Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
No, I am not sure. But that never stopped me from wildly speculating before, did it? 
To push that reading onto the epistles in Revelations 2 and 3 is not a slam-dunk by any means. But still it's worth considering why John wrote to the angel, and not the church. I also remembered some kind of "midrash" commentary on the book of Daniel, where the rabbi was saying how every geographical area has an uber-spirit (i.e. the "prince of Persia").
Leaving this subject for a minute, it also answers MacDuff's question of who gets to decide proper interpretation of the Bible. My answer is that we all get to interpret, in the ekklesia, and all the rest are free to go, "Whoa, there, Pardner! Where'd you come up with that one?" Giving one person unrestricted license to say, "This means that" is a recipe for disaster. But if (most) everyone can interpret, that is better because all can be checked by all. Sort of "democracy in action".
So I like speculating in the ekklesia. Usually someone will rein me in.  |
Speculation is a good thing!
It's actually a normal part of our learning process. One time, many moons ago, I was chatting with my elder Phil Comfort (
about the time he just started getting into the Greek) about studying the word. He said he would often develop a "hunch" and then go digging in the scriptures to check it out. That process of "digging" is perhaps the most instructive form of learning. Eventually, however, Titus Chu publicly destroyed the young Phil Comfort in front of other brothers for being "
too theoretical, and not at all practical." Hmmm. Is that what digging in the scripture does to us?
Years later it all came back to bite TC. One of the most "serious" accusations against him at the ITERO Whistler Kangaroo Quarantine Court,
apart from demanding clean sheets in Thailand, was his method of training, so different from Anaheim's. As recently posted, LSM officially requires its members to read its own footnotes and ministry publications
first,
before one studies the Bible, so that their members don't "misunderstand" what God has intended to speak to us.
This is the worst way to know the Bible. You get it all second hand. You get it all with serious bias. You get it all leavened. Oh sure, you will make lots of mistakes, but that's how we really learn.
Speculate and then check it out in the word! 