Reasoning with God, or Consulting Scholarship?

A lack of knowledge is not necessarily ignorance and we all lack knowledge and sometimes we show ignorance. This is true in all walks of life and no different for claims to bible knowledge. We probably more readily see it in others and the problem is how to recognise it in ourselves, perhaps accepting what others say on some matter. It would be useful to have a method for tackling this problem, but whatever we do, the fact remains that we will go to the judgment seat with a fair amount of ignorance in our thinking.

Some might say that the best course of action is to consult scholarship and take a consensus view. The policy, if consistently followed, should result in our becoming Catholics. Of course, people who advocate the route of scholarship pick and choose their scholars and so they don’t necessarily become Catholics, but this just shows consensus politics doesn’t work.

The prior question is what our thinking process should be. Should we reason together with God or should we consult the best scholarship of the day and adopt those views?

The question might seem a false dichotomy and the answer therefore obvious but the point of the question is really: should anyone get between you and Scripture as you ‘hear’ the Word of God? If Scripture was originally delivered to the people, is it likely that a professional class (whether scholar or priest) would be needed today? This is obviously the Reformation rallying-cry.

There are two parties here: you and God. If you go to the professional class of your choice and come back with their view, does God see you or does he see them (in you)? Will you have engendered or nourished faith through the hearing of the Word? Will God’s Word have created a new ‘you’?

Since information is interesting and useful, this line of thought is all about balance. It is a way of saying to someone that they have got the balance wrong in Scripture study and reading.

You can tell whether someone has engendered their faith through the hearing of the Word by observing whether they ‘go to’ the Word for answers and how they do exegesis and exposition.