The Independent Variable - Matt Haugland


Thursday, October 05, 2006

Hypo- & Hyper-bibleism

According to Christianity, there are two major types of revelation from God: General and Special. General revelation refers to what is revealed through creation/nature. Special revelation is what is revealed through more direct communication (i.e., God's words in the Bible).

Liberal Christians (in my opinion) generally don't take special revelation seriously enough. If they do, it's usually a loose and spiritualized interpretation of it. On the other hand, conservatives (in my opinion) focus too much on special revelation (i.e., the Bible).

I believe the Bible should generally be interpreted literally and within its context. And if it's true at all, it should be taken very seriously. But I also believe that general revelation can tell us just as much about God as the Bible (perhaps more?). It seems a little imbalanced that most churches focus so much on the Bible.

A lot of people (especially at my church) criticize "seeker-friendly" churches for being "watered-down" and not focusing enough on the Bible. But maybe these 'seeker' churches are on to something that my church lacks -- balance between general and special revelation. After all, truth not directly from the Bible is still truth, and all truth is from God.

3 Comments:

At 11:34 AM, Anonymous Jason said...

Here is where you come across the big religious debate. In order for the bible to be perfect, the bible would have to be written by God. I believe it was written by man, therefor containing error. I am a christian, and the bible should be studied, because it ultimately has God's message. The bible contradicts its self many times over again, uses metaphors, and has been omitted more than we could possibly know.

The other problem is the translations of it. I was studying the bible last night and came across a verse that I was curious on ,John 8:44, I looked at 3 differnt bibles, each bible had a differnt translation. The point I am trying to make, is the bible has been translated over and over agian. I know when something gets translated so much, it losses some of its meaning.

As far as revelations is concerned I feel some of it isnt even refering to our time. Take the Anti Christ, you have spoken of Nero Ceaser, I believe the is the ruthless person they were refering to. Every generation have thought they were the generation of The Armogeddon. I dont believe in the rapture or what have you, but besides the point, Why worry your self to death over it. Do as much good, and be as good as possible and you will be ok. Chances are if you are worrying if your life is on track for God, then you are.

I agree that some parts of the bible should be taken literally, other parts metaphorically, and other parts just ignored. I do agree with you that all truth is from God.

 
At 1:59 PM, Blogger Matt said...

Jason - Thanks for the comment. As someone who's studied translation and the original languages of the Bible, I can't agree with you with regard to translation. There are very good and valid reasons for the Bible to be translated in various different ways. And translation has nothing to do with it's accuracy/validity anyway, because we also have it in the original languages (not translated at all).

I would have a hard time simply ignoring parts of it. It has demonstrated credibility in some areas, which means (to me) it should have at least some benefit of the doubt in other areas if there is no compelling evidence against what it says. So far I haven't been able to find anything in it that's definitely untrue (i.e., can be proven wrong). I'm open to the possibility, but I haven't seen sufficient evidence of it yet.

 
At 3:36 AM, Anonymous Richard Walker, Reading, UK said...

I love this post, because I can just imagine you speaking it to me!!

I trust this comment finds you well!!

As for me, you know my heretical views on how creation displays the glory of the Trinity and the Gospel in marriage!

I do believe in general revelation from creation, but without the special revelation of scripture, the first remains at best ambiguous and at worst totally unintelligible, without the hermeneutic of scripture to interpret it. The best way I can explain it is that general revelation is like listening to people who speak a foreign language, I can make good guesses as to what they are talking about, get impressions about how they feel about it etc. But it would be ludicrous to suggest that I knew exactly what they are talking about and I certainly wouldn't be able to speak with any authority about their conversation!

Only when I am taught the language of creation by the one who created it in his special language class to me (i.e. reading the bible) can I be confident about the way creation displays the glory of God

Ps 19 is probably the best illustration of this because it shows how David loves to see Christ (the bridegroom) and therefore the Gospel imaged in creation! He has seen all this first in the law of the LORD

 

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