There can be a massive
difference between BIBLE-BASED information
and BIBLE-CREATED information. Let me
explain. You can enter a Christian
bookstore and find any amount of material that claims to be
"bible-based". You will see
books on topics such as marriage to money, business to body-building. All
claiming to be "bible-based".
That approach is
simple: I want to talk about marriage and so as I consider the communicative
aspects to marriage and pull out all the bible verses that relate to
speech. This approach is fraught with
dangers. Handle with care! Just like word studies careful studious
exegesis ON EACH VERSE must be experienced prior to using that verse as
a supporting text.
For example, almost
any book on business, personal productivity or even church growth exhorts the
reader to create a vision statement. Number one proof text, bar none, is “Where there is no vision, the people perish …" (Proverbs 29:18, AV). Unfortunately that text has nothing to do
with vision statements and everything to do with keeping God's law. But the author claims that his or her
assertion is "bible based".
I listened to one of the most popular lady
speakers recently. Her message was an
encouragement that God sometimes works quickly to resolve our problems. She based her talk on two things: One, some
personal anecdotes; and Two, on a word study of the word "speedily"
in the Bible. The psalms (KJV) record the writers asking God to hear and answer
"speedily". She even augmented
her thesis by suggesting that sometimes a "thousand days is like one"
in God's economy (Therefore God answers speedily). What was billed as a
biblically based message was nothing more than motivational rhetoric.
You can make the Bible support any thesis
you want; but the Bible does not support every thesis.
Biblically created information is that
which emerges from the text, likely unknown to the student[1],
but is consistent with sound hermeneutics and solid exegesis; it is what the
author intended the first readers to understand; and more importantly it is the
Spirit-induced message.
Biblically created
messages emerge from the passage like a radiant flower, slowly opening its
beauty to the reader with stunning radiance. Let the Bible speak for itself. Don't make the Bible speak for you.
[1] Many times I enter a
passage of study with a pre-conceived notion of the message of that text and
find that I am quite inaccurate once due exegetical work is accomplished.
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