As Protestants we hold to a tenet of the faith that the early Reformers
called Sola Scriptura – Scripture Alone. This is the teaching that the
Scriptures contain all that is necessary for salvation and proper living before
God. Many of us would repel at this statement: “I believe the Bible is inspired; but I also believe our church constitution
and policies are equally authoritative.” We have stood against the Church of Rome
Church on these grounds. We would also
raise an objection against other documents and traditions like: Ellen White,
Joseph Smith, Mohammed, joining with the authority of Scripture.
However, we seem to be less upset when we hear people say, “God told me
to do this, or say this, or go here, or go there.” We, who hold to sola scriptura but in the next breath, speak about
the authoritative messages received from God, that are to be followed without
question or reservation, ought to consider this matter very carefully.
Having said that, we also know from some portions of Scripture and from
experience that there seems to be legitimate yet subjective leading of the
Spirit in Christian endeavors. Let me define
what I mean when I use these terms:
— Subjective: based on somebody’s thoughts or
feelings associated with those thoughts.
— Objective: based on truth of Scripture as
precisely interpreted.
People that engage in subjective guidance usually use such phrases as:
“God told me”
“God inspired me to ….”
“I was lead to ….”
“God prompted me to ….”; and so
on.
Another area of subjectivity that people sometimes embrace is in the USE
of Scripture. You will have heard of those who have followed certain methods
that of spiritual guidance such as “the page opened up at …;” and so on. A pastor friend of mine was considering
leaving his church and seeking another.
One morning, he and his wife were reading in Acts. After their time in
the Word, they both felt impressed to stay in their present church. This was based on verse 4 of chapter 1. “And while staying with them he ordered
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father,
which, he said, “you heard from me;” (Acts 1:4, ESV). Now
this man is a brother and a friend. But
I sincerely question his use of Scripture.
Here's a page from the life of George Whitfield:
George
Whitefield, the great preacher in the Great Awakening and Edwards’s friend,
admitted that even he had fallen into this kind of error. Prior to the birth of his only son,
Whitefield announced that the boy would be a great preacher and that he would
be great in the sight of the Lord. Four
months after his birth, though, the child died.
Whitefield recognized his mistake and wrote: “I misapplied several texts of
Scripture. Upon these grounds, I made no
scruple of declaring ‘that I should have a son, and his name was to be John,’”
(in Iain Murray’s Jonathan Edwards, p.241-2). Whitefield had taken the angel’s
declaration to Zechariah as his own, and had thus fallen into error. Let us be circumspect to read the Bible in
its context and accurately interpret it.[1]
Over the next few blogs I hope to work through these issues of
subjective guidance.
No comments:
Post a Comment