In this post I wrote that we are strongly influenced by our presuppositions and the presupposition of the times and culture in which we live. This is no less true when we come to Scripture. We read Scripture through these glasses that both shaped and are shaped by these presuppositions. While Scripture itself is inerrant, our individual interpretation of Scripture is not. It is the height of pride and arrogance to assume that the way in which we personally interpret Scripture is the only way Scripture must be read to assume that the way in which we read Scripture is Scripture itself. There is no guarantee that we are immune from error in our interpreting. If we can get this principal, we will go a long way in healing the rifts in the Body of Christ.
Therefore, if for example the Ezekiel 37:1-14 should be read metaphorically and we read it instead literally WE not Scripture are in error. (By the way, one of the worst reasons for interpreting a passage a certain way is the slipper slope argument.) We are not perfect. We are all, every one of us, corrupted by our sin nature and are not immune to error. This corruption extends to every aspect of our being including our “logical and rational mind”. If this is true why then do we all of the sudden assume when we sit down to read the Scriptures that we are absolutely reading them aright? Why do we become dogmatic about our particular spin? I quite simply do not trust myself to state on my own authority that such and such verse definitely means this and those who do not agree with me are heretics outside the faith doomed to suffer eternal torment. Get this, NO ONE has that authority; not Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Lewis or Sproul (and for you Roman Catholics out there not the Pope either.)
But doesn’t the Holy Spirit guild us individually when we read Scripture and remove these glasses and help us read Scripture alright? Either the Holy Spirit is doing a pretty poor job or this is not how the Holy Spirit works. While the Holy Spirit does comfort us and convict us individually of sin, it does not work to inform us individually of doctrine. History is replete with godly people who (and I personally know too many godly people who) have prayed for the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Scripture and have come back convinced that a particular doctrine or interpretation has the Holy Spirit’s stamp of approval, that this is what the Scripture must mean. The only thing is that each Holy Spirit inspired doctrine/interpretation has contradicted someone else’s Holy Spirit inspired doctrine/interpretation. Who is correct and how do you know? The only thing this belief does is entrench each camp in their own version of the truth, which destroys the unity of the Body.
So if we can not be certain that our interpretation of the Scriptures is the correct one due to our own failings, and the Holy Spirit doesn’t help us individually determine what is correct, then we should just throw away the Scriptures as useless and each believe whatever we want to believe, correct?
Absolutely not! While we can not be dogmatically certain of our individual interpretation, we still should seek out the correct interpretation to the best of our ability. The Holy Spirit does work through our collective efforts to help us arrive at Truth. Let’s look at the early Church’s example. The Church was split on the subject of whether or not Gentiles needed to follow the Jewish law prior to being able to become a Christian. In short the Jewish Christians were requiring the new Gentile male converts to become circumcised. Individual believers did not assume that the Holy Spirit would speak to them individually, but corporately. Through the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:28) illuminating Scripture (Acts 15:16-17) the unified Jerusalem council came to its decision. So you have even the Apostles making decisions of doctrine through a corporate effort of the entire Church.
It is therefore my belief that the Holy Spirit speaks through the Church unified and universal (universal through both space and time) and reveals Truth to us, not to each of us individually. It works through each member unified to every other member, because while we all err, we rarely err in exactly the same way. And while we all have giftings we rarely have giftings in exactly the same way. (I find it interesting that I know people who are fascinated by different aspects of theology. One in creation, another in the doctrine of hell, another in the correct practices of worship, another with the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, and another in God’s love etc.) This is why the Church is so important, for it is the Church that is the Pillar and Ground of the Truth. This is why our unity is so important. We need each other in ways we can not even begin to imagine. Christ fervently prays for our unity (John 17:20-23) and not surprisingly we see an emphasis on unity throughout the writings of the Early Church Fathers.
That being said that once a doctrine/principle has been solidified by the Church it is revealed Truth. We can not go back. We may be able to define it more precisely, but we can not retract it. For example the divinity of Christ was firmly establish by the Church at the Council of Nicaea. For us to now deny this reality is to deny the faith, and to put oneself outside of the Church. This is not my individual doctrine but the Church universal across time (throughout the centuries) and space (across geographical boundaries). This prevents us from being blown about by every wind of doctrine and keeps the cultural demons at bay. However, at the Council of Chalcedon the Church further refined what Christ divinity means. This is what is called the development of doctrine.
On the flip side if a doctrine has not been solidified by the Church we are free to believe it but I do not think we are free to be dogmatic about it. I think that this goes to being humble and treating each other with love.
There is some relationship between unity, truth and love that has something to do with the nature of the Triune God . . .
[In light of everything I have said in Ephesians Chapter 1-3] I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high, he led a host of captive, and gave gifts to men.” . . . And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carries about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ form whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:1-8; 11-16
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