Last week I wrote about how much I didn’t know, that I didn’t know about the Scriptures. This week I have two more things which I learned while going back to school for this degree.
Read Those With Whom You Disagree
My previous experience in reading religious journals, articles, and books was basically only reading those that come from the same general time period, with the same religious traditions, and generally hold the same position about various issues. This is not only frustrating, but possibly dangerous. If a person is only ever looking at a situation from one perspective, there is no room for questioning and growth. Reading from only one side of an argument also creates an echo chamber of “what you know the issue is and what the right answer is”. If you get bogged down into that situation, then anything that is different than what you’ve read, is of necessity incorrect and possibly even sinful.
The solution to this echo chamber is to read from people that are from different time periods, with various religious backgrounds, and likely have no idea about the perspective that you have. In other words, the more you consider each side of an issue, the better equipped you are to understand more and mature. There are many scholars of varying religious traditions that have the same questions that we have about a text, which if we let them express their reasoning it can benefit all of us as well. Along the same lines:
If You Have Doubts, Good.
I have learned that no one has all the answers about God and the Bible. There are things that are impossible to know for certain. This is not to say that we have to doubt about God’s existence, personality, requirements for salvation, etc. but it does mean that we wont know everything just from studying theology. If you look at a text and feel like you know everything about that text, I can assure you you do not. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know (which I mentioned last week), but now I can say I have some questions and doubts about issues…and its fine!
The more we learn about God and the Bible the deeper our relationship to Him and each other can be. Learn from my mistakes and avoid the pitfalls that prevent us from loving Him more until we are taken home.