Someone on LampMode asked:
Poetikmind said:Praise God everybody!
Many ministers that I know go on to bible colleges and so on to enrich their knowledge of the word. Although I feel that continuing education is good always…I don’t think it is a requirement when it comes to the word because the Lord reveals what he reveals to you when it is time however i guess my question is if you attend a bible college and you are taught against doctrine do you leave or do you “take the meat and throw away the bone” as one saint put it this weekend? What would you do? Just curious on your thought…
I responded:
—- sarcasm with a bit of truth ———
Make life easy: attend a reformed seminary. 
—- /sarcasm with a bit of truth——-
Seriously, there’s too many untaught and unstable folks running around not willing to put the time in and study the Word. No, it’s not necessary, but it is helpful and if you’re serious about properly handling the Word of God rightly, it is necessary.
God did not write the Bible to be locked in a room with just ‘me and Jesus’ to interpret as I like and toss out doctrines I don’t like. R.C. Sproul has a plaque on his desk that reads: I am responsible for believing ALL that the Bible teaches….even the parts I don’t like. Sometimes, folk toss out Biblical doctrines like election which are clearly taught in scripture because they don’t like them. A perfect example of this was the exchange between Dave Hunt and James White about 2 years ago – Hunt inserted his own words into Acts 13:48 because he didn’t like the doctrine of election and predestination. Even now, folks don’t like the thought that God is the final arbiter of who gets saved and who doesn’t.
Hunt and White were on the Bible Answer Man about a year and a half ago discussing the issue of predestination and when White confronted him with Genesis 45 and Genesis 50:20, all Hunt responded with was that God was not a cosmic rapist. Notice: Hunt used emotive argument that completely ignores the fact that Joseph stated that God brought him to Egypt and made him Pharoah as well as all of the other things in his life INCLUDING the bad, but instead brings up a horrid image that the scriptures don’t teach and associates it with a view he has problems with, scriptures ignored. That’s not handling the scriptures rightly – that’s garbage.
Similarly, the scriptures and Christianity didn’t develop in a vaccum. We ain’t just pop out Paul, the apostles and then my church. There’s 2000 years of history, teaching and wisdom that most folks in most churches today won’t get because it’s either ignored, unknown or not taught. There’s an air of anti-intellectualism and false piety at work in most churches today that puffs up folks who think that formal training is ‘man’s wisdom’. That’s foolishness. The New Testament was written in koine greek – wanna interpret it correctly ? Learn the language so you can handle the text better. Then you won’t be yelling about binding and loosing in Matthew 18 and not knowing what the historical and ecclesiastical context is (hint: it has nothing to do with you tying up Satan or demons through your verbal confessions). Of course, since much of this is ignored, it’s no surprise to some of us who HAVE studied church history that the same problems, heresies, false teachings, questions about the Bible, etc…. get raised year after year…. because people don’t know, don’t take the time to know or don’t want to know.
God doesn’t do the ‘dumping knowledge into your head all at once thing’ very often – even in the scriptures. Everything necessary for living out the Christian faith is found in the scriptures. Don’t expect God to give ‘new reveleation’ when you haven’t even taken the time to mine the depths of the fully revealed will of God you have sitting on your shelf.
Folks need to take formal learning seriously. I’ve heard some folks say ‘Jesus didn’t go to college, but He had the knowledge’, but that’s HOGWASH. Jesus grew up in a society where formalized learning was emphasized in the home…… plus, DUH, He’s God. Of course He’s going to know the scriptures. He wrote them. He is the Living Word. But Paul had to study as a Pharisee under Gameliel. Apollos had to study. Timothy was told to be diligent in his study. The Bereans didn’t wait for some reveleation – they SEARCHED the scriptures to see if the things taught were true. Not just ‘glanced’, but searched like a parent looking for a lost child or a man looking for lost treasure.
Eat the meat…. and when your teeth grow much stronger and your tongue grows a more delicate and sensitive taste for truth, then you will know enough to discern bone from meat and know what to spit out.
Take the time and learn. Spiritual maturity in this area does not come overnight. Think of baking a cake – take it out too soon, yeah you can eat it….. but it’ll be soft dough, sugar and undercooked. That won’t be the best diet for those who try to take it in. Likewise, undercooked pastors and preachers need to chill out and study from men wiser and more learned than themselves (and in some cases, their pastors!).
Take a look at a lot of our churches. That’s exactly why they look like they do now. And when these undercooked folks run out of edible nourishment, they fill in the blanks with fads like Purpose Driven Life, Word of Faith and pseudospiritualism.
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