You need to be aware
I have been writing a paper for Pastoral and General Epistles and in writing on the authorship of 1 Timothy for my paper, I have been interacting with critical scholarship. This is important because: #1 It's required for the class.
#2 It's what people are taught out of the realm of conservative evangelicalism.
I think it is very important for Christians, especially pastors to be aware of what's going on.
For instance, this is the most popular book for New Testament in most colleges and universities and it would not
"fly" in 90% of evangelical churches, yet people are taught from it. With this occuring, it would make sense for a pastor to be aware of the content of what it taught. This is smart because people will ask you questions about it when they come and visit, or if they are a new Christian, or even a confused one. Christians want to know if they can trust their Bible and those who are not far away from the faith may want to know if the Bible is "real", or just a bunch of letters, books and stories decided on by Constantine and the Council of Nicea, etc. We must know the arguments against our faith, not only the ones for. We must be ready to give answers, but they should be well thought out and legitimate.
I once heard a true story of a man who had been taught liberal scholarship and that the Bible could not be trusted. He was at an Academic Conference and asked a man some questions about critical theory, authorship concerns, etc. He was then met with a question of, "what sin do you have in your life that's keeping you from trusting God's word?" Some may laugh, but that is not appropriate. Here a person is being taught very clever things about why the Pastoral Epistles cannot be Pauline because of stylistic concerns and so many words are used that are not used in other "genuine" Pauline writings, and he is met with an answer that did not help.
We need to be familiar with writings and teachings that undermine historic Christian teaching. Yes, there could even be times when we will have our own questions and doubt, but instead of ignoring those questions, fears, or doubts, we need to confront them and study. It's not enough to just know what we believe, we must know why, and we must know why in the face of those conversations that tell us why we must not.
#2 It's what people are taught out of the realm of conservative evangelicalism.
I think it is very important for Christians, especially pastors to be aware of what's going on.
For instance, this is the most popular book for New Testament in most colleges and universities and it would not
"fly" in 90% of evangelical churches, yet people are taught from it. With this occuring, it would make sense for a pastor to be aware of the content of what it taught. This is smart because people will ask you questions about it when they come and visit, or if they are a new Christian, or even a confused one. Christians want to know if they can trust their Bible and those who are not far away from the faith may want to know if the Bible is "real", or just a bunch of letters, books and stories decided on by Constantine and the Council of Nicea, etc. We must know the arguments against our faith, not only the ones for. We must be ready to give answers, but they should be well thought out and legitimate.I once heard a true story of a man who had been taught liberal scholarship and that the Bible could not be trusted. He was at an Academic Conference and asked a man some questions about critical theory, authorship concerns, etc. He was then met with a question of, "what sin do you have in your life that's keeping you from trusting God's word?" Some may laugh, but that is not appropriate. Here a person is being taught very clever things about why the Pastoral Epistles cannot be Pauline because of stylistic concerns and so many words are used that are not used in other "genuine" Pauline writings, and he is met with an answer that did not help.
We need to be familiar with writings and teachings that undermine historic Christian teaching. Yes, there could even be times when we will have our own questions and doubt, but instead of ignoring those questions, fears, or doubts, we need to confront them and study. It's not enough to just know what we believe, we must know why, and we must know why in the face of those conversations that tell us why we must not.
posted by Bobby's blog at 1:37 PM
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