Unity or disunity?

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TruthWarrior said:

Funny post...

It basically lays out the facts about the lack of unity in 'the church' and the seeming impossibility of interpreting and understanding "God's Word."

Thanks!

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Steve Hays said:

Funny post…

It basically lays out the impossibility of disproving the Bible, for if the unbeliever says the Bible is impossible to interpret or understand, then the unbeliever can never show that Scripture contradict itself or science or history.

Thanks!

Why do professing Christians disagree?

1.Sometimes they disagree, not because the Bible is impossible to interpret, but because they’re posing more specific questions than the Bible was designed to answer.

The Bible may be perfectly perspicuous as far as it goes, but if it doesn’t go into the amount of detail they’re looking for, then that’s a recipe for disagreement.

It isn’t the quality of revelation that’s uncertain, but uncertainty due to the quantity of revelation on any particular topic, which varies from topic to topic.

The amount of revelation rather than the clarity of revelation is what accounts for the disagreement.

God has chosen to leave many answers unstated. And our priorities are not always in line with his priorities.

2.Sometimes they disagree for the opposite reason. Revelation may be full and clear on a given topic, but the reader doesn’t like the answer.

This is a basic source of disagreement in the Calvinist/Arminian debate. For documentation, just spend a little time over at the aomin.org

There you’ll see Dr. White contend with one emotional, irrational critic of Calvinism after another.

3.Along analogous lines is the liberal/conservative debate. Here the issue is not over the interpretation of Scripture, but the authority of Scripture.

Theological liberals will frequently pretend, for tactical reasons, that it’s an issue of interpretation, but if you corner them, they’ll admit that it’s really a question of Biblical authority.

They know as well as the “fundamentalist” what the Bible teaches. They just don’t care what it teaches—that’s all.