“The Bible clearly says...” I cringe every time I hear this now. Years of experience have conditioned me to expect, and rarely am I spared it, that the next words I hear are going to be someone’s narrow and limited view or understanding of what they think the bible says. It rarely fails, an emphatic statement that is put forth in such a way as to openly declare, “This is truth and there is no debate or question. I have declared it so.” I know this all too well as I have been this person many times.
As I examine the mindset behind such an action it quickly stands out that someone has decided that they are the possessor of truth and are rightly able to judge a matter. On the surface this doesn’t seem to be so bad but when I look deeper it is actually frightening. Making such statements puts us in the position of considering ourselves an authority on the subject in question. This is a dangerous place to stand and one to be avoided.
Several years ago the Lord spoke to me that anywhere I place an absolute, an “I know this,” I had cut myself off from further revelation. If I held these things in tension and left space for the Lord then he promised there were millions of layers of depth that he could reveal about any subject. My thinking that ‘I knew’ was a stronghold against the mind of Christ He wanted me to have.
If I make such a declaration as emphatically as I mentioned earlier, then one thing is at work in me, pride. How proud does it seem to make such statements when most of us are not Greek scholars, not students of ancient language at all. What man alive today could begin to declare he knows the subtle nuances and the cultural use of language from two millennia past. A lifetime of diligent study by the greatest minds only brings them to a place of understanding that the interwoven threads that run through the scriptures are staggering in number and beyond human intellect.
Imagine declaring before others that I know some deep and ancient mystery while having no understanding of the 66 compilations and books that make up the tapestry of the written word of God and how the strands of prophetic utterance, the artistry and poetry, and the inferred and implied understanding of the original audience affecting the interpretation. Imagine feeling that I could read a few verses in an English translation and decide I can judge and interpret scripture when 2000 years of church history has produced tens of thousands of great scholars and devout men and women who spent their lives searching the scriptures only to come to a few conclusions, one of which is that they know almost nothing of Him in His vastness. How arrogant to feel I know more than they know or that I understand fully the things they held in tension for lifetimes.
We need the Holy Spirit above everything else to reveal His word to us so that our human minds can get a glimpse of the truth. He can only speak to us in such measure as our frail minds can receive. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by Rhema. If we do not have Rhema, the word revealed, then we have nothing. When we do have revelation we should hold that as a precious gem with which we have been entrusted. Understanding that this fragment of truth must fit in the entire tapestry of truth that IS Him is a key to beginning to walk in great humility and revelation.
Instead of declaring the great truth that I think I have, I now prefer to say, “My current understanding is... The truth I’m now holding in tension as it is revealed in a greater way is... I’m leaving the declarations to the Holy Spirit and His guidance. Perhaps we would speak more truthfully if we did not declare what we think the bible says and speak more about what Holy Spirit is revealing to us in light of the greater tapestry of scripture.
