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 One
elderly brother in a rural community thought he had discovered a
Bible truth never before understood. He managed to twist some
verses about until he made them say that John the Baptist could
talk when he was only eight days old.
He
injected this novel “interpretation” (?) into every class
period, used it in his talks at the Lord’s Table, labored his
“point” at every court yard session. He “jumped” every
preacher who came along, startling some into silence — which
was proof- positive to him that they were powerless before his
logic.
Until
he approached a preacher who had heard of his peculiar “wisdom”
and was prepared for it. The preacher said, “Oh, there is
nothing outstanding about a child talking when eight days of
age. Consider Job! He cursed the day be was born.” (Job 3:
1-f)
The
preacher should have been ashamed of himself. He took away the
old man’s “forte” — left him unadorned — reduced him
to an ordinary person like the rest of us. He could have spared
his feelings by saying, “Say, that’s astonishing! I’m sure
a man of your talents has noticed that Job cursed the day he was
born.”
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Together
they may have started a “movement” of some kind. Essential
ingredients are a few startling, never — before twists to the
Scriptures, or the novel use of a few words, partially defined.
This gives the originators a sense of “scholarship” — for
they alone have “discovered” these things, and all the
ordinary brethren are slaves of orthodoxy, or time — serving
preachers who parrot the former generation and are afraid to “think
for themselves.”
We
sorely need honest, “free” (in the sense of not being bound
to human traditions) thinkers. Men with well— rounded
knowledge of the Bible as a whole, who can approach passages
objectively, seeking truth at whatever the cost. But such men
usually have sense enough to know that arrogance is not
scholarship; and that chances are very slim that one man’s
conclusion is more accurate than the combined weight of
centuries of study.
I
want to encourage independent individual Bible study, and
believe desire for such is strong among conservatives today. We
must make the spirit of humility equally strong.
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