Opinion's Back-bite

I've written several recent posts on opinion. They come from the frustrating (and probably very common) experience of Sunday School classes and "Bible-studies" where getting at the truth in scripture's words is less the point, than people offering their opinions.

After studying what scripture says about "opinion" (http://cross-purposes.blogspot.com/2014/02/my-opinion.html), I'm convinced there's a place, when interpreting what God says, for clearly-demarcated individual opinion (or better, as Paul says, "judgement") that comes from walking closely with Him. A prime manifestation of that walk is deep study of scripture: which ties in with the first rule of heuristics (interpretation), that "scripture interprets scripture." As simple observation, that doesn't seem to be the case of most opinion in Sunday School classes and "Bible-studies" I've been in.

It's taken me a while to get past my frustration with fleshly opinionating. And past that, there's reason to pity the opinionated.

Not pity for what they choose to do: but pity for what they do to themselves in it. The back-bite of treating scriptural interpretation as a matter of one's own fleshly opinion is that it inclines us to view all scriptural interpretation as mere opinion. If we interpret (or rather, manipulate) scripture to confirm our own prejudices, we tend to believe other people do likewise.

In that mind, we become skeptical that any interpretation of scripture can be anything but personal opinion. And ultimately, we can become people who don't believe that scripture embodies objective truth at all.

My late best friend, Mike Baker, had a favorite phrase: that so-and-so "wouldn't know opportunity (or danger, or quality, or whatever) if it bit him on the ass." An unsanctified metaphor, but perhaps appropriate in this context: the back-bite of opinion is that we can get to where we wouldn't know truth if it bit us on the ass.

Advisory

I have serious reservations about the value of blogs. It's amazing that we can broadcast our every thought and opinion to the entire world. But the value of that ability depends on whether or not we have anything to say worth hearing. Some do: but vastly more blogging seems merely self-indulgent spews of teen angst, ditto-head regurgitation, and sports trivialities.

I think that's a factual summary, and not elitist disparagement. I'm a middle-aged, middle-class, Middle American. I'm sure those circumstances influence the way I see things, and even what things I'm able to see. Nobody's simply a product of his environment; but it would be disingenuous to deny its pervasive influence. Mine is decidedly ordinary, even dull: nothing "elite" in any sense.

I have further reservations about the democratic principle underlying blogs, that every person's opinion matters. That's certainly true in a personal sense: the ideas we operate on absolutely determine what WE become. I'm skeptical the principle has any larger application. Reality is what it is, and our opinions about it...mine included...don't make any difference. The will...not "opinion"...of the One who created and sustains it is the only relevant fact.

Since I consider blogs of limited value, and doubt that opinions matter, it's fair to ask why I would write a blog; and a better question why anyone should read it. The short answer is that sometimes God gives me something to say, and I say it.

Some people find it presumptuous to say I have the gift of prophecy. But scripture says all may prophesy; indeed, urges us to earnestly desire to prophesy. I desired that gift, and asked for it. God gave it to me. My understanding is that the charismata ("grace gift") of prophecy, like all charismata, is given to build up Christ's Body, the Church. I don't consider the gift is for me, or that it says anything about me except that I believed God, and was willing to receive what He was pleased to give.

For those who don't believe God still gives charismata, it would be a waste of time to read any further. I'd urge you to seriously re-think what you believe God can or will do. In the meantime, you probably shouldn't expect to hear anything here from God if your theology says He isn't speaking in prophecy anymore.

For everyone else, the scriptural command applies. My job is to hear what God is telling me to say, and say it. But I don't always hear, or say what I hear, perfectly: and sometimes my voice is ONLY my voice. It's wisdom, and a scriptural command, that we discern God's voice: when God is speaking, His Spirit will attest His words to your understanding. The scriptural command applies here, and in every other part of life: discern what God says, and do what God says.