3-16-06
It is amazing how little the Bible has to say about how to do certain
things. It is clear that we are to do them, but details about the process
are not given - certainly not given in anything resembling a command.
For example, it seems obvious that we are to live out our Christian lives
in the context of Church, but there is not much about how to actually
operate one. Certainly no commands about voting, membership, or how
often to have the Lord's Supper, among many other such things.
Now, many have set out to make a Biblical case for just those things and
hundreds of others when the Bible itself makes no such case. The
problem is they end up making an extra-Biblical case. They have to
bring in Calvin, Luther, Edwards, Hobbs, and etc. They have to strain at
Greek explanations for why a word means this in this context but not that
one and so on. Anything other than to accept the good words that are
right there. I personally find it amusing when someone, even a great
expert in the original languages, says, "the King James translates so and
so with such and such and the New International with such and so, but a
better translation is 'my opinion'." If humility has anything to do with
Biblical translation you have to wonder about such a statement - and
doesn't humility have something to do with everything about God's
people and their various endeavors? Does the writer really expect us to
take his solo opinion as opposed to the groups of, surely, equally Godly
teams of translators who labored over these hallowed versions? And I
have seen that very statement literally dozens of times.
I have nothing against the likes of Luther, Edwards, and the many other
great men of God who have been and are gifts to the church. I have
gained much from them (and much more, I admit, from their modern
interpreters). I do not, though, think we need to travel so far beyond the
bounds of the Bible as it expresses itself directly to us all with the
essential assistance of the Holy Spirit who, when the need arises, can
make an Edwards of any of us.
Perhaps, we should concern ourselves less with the mode of baptism
and the fine distinctions (or lack thereof depending on your Sunday
morning parking space) among the bishop, elder, and pastor and look to
such matters about which the Bible does give us detail - sometimes what
can feel like excruciating detail if we take it seriously. Like, oh, 1
Corinthians 13 or Matthew 5-7.
Dale
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