God's Theology

Mark Dunagan
04/05/09 - Sunday Evening

The Bible is filled with example of how various people and cultures have reacted when confronted with the word of God. In one particular case, a king who encountered Scripture, tore it up and threw it into the fire (Jeremiah 36:23). “This is the first recorded effort to systematically destroy the word of God. Jehoiakim was the first of a long line of emperors and kings who thought that they would banish the word of God from their realm. He did not like what he heard in the word and therefore he sought to destroy it. An ever increasing number of scholars within theological circles today have dedicated themselves to undermining the confidence of the people of God. They do so without fear in spite of the repeated warnings concerning those who would add to or take away from the word of God” (Smith, p. 607). In this lesson I want to look at various ways that modern men and women are attempting get around the teaching of Scripture in a way that makes them feel safe or justified in doing so.

“Trajectory”

Some leaders in the denominational world who are attempting to get around such passages as 1 Timothy 2:12 or 3:2 and advocate female preachers and elders appeal to a “trajectory” of thought, saying that Paul and other New Testament authors had not reached a mature understanding of doctrine and ethics, but we can see the direction they were heading and we can go beyond the New Testament to find an “ultimate ethic” that is better for us today than we read in the New Testament. Yet, there are a number of problems with such a view:

• We do not find doctrine evolving in the New Testament; rather New Testament teaching is both mature and consistent. Baptism is presented as being essential for salvation both at the end of the gospels (Mark 16:16), and near the end of the New Testament as well (1 Peter 3:21). 
• When the apostles wrote they were not writing “their understanding” of an issue, rather they were speaking the very words of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 14:37; 2:11-13). The New Testament is not Paul’s or Peter’s theology, neither is it their “understanding” of God’s truth, thus “All Scripture is inspired of God”, rather than all Scripture being someone’s think-so about what God may have meant.
• The only “trajectory of thought” in the New Testament concerning such things as women preachers female elders is a trajectory of opposition (1 Timothy 2:12; 3:2; Titus 1:6).
• It is absolutely unfair and unethical to say that Paul, Peter or John were headed in a certain direction (when there is no evidence), and especially when they were very clear and adamant in what they did write, and what they wrote was in the opposite direction.
• One must wonder about the motivation of religious leaders who claim that Paul was headed in a certain direction (even though Paul said otherwise), and such leaders always have Paul ending up agreeing with their own positions.
• One needs to remember that the command not to go beyond the teaching in Scripture is consistent, not only throughout the New Testament (Galatians 1:6-9; 2 John 9); but throughout the entire Bible as well (Deuteronomy 4:2; Revelation 22:18-19).
• When Jesus plainly stated, “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17), He was saying that Scripture is the ultimate ethic and when the last book of the New Testament ends with a warning about adding to Scripture (Revelation 22:18), it is clear that the ultimate ethic had been already given.

Proverbs 30:6

“Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar”

• The inference from the passage is that any attempt to improve on Scripture will not be an improvement; rather it will be falsely putting human words in God’s mouth, words and thoughts that are fallible and flawed. 
• Notice the context leading up to verse 6. In verses 2-4 in see human ignorance. The questions here display man’s limitations. “He first challenges the reader to admit that no one has achieved direct understanding of the world and the truth behind the world. To ‘go up to heaven and come back down’ is to attain and bring back direct knowledge of eternal truth”(Garrett, p. 236). Compare with John 3:13. Only God can hold the wind in His hands (i.e., control it), or figuratively wrap the waters in His cloak. Only He has fixed the earth in its place (Job 38:4, 6; Proverbs 8:29). 
• “God rebukes those who think they can know more of God than what He has revealed about Himself” (Bible Knowledge Comm., p. 970).

While some people argue that the Bible or a Biblical writer was wrong about a particular subject, such as the accusation that Paul was wrong about the role of women in the church, or that Genesis does not record actual history when it says Adam was created before Eve, another attempt to get around the authority a verse is to claim that a verse is “disputed” or “hard to understand”. “Which turns out to be a neat way to get rid of any verses that you cannot explain but you do not want to obey” (World Magazine, 11-25-2006, p. 35).

• The interesting thing about such a claim is that I never find Jesus, the prophets or the apostles every arguing that a verse was “disputed” or “too hard to understand”. 
• Peter said that Paul wrote some things hard to understand (2 Peter 3:16), yet he never argued that they were impossible to understand or obey. In fact, he noted that ignorance and unstable people distort the teaching of such passages.
• The Hebrew writer said that certain truths were “hard to explain” (Hebrews 5:11), yet this problem was not caused by any deficiency in Scripture but was rooted in the spiritual dullness of the listeners, “since you have become dull of hearing”.
• Many other passages assert that the meaning of Scripture is clear (Ephesians 3:4; 5:17).
• What often causes people to consider a passage “hard to understand” or “disputed” is when the culture surrounding the church no longer agrees with the passage. A classic example is Mark 16:16. Even though the verse is clear and can be understood by a child, in many religious circles the passage is viewed as hard to understand or disputed because the religious culture of many denominations rejects the necessity of water baptism.

“Surprisingly, some evangelicals say that a pastor can override the force of these verses (1 Timothy 2:12; 3:2) by giving a woman permission to preach ‘under his authority’. But if the Bible says that a woman should not ‘teach or exercise authority over a man’ (in the setting of the assembled church), then how can a pastor give a woman permission to disobey that Scripture? Would we say that pastors can give us authority to disobey the command ‘you shall not steal’ as well?” (World Magazine, p. 35). Paul was very clear that he did not have any authority of override Scripture, in fact, if he had attempted such, he would have ended up accursed (Galatians 1:8 “But even if we – should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you – he is to be accursed”). An evangelist does not have authority to override Scripture, neither did the apostles, and neither did an angel from heaven. See also 2 John 9 “Anyone who goes too far”.

The Authority of Experience

I have found that a number of arguments that people set against various verses are their own subjective experiences, for example:

• Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38), yet people argue that they “feel” saved prior to baptism, or they know someone who is not baptized and they “seem” to be a Christian.
• Jesus is the only way to God (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), yet there are non-Christians in other religions who “seem” to be spiritual.
• Women cannot be preachers or elders (1 Timothy 2:12; 3:2), yet there are women who “seem” to have preaching ability and some even “feel” called to do such. 
• Solomon noted that putting “experience” and “feeling” above Scripture is a direct path to apostasy (Proverbs 16:25).

Invent a Unique Historical Situation

Another way to undermine the authority of Scripture is to invent a unique historical situation, such as to claim that 1 Timothy 2:12 or 3:2 only were valid when most women in the world were uneducated and that we are not in the same situation today. Of course the Bible does not say anything about women in the first century being uneducated or that being the reason behind such verses. In fact, many women followed Jesus and learned from Him, and there were many women in the early church that were very knowledgeable in the Scriptures (Acts 18:26; Romans 16:1). In fact, Wayne Grudem has found in his research that women often served as the superintendents of schools in the various cities of Asia Minor and in many cities women were leading the education system.

A book of Suggestions

Another convenient way to get around Scripture is to view Scripture as a book of suggestions rather than commands and when people view anything as a “suggestion”, typically it is not observed. Yet the Bible is not a book of suggestions. Paul plainly noted that what he wrote were the “commands of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37), and the injunction against adding or removing things from Scripture does not make any sense if the Bible is nothing but a book of suggestions.