'Using' vs. 'Learning' the Bible
The most notable direct result of the new mood in "Biblical"
theology is the total ignorance of the Bible which characterizes many of those of
this generation who have attended Sunday Schools faithfully all their lives.
(For a good demonstration of just how ignorant the young people
are, try keeping score on the fine Bible "quizzes" that the Pioneers using
the Pioneer Bible Studies of the Presbyterian Church, US, are taking this quarter,
Oct. - Dec.)
The emphasis today is not on learning the Bible but on using
the Bible. It is an emphasis which results from the reduced respect for the text
of the Bible which "Biblical" theology encourages.
Since revelation consists of God's acts rather than God's Words;
and since the Bible is only a witness to those acts rather than the Word of God
spoken (according to this view) there is much less reason for studying the Bible
to see what it says and virtually no reason at all for respecting the text so much
that you would memorize it.
The question of the hour now is, "How can the Bible be used
that it might speak to me?"
And the argument that won the day was: "Nobody becomes a
Christian just by learning words and stories!" So Sunday Schools the world
over stopped learning words and stories.
As a result you may today witness the incredible spectacle of
a teenager fervently declaiming, "We must pattern our daily lives according
to the example of the Good Samaritan," who couldn't render an accurate version
of the story of the Good Samaritan if her life depended on it.
And multitudes who profess to be Christians cannot recite the
Golden Text of the Gospel, John 3:16.
Fortunately, a slight change in the swing of the pendulum may
lately be detected. Here and there a bold innovator opines: "Bible memorization
has its place in Christian Education." But this latest fad has not caught on
yet. Check for yourself. How much memorizing are your young people doing?
To say that revelation is an event only is illogical. How does
Moses (or a theologian today) get from a dumb, unintelligible event, to an articulate
theological belief? — If God has not spoken, we have nothing to preach. —
Gordon H. Clark.
No comments:
Post a Comment