I used to think that God gave us the Bible and sort of an intermittent leading of the Holy Spirit, mostly leading us to try to figure out the Scripture with our human minds. I thought that God was leading me in a greater understanding of His word and leading me to apply this understanding in my life. At that time, I defined “understanding” as a construct of theology. The problem was that it was me applying a theological construct in my life rather than me submitting to the Holy Spirit as He led and taught me moment by moment, bringing Scripture to mind as it applied or reaching me through my conscience and giving me the faith of God which gives me access to God’s grace, then submitting the members of my body to His Anointing so that He does His works through me. Instead, I was trying to think His thoughts, say His words, and do His works by human effort rather than the moving of the Holy Spirit. This resulted in me trying to figure out the Scripture with my fallen human mind and to apply it to my life on a moment-by-moment basis using my fallen human mind. That didn’t work. It frustrated the grace of God.
One thing that God has shown me very clearly is that the human mind can’t be trusted. It’s deceitful and desperately wicked. While Christians are supposed to moving from glory to glory, we have not yet arrived at the full completion. I know that every denomination claims to have arrived. One says that they “teach the Word of God in its truth and purity.” Another says that it is the “full gospel.” Yet, God has much more for us all. He says, “Call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things which thou knowest not.”
Every human mind is in the condition of being deceitful and desperately wicked. Mine is no better than yours. Groups of people of like minds bind together, but that doesn’t make their group-think any better than anyone else’s group-think. If we make a single assumption while interpreting Scripture, we have added to God’s Words. Rather, the Holy Spirit speaks to us through Scripture and through every means of speaking to us that He mentions in Scripture. He will correct us. Yet, we can resist His correction and yet remain Christians. Not only can we, but we do.
Every one of us has a worldview, a paradigm. That paradigm is a fake reality. It seems just like real reality. In fact, it seems more real, to us, than real reality. By it, we filter real reality, accepting some things that God is showing us and rejecting others. Worldviews, are conceptual. They are not reality. Part of your worldview and part of my worldview is our concept of Scripture. Related to that is a part of our worldviews that consist of our theologies. Theologies are always conceptual. They are not reality. They seem real, though. Often, theologies seem as if they were Scripture itself. They are not. They are conceptual frameworks that filter what the Holy Spirit can tell us through Scripture. When a brother or sister in Christ says something by the Holy Spirit that conflicts with our inner worldviews, it often seems to us as if they are saying something that conflicts with Scripture. We might even accuse them of saying things that conflict with Scripture when the Holy Ghost has merely challenged our worldviews. This is our plight. Yet, there is hope. Only the Holy Spirit can set us free from our theological frameworks where they conflict with real reality–however, our fallen natures resist Him. This is very similar to what happens to Scientists when they are looking at the Creation. They fill in the blanks from their worldviews. Their assumptions actually come out of their worldviews. However, they add to what God is saying through Creation just as assumptions from theological worldviews can add to what God is saying through Scripture. Peer reviews don’t work for scientists who limit their peers to those who agree with their own scientific theories. In the same way, peer reviews don’t work for Christians who limit their peers to those who agree with their own theological constructs. I have found that the Holy Spirit instructs me that I must hold my own theology loosely enough that the Holy Spirit is able to correct me and teach me. As Jesus said, “You can’t put new wine in old wineskins.”
