I came across an article the other day of a writer describing “most” Christians as anything but “students” of the Word. He described them as parroting (regurgitating) or pronouncing (spouting off) that which they did not know or understand of the truths of Scripture. It was an abrasive article that could have been sanded down a bit with some fine grit sandpaper, but like an evangelist, he can get away with saying what a pastor “cannot” for fear of losing his job using a rougher grit! I have always thought that sounded unfavorable for any church to have that kind of spiritual temperament. I am part of the “most” group of Christians, and I don’t know who the “others” might be unless it is the elite theologians who are held in high esteem by the author of this irritating article. Though I didn’t care much for this writer’s opinion and approach, let me share with you his accusation against most of us who are Christians concerning possible regurgitating and spouting!
Why? Because he is right at least about “most” of us and wrong about elevating theologians to the status of a demi-god in the elevated realm of theologia, the language or discourse about God! Yes, I agree that great theologians study long and hard, mastering the languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and koine Greek, sifting through the thousands of manuscripts as a rat looking for cheese, possessing profound scholarly knowledge in all matters of theological thought, and I am grateful for their gift and ministry to the body of Christ.
But I disagree with the author’s high opinion of theologians as if they are ascended beings, and the Christian masses are descended beings because of their inferior knowledge and understanding of the languages utilized in biblical texts as opposed to the theologians. Since translations are nothing more than theological interpretations of extant manuscripts by theologians, according to this writer, they speak from what they know while the masses speak from what they have been given through translation, which few study, and only regurgitate what has been heard or merely spout off things of which they do not know, unlike the theologians. Well, he does have a point about the tell-tell signs of a believer’s lack of being a student of the Word. It’s a pandemic in Christianity.
Just for the record, the inspiration of Scriptures (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20-21) came to a close with the Apostle John with his apocalyptic book of Revelation. Theologians are not under the inspiration today; they possess biases like anyone else that runs from liberal to conservative with fringe elements of hyper-liberal to ultra-conservative. God knew inspiration would lead to translation and to suggest that God took a “hands off” approach to this transition, leaving His people with only an untrustworthy translation, is removing the Divine preservation of truth out of the equation (cf. Lk 21:33). There are some very solid translations in circulation that can be trusted; my personal salvation and walk are based upon a translation from the works of many theologians of the past.
Is there one translation better than another, absolutely! Is there any infallible translation, no, but any discrepancies are minimal compared to the volume of revelation and none affect any major doctrines. Obviously, no translation can replace the original manuscripts for their precision. Notwithstanding, it’s amazing how God has preserved His Word throughout the ages! For more discussion on this, see – http://michael-gram.blogspot.com/2013/10/m-g-102113-recipe-for-crash-and-burn.html.
The reason I even give this writer’s thoughts (without the name of course) any air time is due in part to his elevating theologians beyond what God intended, but mainly because of his beef with “oral” theologians (that would be us). We all can have a problem with this if we are not careful. Most of us have a tendency to “regurgitate” what the preacher said on Sunday morning rather than what we have read or studied from Scripture. I have always held to the opinion that the majority of a layperson’s formulated theology is oral in nature, that is, it is sourced in what has been heard rather than what had been read and studied for ourselves, hearing versus knowing; let’s call it audible knowledge. It’s downright scary. This hearing knowledge may also serve to support the claim that Baptists, who are large in number, are very vulnerable to falling prey to religious cults because willful spiritual ignorance is a ripe culture for contamination and corruption.
One example of the problem with hearing only is that I cannot tell you the number of times I have heard two godly theologians, preachers, professors, or writers taking a different position in the interpretation of a biblical text or some controversial issue. They both cannot be right! It’s bewildering at times. If we ignorantly regurgitate what we have heard from any pulpit simply because we respect or like the speaker, we could be guilty of regurgitating to others something that may not be biblically correct; I have been guilty of this in the past. It’s not about taking sides but taking the side of truth to the best of our ability because it coincides with the teaching of Scripture. I have yet to run into an infallible orator or writer!
Not only do we have a problem with being regurgitators, but we also like to spout off as if our opinion serves as an expert witness. If you listen closely you will detect the rhetoric; the spouters love to say, “I think” rather than “Thus saith the LORD.” Have you ever noticed how everybody claims to be an expert on morality, ethics, and the Bible (which few read much less study)? I usually make it a practice to disengage from that kind of conversation; it’s a fruitless talking Bible shop with other hearts full of opinions rather than the Word itself. Well, that’s my opinion on that…. So, we have a problem with regurgitating what we have heard from preachers, and we simply love to spout off our subjective opinion to any willing ear. It is easy to spot us among a group of believers. All you have to do is simply listen to us jabber. For the most part, we are full of ourselves and empty of the Word.
Now this question arises; are we regurgitators or spouters or both? Do you know why these kinds of believers thrive throughout the centuries? Because there will always be those who are unwilling to be Word-driven (too much work, not enough time, can’t understand it, don’t like being told what to do, etc). It is not God’s intent that we are all called to be theologians, but He certainly hasn’t called anyone of us to be oral theologians!
What He is expecting from us is to know His Word to this extent – that you and I may know when to turn left, to turn right, to go straight ahead, to go in the opposite direction, to go up, to go down, to go any angle God so desires of us, or to simply to stand still and know that He is God in the face of the critics of the earth. Indubitably, we will have to know the Word pretty well in order to do that (Josh 1:7, 8, 9), and time is growing shorter for catching up on the truth of God. Leaving earth may be sooner than we think; it is best to start canning the regurgitating and spouting of things and get on about following the instructions given before leaving and confronting The Theologian of Theologians, Jesus! <><
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