Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
I'm not against new teachings.
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I generally am unless it becomes obvious that the scripture clearly supports it (not is merely silent on it), there is more than a tiny bit of evidence that it was taught from early-on that way, and/or it becomes evident that contrary ways of understanding were not actually in accord with the scripture and we just didn't realize it for the last 1,800 years or so.
That puts so much of Lee's stuff in the crapper. It generally had an aura of correctness. It was often too good-sounding to argue against. But it was so often not really there, or was actually in conflict with the Bible.
There are reasons to temper the extreme views of sola scriptura and inerrancy. But in the end, the Bible still provides the only reliable benchmark that what we think we get as a "word from God" is really from God. Our feelings are fickle. We feel how we want to feel. An internal agreement with something probably means we are already predisposed to like that kind of thing. That it was brought to us in the midst of a lot of quoting of scripture does not make the scripture quoted support it. (Lee was a master at that.)
So I am generally skeptical of any really new teaching. It lacks a "from the beginning" assurance of truth. I'm not suggesting doing the doctrinal equivalent of a search for evidence of a Pope or MOTA. But to think that what is actually in the scripture was not realized when written is (to me) wrong thinking. They wrote what they meant, not the non-tongues equivalent of speaking in tongues without an interpreter.
I might go so far as to say that overly systematized theology, like Calvinism, and even the doctrine of the Trinity, could fit into this "not from the beginning" category. Not that there is not truth in them, or that they are not true. Rather that they represent too much emphasis on head knowledge
about things rather than real knowledge of God. And they tend to lead to division, therefore too much of them is not necessarily a good thing. That God is One God yet displayed in three persons was from the beginning. But trying to systematize it was not.
I am not suggesting that there is nothing new about how we apply things to life and to current culture. But the underlying truth in those has been here from the "beginning," not just figured out last week.