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Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Approaching Scripture Humbly

Today as I was reading I was reminded about how much we desperately need humility as we approach Scripture. The passage I was studying had nothing to do with humility per se. The passage, Matthew 24, is a very difficult eschatalogical passage in the midst of Jesus' Olivet Discourse. As I was reading, I was reminded of my theological drift from a hardcore pretribulational dispensationalist, to a post-tribulation premillennialist (historic premill), to an amillennialist. At each stage there were times when I, in my arrogance, believed people must be insane or heretical or both for disagreeing with me. Real humble, huh?

There are issues where I haven't changed my opinions, and don't anticipate changing them (ie. the deity of Christ, justification by faith alone, the inerrancy of Scripture, etc.). However, I am praying that even on these more essential issues, God would give me a spirit of humility and not of pride. I will still believe that those who deny the inerrancy of Scripture are wrong, dangerously wrong, and yet I must learn to disagree with charity and humility.

Colossians 3:12-14, "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (ESV).

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