The Holy Spirit and Hermeneutics

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Researching what scripture says about the Holy Spirit as Interpreter of scripture, I was also glancing at some of the online commentary on the subject.  I was particularly impressed with the lucid comments of Dr. Daniel Wallace:

The Holy Spirit and Hermeneutics

At one point, Dr. Wallace makes a striking distinction: that the "inner witness" of the Spirit's interpretive function is primarily toward scripture's essential truths-of-the-faith (Christ's divinity, His full human-ness, His resurrection, our sonship toward God through Him, etc.): but found it "...doubtful that the Spirit bears witness to the time it took for God to create the universe, or whether dispensationalism or covenant theology is the better system...what form of church government is to be preferred, the role of women in leadership...", etc.

Dr. Wallace' distinction is that the Spirit's interpretations in this regard are those essential to the life of the Church, and not necessarily those necessary to the "health" of the Church.

It's easy to see possible mis-applications of that distinction (indeed, being the contrary creatures we are, mis-applications are virtually certain).  But it seems a fruitful one, in the most-basic consideration: that God sovereignly creates and guarantees the life of the Church...but that we, the living stones of which the Church is built up, are responsible to act in obedience with God's thoughts and ways, to keep the Church healthy.