The Psalms are the word of Christ

[james73]

Originally Posted by OBW

But it is not so easy. While there are unambiguous statements, it is not all so clear. That means we have to analyze and interpret. And if we get competing interpretations (which has happened over and over) then who is right.

"Who is right?" is irrelevant. If you're up in court, you think you are right, and the other side thinks they are right. The judge, in a perfect world, has not made any pre-judgement on the case, and, despite all his legal training and knowledge, is ignorant of the verdict.

It's a meditation on "the sound of one hand clapping" to try to grasp this moment of ignorance and keep it alive without seeking relief, but to me this is the key to treasuring the bible. It's how I can believe evolution and creation at the same time, it's why Psalm 137 is a comfort not a horror.

Alas, human communities love courtrooms and decisions - a landmark ruling, a Christian creed, an affirmation, these are the gavel falling and we humans love the finality of the clapperboard sound. Perhaps a good meditation would not be "the sound of one hand clapping" but "the sound of a gavel banging against nothing".

Originally Posted by OBW

I'm comfortable that enough people reading together and letting the Spirit speak to them will discover the truth in scripture. And I'm comfortable with some varieties in interpretation that do not stand in opposition to the underlying premises of the scripture.

Yes, this is so true - it's about the Spirit, it's about the moment, it's about reading the bible together without prejudice. Doctrine can douse the fire of the spirit- what I find poor in the LC is, when people come to read the bible together, they don't let the spirit speak to them, it's the footnotes and the Life Study doing all the talking.

I go to a local "Men's Ministry" bible study on Thursday nights, and it's a slow, comically awkward affair compared the slick "Amens!" and fancy-sounding phrases tripping off the tongues of my Friday night LC group. The men in the group, including myself, are slow to share, go off on all sorts of tangents and bring up suddenly-remembered passages that are probably totally irrelevant to the study at hand.... but there are many genuine "aha" moments. I never saw an "aha" moment at the LC group. For example I may go tomorrow night and share the beauty I found again in Psalm 137 after the discussions here, and within four seconds, someone will say "I think the Life Study of Ephesians (which we are reading at the mo) says something about this..." and then the whole discussion becomes robotic "speak'n'spell with Witness Lee" and the Spirit sits back rolling his or her eyes.