Hear from God for Yourself, People!
Perhaps I’m just one of those folks who is way more comfortable with the possibility of being on the fringe than most.
I look at the Bible and the people in it, and I want to be like them. I want to follow their example.
As the apostle Paul said, “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.”
Today’s Christian world (generally speaking) puts great stock in orthodoxy, in the safety of numbers and years of history when determining what is “good” to believe and how to interpret God’s Word. Where do they get this idea? I don’t see that in the New Testament, except in the ranks of those Jesus dressed down for their religiosity.
And don’t tell me it didn’t exist then simply because the Bible hadn’t been written yet. Half of it was!
How about we learn “proper hermeneutics” from how the New Testament treated the Old Testament scriptures? [tweetthis url=”http://clicktotweet.com/H2ejt”]
Hello?
Anybody?
Don’t shout me down when I’m preachin’ good!
Hermenuetics, Shermanuetics
Yes, hermenuetics as taught in seminary has its place — BUT. Just think about this for a second, peeps!
What if the disciples had rejected Jesus because of His unorthodox interpretation of Scripture?
What if Peter did not stand up and address the thousands at Pentecost and declare that the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the speaking in unknown tongues was the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Joel, because he doubted the revelation that he’d received could really be true. After all, Joel didn’t say anything about this speaking-in-other-languages thing!
What if the early church rejected the letters of the apostle Paul because they violated the principles of proper hermeneutics and seemed to take the Old Testament scriptures out of context?
Selah.
The Bible is a showcase of individuals who believed what they heard God saying.[tweetthis url=”http://clicktotweet.com/Oy4N5″]
These people believed that He revealed truth to them, and that they could understand and trust that truth. How did they know it was Him? Because He was saying the same thing to millions of other people who confirmed it? Because it was the same thing He’d said for centuries?
No. Because they recognized who He was. They believed. They had faith.
These days it’s cool to say, “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.” Yet those same people balk if you tell them you can hear from God. I just want to know:
What kind of “relationship” do you have with God if you don’t even believe you can have a conversation with Him? [tweetthis url=”http://clicktotweet.com/bhaHe”]
With All My Heart
I know risk sounding like a whack job here, but I’m done playing it safe.
It bothers me that we reject out of hand so many things that are straight out of the Bible simply because somebody with institutional church authority told us that it doesn’t happen that way anymore.
Or that it’s dangerous. Why, because we might do something nobody else is doing? Because we might say something in a different way than anybody else is saying it?
It seems to me that if God could make Himself clear to those folks in the Bible, and keep them from getting too far afield, He can do the same for me.
What do you think? Did I miss the part of the Bible where it says that God doesn’t speak to His people the same way anymore? Help a sister out and share your thoughts in the comments.
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2 Comments
Katherine Coble · at
I’m a Mennonite. I didn’t used to think we were that different but the more I interact with people from other branches of Christianity I find that we are.
I’ve grown up in a tradition that sticks to “just do what it says in the Bible and trust the Holy Spirit to guide you.”
After all, isn’t God big enough to carry on to completion the work He began in us? First the Bible say to test the prophets and teachers? Doesn’t the Bible say that Jesus is our high priest? That we boldly approach the throne of Grace?
Over and over again Jesus’ message says “let’s cut to the chase. Love your neighbour as God loves you.”
The teaching of God is simple, straightforward revolutionary. We don’t really need men telling us what God says. God tells us.
sparksofember · at
I agree with ARBALEST ROSE (from part 1). It’s a balance of trusting the Holy Spirit’s guidance, using your own brain, learning from those God has gifted in those areas, etc. Leaning solely on your own understanding can be insufficient – we are a body and need each other. But we don’t want to be lemmings just blindly following the mob either.
I believe in pooling all those resources together, along with a healthy dose of conversation with God, and making a decision from there. And if it’s the unpopular opinion, so be it. I’m not going to believe in Premillennialism just because it’s the popular perspective. 😉