Here are just a few examples where ANTECEDENTITIS demonstrates itself:
"You shall not finish going through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes." (Matt. 10:23)
"From now on, you shall be seeing the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." (Matt. 26:64; Mk. 14:62; Luke. 22:69)
“Now these things …were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (I Cor 10:11)
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col 1:4)
“May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thess 5:23)
“I charge you …that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Tim. 6:14)
“You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” (James. 5:8)
Most readers understand the following pronouns as being the Apostles:
You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:48,49)
And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8)
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4)
But now it gets sticky. Having recognized the 1st century-only application of the preceeding verses, we suddenly impose ourselves into the following texts:
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17)
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:25,26)
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12-15)
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation. (Acts 2:38-40) Here is application of vs. 38: Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:14-19)
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— (Gal 3:1-5)
Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. (1 Thess 4:8)
I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. (Rom 15:14)
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:16,17) These are plurals -- the congregation, not individuals.
There is a lot written about the modern Christian being led by the Spirit. There are only three instances of this:
Luke 4:1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
Romans 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
It is certainly true that those 1st century Christians were led by the Spirit because they were sons. We must be very careful to universalize this -- as we saw in Acts 8, there were sons of God who were NOT led by the Spirit. It seems clear to me that the leading of the Spirit was just another sign/wonder of Spirit possession.
Galatians 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
This is an unfortunate printing of Paul's text. The translators clearly see this as a Holy Spirit passage, but I firmly believe that it is not. See my earlier post: The Christian and His Fruit
Many other scriptures to those 1st century Christians are clearly not meant for subsequent Christians.Others are meant for we subsequent readers only through application of an exegesis built upon “principle” seeking -- such as "lay by in store" and "on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread" and the application of "speaking to one another in psalms, humns and spiritual songs" to some kind of congregational assembly.
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Not to be critical, but I must say that this entry seems to present entirely too many more questions. Granted the design and goal of the entry may not be to answer any questions, nevertheless the questions beg. I completely recognize the capacity for those reading scripture to apply certain passages to themselves which perhaps would be inappropriate and misguided. The question is which is which?
ReplyDeleteFor example, in Acts 1 and 2, the historical events of a specific day and time are being relayed. It may be natural to conclude these were events that were required of the time and thus do not necessarily apply to modern Christians. I think it worthy to note there are some denominations that DO apply those events to their Christian experience and even expect some of those same things to happen today. Is it more consitent to apply a 'principle-seeking' paradigm to ALL scripture? Does it matter whether the passage is didactic, historical, or apocolyptic in nature? Why or why not? And in either case, how do you decide this is so?
Also, if something is spoken to a second-person plural audience, does it automatically eliminate individual application? It may change the overall meaning. For example, since "you ALL are God's temple" then destroying the harmony of the body would be destroying the temple. Does that necessarily exclude the concept that individual self abuse and neglect are wrong as well?
Going straight from Foothills to Oklahoma has shown me two polar opposites in this area... here the tendency can be to do what you are criticizing, apply pronouns to the present day and believe every command was written for us, especially in regards to the 'worship assembly'.
ReplyDeleteMany times I've heard numerous times 1 Corinthians 16:2 quoted, "On the first day of every week each one of YOU is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collection be made when I come". The first part of the verse is taken as speaking a universal and timeless command, even though the dated purpose of the command (for Paul's collection) is stated in the same verse.
However, the opposite end of the spectrum can be harmful as well, eliminating individual application like Nathan mentioned from every verse in the Bible (since every one was written to someone else).
I think the correct attitude to take is to accept statements as still applicable to us today unless there is good reason to think they were dated. In many cases there is good reason, but we have to be careful of finding reasons for those things we don't WANT to be applicable today.
Nathan, you asked:
ReplyDeleteThe question is which is which?
For example, in Acts 1 and 2, the historical events of a specific day and time are being relayed. It may be natural to conclude these were events that were required of the time and thus do not necessarily apply to modern Christians.
This is the critical question. There are certainly activities/directions/commands in the first couple of chapters of Acts that are situational and there are a few that are universal, i.e., baptism is universal while receipt of the HS is situational, as Acts 8 indicates. There are no Apostles around to facilitate the reception.
You further ask:
Is it more consitent to apply a 'principle-seeking' paradigm to ALL scripture? Does it matter whether the passage is didactic, historical, or apocolyptic in nature? Why or why not? And in either case, how do you decide this is so?
Historically, nearly all commands/examples have been viewed as universal, with few recognized as being situational. My view is the opposite -- there must be a compelling cause for universality. One's relationship to God was/is (in whatever age) based upon His grace and one's faith. Faith was exhibited in different ways from age to age -- while trusting God's grace, obedience to the Law demonstrates that for the Jews. For Christians, whether during the last days or the days to come, being born into God's family is necessary. Care must be taken with last days examples (all in Matt-Rev), however. If I knew the answer in this area, I would publish the authoritative SOP.
While the individual Christian body is the temple of the HS might be true, the passage in my original isn't the place to know/prove it.
Travis, it is clear that we approach the NT from different sides. That's OK until one or the other causes divisions within God's family. A perfect example of this is Todd Deaver's book, "Facing our Failure" that I mentioned a while back.
Thanks to both of you for reading and commenting.
So it seems like there are really two issues at hand here. First, an attempt to use scripture to understand the nature and practice of the spiritual world. For example, what is the role or nature of the HS in contemporary Christianlty? Second, examining scripture to determine the commandments/examples that can and should be practiced by the devout Christian. I.E. Must a Christian be baptized for salvation or even to be considered a Christian?
ReplyDeleteWhile the nature of the spiritual world can be crucial to creating a consistent viewpoint and helps to reinforce personal commitment, I'm not sure that it is crucial to salvation.
I also would propose that there is a third option to drawing universal commandments from scripture. If Christians focus more on being like Christ and attempting to learn to think as He did, the commandments become moot.