After decades as a student of Scripture, accented since my retirement from active public ministry, I have sometimes privately disagreed with the interpretation of the text by the good minister of the morning at the church I attended. One of the passages, Hebrews 4:12, I addressed in the first volume of Pages. There are others, both in text and theology. For example, several ministers have asserted that without the message of redemption in Christ the Christian has nothing to say to the world. That is a large issue in that I believe strongly in common grace and divine grace. If one does not want to hear the redemptive message, there is common grace remaining. Alone, mankind seems unable to solve natural problems, much less spiritual. God provides a civil rightness that makes a difference on earth. To the degree it is applied mankind has the nearest ideal on earth. God wants, to the degree possible, to have his will on earth as it is in heaven. It is important that the preacher/teacher of Christian thought be faithful to communicate common grace that puts all persons on a level playing field. Governments on earth ought to be modeled to what governments would have been if Adam and Eve had not broken the original human nature condition. God is not defeated in the fall. He counters our problems. There is similitude even in changed human condition,
We need to become aware of the popular distortions held by Christians for various Bible passages, and the emerging biblical theology. We may sense this in the differences for the applications of baptism. For the child the ordinance is administrated in a way not appearing in the Scriptures. Because the Christian context of Catholics and Protestants, and divisions within them hold variant ideas, we are humbled to become, like the Bereans, noble by searching the Scriptures for our own needs and understanding. We want clarity. It is often muffled or garbled. Meanings commonly change, even when change is distortion. Early in my ministry I discovered there were variant applications of the analogy of seed in the New Testament. I asserted as much in a class, asking the students to deal with the variances, or presumed variances. They had just heard that any reference to an analogy by Jesus settled the meaning as cast in this meaning in every instance. The student returned to the next class quite upset with me. I quoted two passages, and biblical scholars who supported the idea that the seed in some instances might mean Scripture, and in another, the sons of the kingdom. Relationship of seed to sons might offer an insight uncommon for some. The devoted student was taken by an insight that he had never considered. He needed to know there was a good deal of study ahead to navigate through options and understanding.
Prophecy is an interesting point for variances of opinion. Should there be variances, or is there a rather direct meaning to a passage that ought to hold? If one takes all the passages related to the end time, there are arguments that believers are taken away from the earth, and unbelievers remain. Some passages suggest that the opposite is true. As it was in the Days of Noah, is an important phrase used for the parousia. These are the words of Jesus, a startling passage (above), so we sense even stronger clarity. If the context is included one may feel that the unredeemed are taken away and the Christians are left, so the millennial rule begins, perhaps with redeemed persons remaining to assist in the administration of God’s kingdom on earth. (Matthew 24:45-47) The passage, except for parenthetical verses, appears to focus on the persons who are not qualified – fitting to the society in Noah’s days. Interpretations have varied widely. The Lord may have permitted variances to counter arrogance. If we feel the meaning is our own interpretation without room for variance sometimes found in paradox, we fall into the similar patterns followed by persons we sometimes deplore who, on the natural evidence available to them, drew conclusions that we may believe are fanciful or unwarranted. Even the proclamation of Scripture ought to be sent forward in a spirit of humility – as it was in the ministry of Jesus. Our purpose is to find out to our zone of understanding the divine meaning of inspired communication from God. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020