by Lamar Wadsworth » Sat Aug 02, 2008 8:15 am
On the issue of proof texting, some observations in no particular order with no claim of personal infallibility, not an exhaustive list, just a naming over of a few principles I try to follow in my own preaching and teaching:
*My homiletics prof at SBTS, Dr. James Cox, used to refer to proof-text preaching as "using the Bible as though it were Bartlett's Familiar Quotations." The proof-texter starts with his own ideas and arguments and pulls whatever quotes he can from Scripture to support his ideas which may or may not be scriptural in origin. We all are in constant danger of importing our ideas to Scripture and imposing our own ideological framework upon Scripture.
*We all have cultural biases/assumptions that influence the way we read and interpret Scripture and determine which ideas/themes in Scripture we are inclined to emphasize. That is true no matter what your cultural/ethnic background is, what language you speak, what your religious background is, or where you live. Your cultural biases/assumptions may or may not be similar to mine. We all think our biases/assumptions are right. We are all inclined to think that our way is God's way. We cannot avoid having biases/ assumptions. The best we can do is try to figure out what they are and allow Scripture to call at least some of them into question. How else can we explain the way that so many good, kind, decent, Christian, God-loving, Bible-believing, churchgoing people accepted and even defended racial segregation for so many years?
*Open the Bible to any book, any chapter, any page, and you are visiting a culture with a different language, different customs, and different assumptions that is very different from your own. If you visit a foreign country and know nothing about the culture and customs, you will make some embarrassing blunders, likewise with interpreting Scripture.
*Unless careful reading and disciplined study of Scripture has compelled us to change our minds about some long-held beliefs and assumptions, we have not trusted the Scriptures enough to let them speak the word of God to us.
*Ignoring the historical and cultural context of a passage will lead you as far astray as ignoring how the passage fits into the Biblical writer's train of thought. For instance, to rightly interpret the "I suffer not a woman to teach or usurp authority over a man..." passage in I Timothy 2, one absolutely must know something about the religious/cultural climate in Ephesus at the time and be aware that Paul is addressing a particular group of women in Ephesus who were teaching heresy, not all women in all times and places. To yank this passage out of its historical/cultural context and absolutize it for all times/places/circumstances is heresy. It is as bad as the "Judas went out and hanged himself/Gothou and do likewise" sort of proof-texting. No doctor gives the same prescription or administers the same treatment to every patient. Just as the physician prescribes according to the needs of a specific patient, God, and Biblical writers inspired by God, speak to specific people, places, and situations. Producing as many kids as you can may be a good idea if you need lots of hands to help work the farm. It may not be such a good idea if you're not working a big farm and you can't afford to feed, clothe, house, and educate them all. Just yesterday, Burke County GA DFCS had to get a shelter care order and take custody of a sibling group of 11 children living in squalid conditions with no food in the house. Not what God had in mind when He said (to different people in a different time and circumstances) to "be fruitful and multiply."
As another esteemed BLer would say, "just thoughts..."