interpretation and application.

Higher Criticism is the critical study of biblical texts to ascertain their literary origins and history and the meaning and intention of the authors. This requires the reader to take into account the context of a biblical passage. This is extremely important, because, without that context, the intent of the author, and then desired meaning of the passage, is lost. This results in misapplication, and, often times, perversion of scripture. Common past misapplications include bans on divorce, women wearing pants, mandated headcoverings, a flat earth, a geocentric universe, and the list goes on and on.
Higher Criticism is a Darwinistic view of the Scriptures. Inspiration is relegated to the margins, and the sole criterion of truth is not "Thus saith the Lord," but "Thus saith the critic."

Its basic assumptions are arbitrary, and the discoveries of the last two centuries has for the most part revealed it to be fantastic.
 

Johnv

New Member
Ok, so I see you just like to reassert your take on it as your reason.
You're asking for something that doesn't exist. It's like asking "show me biblical support for the claim that airplanes aren't mentioned in scripture". There is no such thing. In like manner, there's nothing in the statement that suggests the person is a theological liberal, has abandoned biblical truth, or denies the Bible as the Word of God. It's completely missing from the statement.
Higher Criticism is a Darwinistic view of the Scriptures.
:laugh::laugh::laugh:That's the funniest work of fiction I've read in a while.
 
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ReformedBaptist

Well-Known Member
You're asking for something that doesn't exist. It's like asking "show me biblical support for the claim that airplanes aren't mentioned in scripture". There is no such thing. In like manner, there's nothing in the statement that suggests the person is a theological liberal, has abandoned biblical truth, or denies the Bible as the Word of God. It's completely missing from the statement.

:laugh::laugh::laugh:That's the funniest work of fiction I've read in a while.

John,

You seem to be a fellow that wants to present himself as intelligent. Surely your then smart enough to know the difference between an denotative meaning and a connotation? Please re-read what I wrote. When I read that statement, that is what I read from it. It is what is implied/inferred/connotes to me.

So, playing the denotative/definition card doesn't work with me.
 

Johnv

New Member
Did that. I went back, read the original statement, your view of it, and the original statment once more. There's nothing in the original statement that suggests the person quoted is a theological liberal, has abandoned biblical truth, or denies the Bible as the Word of God. Nothing.
 

ReformedBaptist

Well-Known Member
Did that. I went back, read the original statement, your view of it, and the original statment once more. There's nothing in the original statement that suggests the person quoted is a theological liberal, has abandoned biblical truth, or denies the Bible as the Word of God. Nothing.

Ok, let me illustrate this as it relates to words. Words have more than one meaning. They have denotative meanings, and connotative meanings.

Denotative is definitional. This is what your doing in regards to replying to me in this thread...dealing with definitional/denotative meaning.

Connotative is inference. It is how something means to me, or the meaning I ascribe to a word/phrase. This is what I did in my reply.

John, it is therefore incorrect to argue against a connotation with a denotation. That doesn't make sense. It makes more sense to learn why/how a person arrived at their connotation, and then explain your own.

If that is too difficult to understand then I am not sure we could get to point where we could actually have a conversation.
 

Johnv

New Member
I understand how you came to your connotative conclusion, and I respect your POV. The original statement, however, doesn't support it.
 

Johnv

New Member
You can't discuss what doesn't exist. The statement doesn't support your assertion, whether one applies the rules of annotation or connotation to it.
 

ReformedBaptist

Well-Known Member
You can't discuss what doesn't exist. The statement doesn't support your assertion, whether one applies the rules of annotation or connotation to it.

Ring aroudn the rosies and we all fall down.

Not annotation, but denotation. I am starting to believe you dont really want to discuss something with someone, just try to win an argument.
 

Johnv

New Member
There's no argument. The statement doesn't support your claim. You're claiming something that doesn't exist.
 

gb93433

Active Member
Site Supporter
Jesus warns us that we will be hated by the world. And the church today is becoming increasingly secularized because most of them are not Christians.

So only the true "elect' will be left and as Jesus says, we will be few So we will be called "nuts" by more and more people until the end.
Are you a better judge than Jesus' disciples? They did not of whom Jesus was speaking about when he talked about Judas.

How do you know you are of the elect and not just someone who is lulled into thinking something he is not?

When I read of the church just a few years supporting slavery and segregation how can you say the church is more secularized? Segregation has been a practice among churches for many years. In America we have many churches for each ethnic group rather than a church that includes many ethnic groups.
 

stilllearning

Active Member
Good evening Johnv

You said.......
“No, not that they inserted their own ideas, that they wrote with a specific context in mind. That's not a matter of belief, that's a matter of fact.”

I think that I know where you are coming from here;
(That we need to understand the world that they were living in, to understand what they were saying.)
-I have been down this road before.-

This would be true for any other book in the world; But not for the Bible.
In fact, applying this rule to the Bible, is dangerous.

Here is a good example:
About 12 years ago, we had a fellowship at Church, and a young man(about 22 years old), who had been invited, was one of the last ones to leave, and he & his mother and I were talking, and his mother asked me to prayer with her about something, and just before I started praying, I noticed this young man removing his cap(he was a professing Christian).

After praying, I asked him why he removed his cap; He didn’t have an answer, so I took him to 1 Corinthians 11:, and proceeded to explain to him, why we removing our hats before praying........
1 Corinthians 11:4
“Every man praying or prophesying, having [his] head covered, dishonoureth his head.”


I further explained, that even though he had removed his hat, that his head was still covered.......
1 Corinthians 11:14-15
V.14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
V.15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for [her] hair is given her for a covering.

(This young man, had shoulder length hair.)

Anyway, in the next few minutes, he confessed that he now knew that he was wrong, and that the next day, he was going to get his hair cut.
(Just a note, I normally don’t make a big deal out of this; I just felt as though the Lord wanted me to minister to him in this manner.)
--------------------------------------------------
The next week, he came to see me(having not gone to the barber), and felt that he had to set me straight.
He explained that before he was able to get his hair cut, a “preacher” friend of his, pointed out that I was wrong.
And this young man, explained to me, that he had learned, that all that talk in 1 Corinthians about hair length, does not apply to us today, because it was dealing with an issue, that was going on in that particular Church, at that particular time.
I won’t go into the details of the supposed historical facts, that he had been taught was going on in Corinth at that time, because it doesn’t matter.

The danger of studying the “specific context” of the times of the writings of Scripture, will open all kinds of doors, allowing each of us, to “second guess” the Bible’s instructions to us.
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As for hermeneutics: I choose to interpret the Bible literally.
Therefore I take the instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:, as God’s instructions to the Church.

As for how long, is too long, for a man’s hair to be? This passage does not tell us.
(A man, must seek this answer for himself: Just as a pastor must seek God’s will, as to who to allow behind his pulpit.)

Although it does tell us, how short is too short, for a woman’s hair to be.
(1 Corinthians 11:6)
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Please don’t get me wrong; I am not saying that we shouldn’t strive to gain all the understanding that we can........
Proverbs 1:7
“The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction.”


But what I am saying, is that regardless of what we learn, or from whom we learn it, we must always reject anything, that disagrees with the plain teachings of the Bible........
Proverbs 19:27
“Cease, my son, to hear the instruction [that causeth] to err from the words of knowledge.”

--------------------------------------------------

I wish I had time to respond to the rest of your post, but I was gone all day, and have a lot to get done.


See ya later.
 

Revmitchell

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
On the contrary, higher criticism demands hermeneutics (which is, in part, an application of context), where dogmatism typically ignores hermeneutics. Having an understanding of scripture as God intended requires a hermeneutical application.

This is one of the most untrue statements ever made.
 

TomMann

New Member
Shouldn't we be dogmatic? Won't the Lord himself at times ensure we are......

Ezek 3:7-9 But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.
8 Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
9 As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
KJV

Oh, wait, this was spoken to the house of Israel (to whom spoken). And I'm sure context, higher criticism, and proper hermeneutics and exegesis can be used to show that it is not for modern man to be dogmatic (hardheaded as you will).
 

gb93433

Active Member
Site Supporter
It is clear(at least to me), that today’s Church is being taught to hate dogmatism.
Anyone who is dogmatic about anything, is call a nut, in one way or another.
The problem is that too many have been dogmatic about ignorance and things they have not studied for themselves and know little or nothing about. However they have been rather timid about discipleship and evangelism.
 

Aaron

Member
Site Supporter
Shouldn't we be dogmatic? Won't the Lord himself at times ensure we are......

Ezek 3:7-9 But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.
8 Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
9 As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
KJV

Oh, wait, this was spoken to the house of Israel (to whom spoken). And I'm sure context, higher criticism, and proper hermeneutics and exegesis can be used to show that it is not for modern man to be dogmatic (hardheaded as you will).
Actually, higher criticism would say that Ezekiel didn't write these words, that they were penned much later in fragments over many years from many different contributors, receiving it's final form from a final redactor as a history viewed from a certain point of view. Higher Criticism allows the concept of inspiration as the eddy and tide of forces that resulted in the form of the Scriptures as they exist today, much like the Theistic Darwinist says that God used evolution.

It purposefully leaves the door open to consider that the point of view of the final redactor, and even that of the imaginary sources, may have been fallacious, and that the forces that gave us the Scriptures are still operating to revise and reinterpret them.
 

Johnv

New Member
As for hermeneutics: I choose to interpret the Bible literally.
Then you're interpreting scripture incorrectly. While many passages were intended to be taken literally, there are numerous passages in scripture which were not intended to be taken literally.
This is one of the most untrue statements ever made.
The assertion that hermeneutics is unnecessary to interpret scripture is one of the most untrue statements ever made.
Actually, higher criticism would say that Ezekiel didn't write these words
Actually dogmatism says Ezekiel didn't write these words, but that God wrote the words.
 
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