oatmeal
Well-known member
Oatie # 33 No, no you will never understand how I read scripture.
I believe scripture is God's word, I come agog, I come in awe, I come to sit at the feet of Jesus to read it and be fed, I come hungry. I want for Him to plant His seed as He will in my heart.
You come to it with opinions, pre conceived ideas and doctrines which run contrary to scripture. So you sit down with a view to make scriptures conform to your doctrines....You will traverse land and sea to find linguists and theologians to make the bible say what you want it to say.
You cain't simply open the bible and read and believe.
The bible is not difficult to understand intellectually. I understand what it means "the Logos was with God and the Logos was God and all things were made by Him"
But YOU don't want it to say that. That's the nub of the problem.
I use my intellect to believe and learn, you use your intellect to dispute scripture [and if you could] prove it to be wrong.
Suppose I come to a doctrine that is difficult to understand? suppose I read "who God foreknew He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn of many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate He also called....justified....glorified"
This is a difficult doctrine to understand.
It is not I declare to you difficult to understand intellectually, it is very plain, it's meaning is clear. But it seems to teach something we don't like to think about God and His salvation.
The FIRST thing I do is I say "Father this is a very difficult doctrine for me to understand, I know it must be true for it is your word, Father won't you teach me what this doctrine means?"
Now others take a far different approach to the doctrines of Predestination and Election than I do.
We know how John Calvin read it and understood it [and I must say he took a similar approach to me] he did not immediately as others do throw it out in disgust, he did take the view that if Predestination and Election are taught in scripture they must be true. In that John Calvin does well and gets little credit for it, Calvin does a LOT wiser than those who read the scripture and who reject it in disgust.
He did not get the chance to do what I do, he was asked point blank and had to give a direct answer to the problem of what seems to be implied by the doctrines of Predestiny and Election. I think if he had been allowed time to think it through carefully and prayerfully he might have come to a more balanced view of the doctrines than he did. But he gave an instant answer. He was asked "If God has predestinated and elected us does this mean that He has purposely passed by those who are not so predestined and elected?" and he replied rather regretfully that yes it must be so....
I come to a different conclusion than Calvin but I come to an even MORE different conclusion to those who will not listen at all to anything about Predestiny and Election.
Why am saying all this?
I want to show you that the bible is not difficult to understand, we know what it says, what is difficult is BELIEVING it in simple faith, even when it says something contrary to our own opinion.
Interesting you point out Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
When you have sufficient background in scripture, the meaning becomes clear as a bell.
But you have to use your intellect to learn.