Some Thoughts From Class

I figured that whoever is following this blog might be interested in seeing some of the things I am learning in class, so I may occasionally share some thought from class that have had particular impact.

From some of Dr. Poythress' reading in chapter 3 of his book:

God has made all truth to be what it is. Every fact exists because he has made it to exist. Scholars find the tight logical connections between the facts when they do exegesis, but even the simple believer may intuitively come to right conclusions from a passage of scripture without going through these steps. He may have more loose associations, but because all truth is connected by the God who made it, these conclusions may be valid. It is still important to recognize that not every association made by a sinful person is a valid one, but the point is that scholars do not have a corner on the truth of God, and their methods are still subject to the limitations of sinful humanity.

He quotes Augustine:

Since, therefore, each person endeavors to understand in the Holy Scriptures that which the writer understood, what hurt is it if a man understand what Thou, the light of all true-speaking minds, dost show him to be true although he whom he reads understood not this, seeing that he also understood a Truth, not, however, this Truth?

Basically, God may, by His Spirit, use these looser connections between different bits of truth to teach something to a believer, even to the extent of using a passage which does not primarily or explicitly teach this truth. The Spirit can do this because all truth is His truth, and all the connections between truths are put there by him. Dr. Poythress gives the example of a new believer who, after reading Acts 18:2, decides that God is in this verse commanding him to move out of his girlfriend's apartment. Though this is certainly not what Luke meant in this particular passage, the believer has grasped a truth of God which is taught elsewhere. To avoid error in these loose associations, though, we must always compare our conclusions, scholarly or not, with scripture, because it is the only authoritative rule of faith and life.

Dr. Oliphant also made some convicting remarks in his introduction to Doctrine of God to the effect that we should not hold the degrees we earn over anyone's head or play them as trump cards, since all knowledge of God is knowledge which was not built by the scholar, but revealed to him by God, who changes man's heart to accept the knowledge of Himself that he has made clear to everyone in creation.

Though God does use academic endeavor to enlighten his people, it should not be undertaken for the sake of personal acclaim or advancement, but with the ultimate goal of the edification of the church and proper worship of God.

New Semester

Today is the second day of my second semester at Westminster Theological Seminary. I made it through Hebrew II over the winter term relatively successfully, but another semester is already upon me, and daunting reading lists have already piled up. This semester I'll be taking Greek III, Hebrew III, Hermeneutics, Doctrine of God, Old Testament Introduction, and Gospel Communication. Because there is not a lot of flexibility in scheduling at Westminster, I have seven hours of class on Thursdays, which is nearly half my total course-load crammed into one day. Thursdays will not be happy days in the coming months. On the other hand, there will be a lot of great stuff to learn in all these classes, so I am excited for that. Pray for my endurance this semester!