Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

3 September, 2005   comments: (0) Back To The Bible   Modern Attitudes: "No Use For Commentaries" You've likely heard it before, or maybe you think this way yourself: "I dont read human books or commentaries, I go right to the bible for MY answers". Or perhaps you've heard a variation of this, in which the person says they get their interpretations directly from the Holy Spirit as they spend time in their prayer closet, etc.. The people that say these things are often very sincere, and are looking to God for help in understanding the bible. So what could possibly be wrong with any of this? This topic is fresh on my mind, having just run into it on Friday night. I was at a bible study that included a mixed bag of people from a couple of different churches. Somewhere during the course of the evening, I happened to reach for a bible commentary. I was looking-up a particularly difficult passage that had most of us scratching our heads. As I was using the bible commentary, the person next to me made a remark about how it's not good to rely on such books. That's a pretty common attitude now days, and as Bernard Ramm points out, it's wrong thinking. Here's some excerpts from pages 17 and 18 of his book entitled "Protestant Biblical Interpretation": It is often asserted by devout people that they can know the Bible competently without helps. They preface their interpretations with a remark like this: "Dear friends, I have read no man's book. I have consulted no man-made commentaries. I have gone right to the Bible to see what it had to say for itself." This sounds very spiritual, and usually is seconded with amens from the audience. But is this the pathway to wisdom? Does any man have either the right or the learning to by-pass all the godly learning of the Church? We think not. First, although the claim to by-pass mere human books and go right to the Bible itself sounds devout and spiritual it is a veiled egotism. It is a subtle affirmation that a man can adequately know the Bible apart from the untiring, godly, consecrated scholarship of [God-gifted bible scholars throughout the history of the church]. Secondly, such a claim is the old confusion of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with the illumination of the Spirit. The function of the Holy Spirit is not to communicate new truth or to instruct in matters unknown, but to illuminate what is revealed in Scripture. It is true that commentaries can come between a man and his Bible. It is true that too much reliance on commentaries may make a man bookish, and dry up the sources of his own creativity. But the abuse of commentaries is by no means adequate grounds to forsake the great, godly, and conservative commentaries which have been to our blessing and profit. It is important for us to keep in mind, that the meaning of a particular bible passage is not assigned by man, but rather - by God. So for example, a verse will never have one meaning for me, and a completely opposite meaning for you. Our job is to determine what God means by the passage. To that end, we should be grateful to hear the opinions of noteworthy bible scholars who have gone before us. They are a gift of God to the church, and offer us tremendous help in our quest to understand God's intended meaning for a given passage. There are of course "bad commentaries" out there too, and so there's always the need to be discerning about what we read. For anyone interested in owning a helpful collection of some of the best bible commentaries available, I can recommend a great product. It's a software program called the "Master Christian Library". I use it because it has a large number of commentaries from a variety of bible scholars. It also has a relatively low price (and an even lower price on eBay sometimes). You can read more about this product here: http://www.agessoftware.com/mcl8.html Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.41   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism