ACADEMIC
KNOWLEDGE VS. THE TRUTH – Part 1
John 14:26 But the
Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you.
(It has been nearly a year since I made the last post to
this blog. The Holy Spirit has been
dealing with me on a number of topics, bringing much wanted insight and
instruction; and I did not want to proceed until I believed I had captured His
heart on the matters that He wanted me to share. It is the explanation of that very process,
capturing His heart, that He wanted to be the subject to resume this blog. Understand that this blog has not been
instruction to a particular congregation, a particular group or a specific
individual. It has been designed to
serve as an encyclopedia of information and experience accrued during a
lifetime of service to the Master, put in a format that any disciple, anywhere
in the world, can come to draw living water to refresh his/her soul and find
insight and answers to their spiritual questions.)
For many years, I taught weekly Bible
studies in various cities. Eventually,
there would come a time when I would take the opportunity to do something in
order to drive through a very important point.
While teaching (especially demonstrative from a pulpit; but it has been
effective even from a chair sitting in a circle of believers), I would pick up
my Bible and literally send it airborne across the room. It would come crashing
to the floor and not very neatly. You
might imagine the gasps of the people as they saw such callous and reckless
behavior with “The Holy Scriptures.” There were always gasps. Sometimes it
seemed they would suck the air out of the room.
Then I would ask them, “What’s the problem?” They were always speechless. I would then explain, “This is just a book. If it had fallen apart, I could go to a book
store and buy another one in the morning, or just use one of the many I still
had in my personal library. There is
nothing ‘holy’ about the physical book itself. Yes, the words are precious; but
they could be written down on notebook paper, the margins of a newspaper, or
even transcribed to a roll of toilet paper.
Pages could be torn out of the Bible and wadded up in your pocket for
transport. The book, as a book, is not
what is important about the Bible.”
They would quickly settle down with
that explanation; but some still felt it was a defiling action on my part. They were the ones who missed the whole point
of the exercise.
So, is the Bible the holy and divinely
inspired word of IAUE? If it is, are all
translations equally divinely inspired, or is the King James Version more
inspired than the New American Standard?
Is the New International Version better or worse than the Revised
Version, or the Amplified Bible or the Living Bible? If we are asserting that the Bible is
divinely inspired, how is it possible that a verse could read so differently
from one translation to another? Often
the message of a verse can be translated such that one version expresses the
totally opposite or conflicting meaning of the translation in another version. For example:
KJV - I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the
life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me.
NASB - I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
So, do we live BY the faith OF Yahushua;
or do we live by OUR faith IN Yahushua? The difference in these two verses is
tremendous.
Some translations do not even seem to
be coming from the same text, totally unrelated in their content. Which one is
holy? Which one is inspired; and if one
verse is totally incorrect, does that render that entire version of the Bible
unholy and wicked?
See the problem? Our understanding of the usefulness of the
Scriptures has been misdirected for centuries.
Don’t get me wrong, I seldom read any outside works of authors teaching
biblical subjects. If I have time to
read, I would much prefer to read the Bible.
For years, I have taught disciples of
Messiah a foundational principle about the Bible. The Bible should serve as a platform for
connecting with the Holy Spirit. The
problem is most Christians read the Bible as an end in itself. Let’s look more closely at our opening verse
of Scripture.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
At this point in time, when Messiah
said this to his disciples, there were not copies of the Tanak (the Old
Testament Scriptures) in every house, in every hotel room, available at a local
bookstore…they weren’t even available in most synagogues. Each synagogue had portions of the
Scriptures. If they were fortunate to be
a wealthy synagogue, they probably had a complete Torah (the first 5 books of
the Old Testament) and some of the prophets.
It was a painstaking and very time consuming and very expensive process
to make a single copy of any book of the Scriptures. They simply did not
abound; and virtually no one had personal copies. They were either maintained by the synagogues
or schools of the Law. So, when Yahushua told his disciples that the Holy
Spirit would teach them all things, he was not suggesting that the Holy Spirit
would teach them exclusively through the Scriptures. In fact, if you look at this passage of
Scripture, nowhere does Messiah even refer to the Scriptures. The teaching the
Holy Spirit would do would be principally by direct instruction.
Most of the teachers and preachers in
Christendom have spent lengthy hours studying the Bible as an academic. Many of them began in classes in seminaries
or Bible Colleges. They have studied the
Scriptures to understand the basic message and content of the various books;
then they have done word studies or topical studies referencing the Scriptures
from one book to another through both Old and New Testaments. Eventually, they arrive at a body of
doctrines they feel they can support by their academic understanding of the
teaching of the Bible at large. Unfortunately, it is entirely possible, even
after years of dedicated study of the Scriptures that they can arrive at a
relatively accurate understanding of doctrines while still not at all
possessing the Truth. Yahushua, not
doctrine, is the Truth.
Many
years ago, one of my brothers was staying with me for a period of time. We often would study the Scriptures in the
living room; each of us doing our own study in our own way. I lifted my head from reading with abject
wonderment on my face and I said, quite loudly, “Rick!” He had become quite familiar with these
“moments” I would have, and with expectation of some amazing revelation, he
answered “What?” I replied, “Jesus loves me!” Rick paused silently for a
second or two, looking somewhat disappointed, then he responded, “Where’ve you
been?” Which was his way of saying that I
should have learned that 20 years ago in Sunday School as a child.
What
happened to me in that instance? It was
what I have come to call an “Aha!” moment. It was when I became connected with
the Teacher, the Holy Spirit, who transformed the academic knowledge into a
spiritual revelation of Truth. My brother had not yet experienced the Truth of
the Master’s love; but he knew it academically.
THIS
is the point I want to convey to you. Without the “Aha!” moment, what you think
you know is still just human knowledge of the Scripture. We must pursue time in the Scripture to know
what it says; but then we must keep our heart inclined to the voice of the Holy
Spirit and trust that he will transform the words on the page to life-giving
Truth. It is Truth that sets us free. It
is Truth that brings us life. It is
Truth that directs our path. Doctrine
doesn’t do it. Knowledge puffs up the
believer and makes him proud and arrogant. When pastors and teachers amass
knowledge without the Truth, it causes the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes (which
Yahushua hates) to enter the church; and preachers and teachers are elevated in
the minds and practice of the Body as being on a higher level or a more worthy
or exalted place than the general masses of believers. They are not. When a preacher or teacher walks in Truth as
opposed to his/her superior academia, they are marked by humility, meekness and
longsuffering. They do not require that
they be the center of attention or even the one doing the talking. They trust the Holy Spirit.
A
contemporary teacher has said, “If there is anything in the Scripture that you
know that you are not DOING, you are backslidden.” That is a brilliant statement; and it
basically defines the vast majority of Christendom; but more so, what it reveals
is that the majority of the church walks in academia and not the Truth.
We
will discuss this necessary “Aha!” moment in greater detail and with supporting
Scripture next week. Be blessed and
listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
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