"Unless the New Testament is studied as a product of Christian faith, it is lifeless. It is itself not objective, and it was never meant to be studied objectively" (Grant and Tracy, A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible, 132)
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2 comments:
What he is saying is that truth without understanding is meaningless. If I have the instructions for building a home but I cannot understand them they are useless, truth in a vacuum.
The Holy Spirit is the teacher and as a matter of fact He is the Spirit of Truth. This is where are stone henge brothers err. They embrace doctrine in tablets of stone (ink) and without the Spirit they are mere words, useless in practice, unable to be understood by the lost, and used as a test of pride for many.
To embrace all the cardinal doctrines of the faith (expanded version) but be self righteous and judgmental means you've embraced doctrinal facts, but you've failed to embrace Jesus about whom those facts speak.
How do we live the Trinity? The virgin birth? The incarnation? That is where we need to not only believe those things, but allow the life of Jesus show through us. When we don't do that we are denying the doctrine of Christlikeness which is a very neglected issue.
Rick, I'm glad you liked the quote. I think this approach is needed in light of the American evangelical penchant toward a scientific approach to Scripture.
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