Blessings,

David Vandervelde

Justin

Ben, I would agree that we should be wary when scripture only says things that please us. Maybe we should first use that to examine ourselves before making it an accusation of others. I also sense that one can use this maxim--that the Bible necessarily will say things we don't care for--as a defense to protect us from what the Spirit may be saying to us today, things that stretch us, threaten us and we don't like. Maybe we also need the maxim, the Spirit will necessarily lead and say things to us that don't want to hear.

You are right that a "Pentecostal hermenuetic" and the "Koranic temptation" are two extremes. Most Christians fall somewhere between. I called it the "Pentecostal hermeneutic" somewhat in homage to the holiness and Pentecostal groups of 1800's that did truly practice a Pentecostal hermeneutic--being on the cutting edge of the abolition movement, citing Joel's prophesy to support women in church leadership, etc.

Too many Christians have wrongly thought they can find refuge in a Koranic reading of the Bible. Having drunken the kool-aid of the Enlightenment, these Christians have sought some "objective" "impartial" and universal way of knowing. They have tried to make the Bible into this universal foundation through all sorts of contorted arguments to "prove" its absolute and objective truth. A Pentecostal hermeneutic is simply saying the Spirit is as active in the current reading and interpreting of scripture as at its writing. Not always in making giant leaps like abolition, but always in making in the Word alive today.

I believe that most people have moved on toe the next blog....sex is so much more sexy than hermeneutics but I have been thinking about this since your initial post....

Calvin talks about something called accommodation...I'm sure you've heard of it...that God accommodates to us since we are unable to understand the mind of God. This means that God speaks to us in a way that we understand....to the world that we understand. Now as our world view changes...as our understanding of the world changes...wouldn't God need to change the language that God uses because we understand things better in some areas, maybe less well in others?

A pentecostal hermeneutic takes seriously this idea of accommodation and makes the Bible relevant to all generations even as each generation understands the world in a different way. The Spirit bridges the generations as God continues to accommodate to us.

Justin

It doesn't seem to me that Paul's gospel for the Jew and the Gentile ought to be considered in the same breath as an understanding that discredits the historical accuracy of the Biblical text. After all we have in God's Word the words of Christ, the revelation that Paul received, and the revelation that Peter received all of which proclaimed salvation for peoples from every tribe, tongue, and nation through faith in Christ. On the other hand in all my reading of scripture I've never once read anything about Romulus, Oedipus, how being wrong makes one more Christ-like, or God's demanding of infant sacrifice. In fact it seems that you have misunderstood the context of the verse from Ezekiel that you use. When the Lord says he "gave" them over to laws that were not good we should see this in contrast with his good laws he had given "by which you will live". Laws which they had rejected. He did not (actively) decree new laws for them, rather he (passively) allowed them to suffer in their rebellion and follow the wicked and detestable ways of the Canaanites until he would once again return to them and bless them. I apologize if I speak too strongly but to attribute an order of infant sacrifice outside of the specific instance of Abraham and Isaac seems to be presumptuous at best.

I fear that in our desire to come up with new and more dazzling explanations and interpretations of scripture we all too often lose the basic truth of the scriptures. "Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst." As the worst of sinners I am humbled before the Lord, I am in need of his salvation, and I am in awe of the Lord as he has revealed himself through his Word. I am aware that I properly understand the Word only because of the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit and I am humbled before it because it is the very Word of God also through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I must ask, as Mr. Visser did, how would the Spirit clearly inspire new revelations in addition to those he has given us and to whom would he make these clear? If I am not enlightened to this newly found truth am I less of a Christian? Need I abandon 2000 years of Church history and understanding in order to profess this newly revealed absolute truth of God which has been revealed to you? What is there to convict me of this and how would I authoritatively teach this command? And why would our understanding of the gospel need to be expanded? As you can tell I am quite skeptical.

In one final note I must reject what you put forward as an either or. You say that either we fully adhere to a view of the Spirit as constantly molding and changing what the Scriptures intended to say or we accept the other extreme that the Bible is so transcendent to be beyond meaningful understanding. This is helpful for your argument because it paints your perspective as the most logical and pragmatic for the Christian life, however it does not portray an accurate set of options at hand for the Christian. In fact the orthodox Reformed have held that the Spirit is always at work in our hearts when we read the Word, but that he does not add to it nor change it whimsically. Rather, the Word was sufficient from the time it was first inspired to teach all that God desired to reveal of himself to his elect. This view maintains a doctrinal continuity while allowing the Spirit to give us an accurate understanding of the inspired text in our own day. This view is in contrast to both of the options you have given.

Rather than claim these new “revelations” I would prefer to deepen my understanding of the gospel as recorded in God's holy Word and grow eternally more humble before it. This does not mean that I won’t acknowledge past faults among Christ’s Church, but it does mean that I won’t seek to alter the scriptures in favor of an interpretation which better pleases me.

It is like saying, "Here is my Pentecostal hammer. I use it to build only houses for people who speak in tongues and practice the giftings of the Holy Spirit and I have another hammer over here that I use to frame houses for people from the Reformed Church."

It would seem that the hermenutic tool remains the same for everyone. Could it be the eye of the person looking through the lens of the tool; defines what one beholds?

God bless you

KD

Ephesians 2:8-

This verse is found in the middle of the writers description of Christian's new identity. I believe Ephesians is breaking down the conflict between Jewish and Gentile Christians (as does much of the Pauline letters). This passage comes in a section of scripture that calls its readers to humbleness, submitting to the idea that their salvation comes from Christ, not their own identities. It is saying that their they will be raised with Christ not because of their identity in one of these groups, but because they have faith in Jesus Christ. This is immediately followed by an exhortation to not think of one group as better than the other. Paul is saying, you are no longer Jewish Christians or Gentile Christians, rather all are brought near by Christ, there is no stranger or alien anymore.

Maybe then Paul is saying in 2:8 that it is by faith that you all have been saved. Your salvation does not come from your identity as Jewish or Gentile Christian. This passage is identifying where our hope and salvation come from, but it also calls the community to unity, to stop their fighting and bickering, and to lived as unified people who can be called a "dwelling place for God"

Once we understand this context we can understand how the Holy Spirit breaths new life into our situations. Through this verse the Holy Spirit teaches us to love one another. To not consider white people superior to black people, to not consider one denomination more or less "Christian" than another, to not consider republicans to be more "Christian" than democrats, etc... The Holy Spirit allows us to understand the scripture in a new and fresh way. The Holy Spirit does not bend the idea of the fact that our salvation comes through Christ, however when we realize why the writer of Ephesians was writing this here, we see how the Holy Spirit is living through this larger passage in our world today.

Grace and Peace,
Andrew Meyes