What is the level of their biblical literacy and theological
knowledge?
When a person does not fully understand why suffering and
discomfort enter their life I have personally witnessed the internal struggle
that ensues. People cannot understand why God hates them or plagues them with
discomfort. Had they read the Bible, some of the answers would come through
clearer. The Bible does not teach instant gratification nor smooth sailing all
throughout life. People that believe life will be this are often the first to
drift away from the Faith or their faith falters outright.
When false teachers and prosperity preachers constantly
preach a message that everyone should be having their best life now, people
start to think that they have not prayed enough, gave enough or loved God
enough. At the root of all these misunderstandings is either an over-reliance on
others to interpret Scriptures for them or they are Biblically illiterate. When
one is biblically illiterate, they do not even know when others are illiterate.
The blind end up leading the blind and people get hurt, some permanently and irreparably. Sadly, I
have seen people walk away from the Faith due to not understanding the
Bible properly. Reading and understanding your Bible matters. Contrary to the emotive
squishy study groups, theology matters.
Theology matters because it shows an omniscient and
omnipotent God that sees things over the long haul. It shows a holy God that is
concerned with our eternal destination in salvation, not a constant focus on our immediate physical
needs that often make us lose sight of the eternal. In other words God is primarily
interested in us becoming holy not necessarily happy. When we frame the two as
opposites (holiness and happiness) we do a horrible injustice mostly to holiness. We pit an eternal state of being against a transient and often capricious emotion. Holiness in God’s eyes is
happiness because it sets us on the path to eternal life with Him. If we align our happiness to holiness, our happiness will take on eternal attributes because we've anchored it to that which is God's and God's alone: Holiness.
Psalms 1:1-3 ~ “Blessed is the one who does not walk in
step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in
the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a
tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in
season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.
Those that are truly happy are those who are in
some measure, truly holy, and it’s a theme that is all throughout the
bible. Those that are wicked or plagued by sin…waste away.
Psalm 32:1-5 ~ Blessed is the one whose transgressions are
forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin
the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no
deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day
long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in
the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I
will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt.
In this last passage we see a tremendous truth in why the
preaching of a happy life and plentitude all the time (prosperity preaching) is so horribly detrimental to believers.
Teaching that a person’s life should be good all the time promotes a mentality
of entitlement and expectation. The entitlement and expectation comes at the
cost of the truth.
The entitlement mentality that says a person is deserving of the reward of blessing nearly all the time evades a painful reality of being human. Blessing assumes one is righteous. Blessing comes through righteousness. Righteousness is the product of holiness…and an absence of sin. Biblically and theologically sound teaching tells us that the root of our humanity is wickedly depraved and sinful. The reality is that we are not deserving and it is only through God’s grace that we receive God’s righteousness for ourselves. What we feel about ourselves, is interesting but mostly irrelevant to the biblical and theological conversation.
The entitlement mentality that says a person is deserving of the reward of blessing nearly all the time evades a painful reality of being human. Blessing assumes one is righteous. Blessing comes through righteousness. Righteousness is the product of holiness…and an absence of sin. Biblically and theologically sound teaching tells us that the root of our humanity is wickedly depraved and sinful. The reality is that we are not deserving and it is only through God’s grace that we receive God’s righteousness for ourselves. What we feel about ourselves, is interesting but mostly irrelevant to the biblical and theological conversation.
This is why we need to establish the level of theological
and biblical literacy in our brothers and sisters. It will help us gauge how
spiritually mature they might be. Biblical illiteracy equals spiritually
immaturity. Conversely, biblically literate does not always equate to spiritual
maturity. Biblical head knowledge needs to seep into the heart to be effective.
I myself knew a ton of information about the bible and went to seminary to
build on it but until I truly humbled myself and turned my life over to God in
a contrite manner recently…I was head smart and heart dumb. There is a balance.
When the bullets start flying and life starts to grind away
at us stripping us of things we believed we needed, we end up left at a loss not
understanding what is actually happening to us. The difference between giving up completely
and giving it to God is often what we understand about God and the Scriptures. If
we had read the Bible properly and understood it we would have noted that
oppression and trials come upon everyone, even those that were most
blessed by the Lord. In actuality, trials specifically came upon those the most
blessed and those trials were usually the most vicious and hardest to overcome.
David’s life is a perfect example. He was the anointed of God but was pursued
by Saul for years. His own son Absalom turned against him and he had to endure
the loss of his son, the rape of his daughter and forfeited the right to build
the Temple to his son due to his sin. Yet David was one of the most blessed men to ever
have walked the Earth, then or now.
When things get really horrible it is our character or what
the Bible knowledge has made us into that allows us to overcome the intense
trial periods. If you don't have the Bible in you, it will clearly show in a faulty character under duress. How we react under severe duress is who we have become in the Spirit of God and the
knowledge of Scripture. It isn’t so much thinking at that point…it is a matter
of living it out and doing. Soldiers in the heat of battle are not really
thinking so much as they are reacting in a manner in which they were trained
in and conditioned to. The training has conditioned them to react in a positive manner under fire. So too the Christian
under the weight and oppression of trials and temptations. What we do and how we react is a
product of our Biblical and Theological training. We’ve become what we learned.
We’ve embodied the Word. We’ve embodied the teaching and character of Christ
who Himself was tested and never failed.
2 comments:
This is very good, thank you!
You're welcome Shawn :)
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