Big Ideas: The Cannon
Notes
Transcript
Big Idea of Canon
[You]
Q: If a friend in church told you that they plan to date someone who is not in church and then to have a baby with them and then to get married to them what would you say? Why?
You would see so many things wrong with that? Rather it was them dating someone outside of church or the part of the plan to have a baby outside of marriage. There would be so many red flags. But what if they didn’t see these red flags? I grew up with friends in church and I know of one that decided to make that choice. A lot of us could see the red flags, but that person couldn’t. Why is it that some, even in situations that happen in church, can see the spiritual red flags but others can’t.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
In the passage, the Apostle Paul, a man full of the Spirit and spiritually mature, is saying that the things of God, his nature, his will, his truths and doctrines, his big story that is unfolding in the world, goes unnoticed and unseen by those who are not followers of God. Paul understands that there are somethings that are beyond mere human comprehension. It requires an understanding of spiritual things.
Let’s say your watching a toddler and you give them a toy and then later you find that toy in the toilet. It’s obvious that the child though toy and water, let’s play. They didn’t think toy and toilet water, let’s not. Let’s say you give the child a battery operated toy that lights up and it’s real cool and dazzles and then later you find that toy in the toilet. It no longer works due to the water damage. Once again the child was thinking that it would be cool to play with their new toy in the water. Let’s say that’s it’s the child’s b-day and you’re kind of broke so you take out a $5 bill and you show it to the child. Their eyes light up and they smile. You can tell that they like this gift. You fold up the $5 dollar bill and you put it in their pocket and you walk away feeling good about yourself. Later, you go to the bathroom and you lift the lid only to find that five dollar bill floating in the water. Frustrating, but all of this stuff is normal for a toddler bc their brain is still forming. They can’t discern bath water from toilet water. They can’t comprehend that electronics don’t belong in the toilet. They can’t tell the value of money. They don’t know any better. They just don’t know.
Their brain is still forming. And, likewise, when someone has low or no spiritual formation they don’t comprehend the spiritual things of God. To their brain, the idea of abstaining from sex until marriage is foolish because why wouldn’t you just give into your desires. To them giving the first 10% of your money to anyone let alone the church is foolish bc in their eyes it’s all theirs. They don’t believe in a God anyhow to even begin giving him credit for making sure they can pay their bills and eat. To our world having standards of dress makes no sense, since in their eyes its just clothing so why does it matter if it’s male or female clothing. Those are just terms. Even though they would still expect a bride and groom dress in apparel that is distinct. A lot of the clips they show of gay weddings show people getting married in apparel that is still traditionally for a man or a woman. Even if that means two men wearing suits, two women wearing dresses, or one woman wearing a dress and the other wearing a suit bc they are the more masculine one in the relationship. You don’t tend to see people getting married in hoodies and sweat pants. Why? They still believe that clothes reflect gender distinction, they just don’t want to give God credit for the distinction that he created. They want to redefine God and his word. The same way that a child can’t tell the difference between bath water and toilet water our world can’t discern between the godly and the ungodly. So the just try and mix ideas together. They have no spiritual formation so they can’t discern the things of God. But, this can also be an issue for the saint who isn’t growing spiritually.
[God]
You can be filled with the Spirit of God and still be immature spiritually. Often your emotional maturity will determine your spiritual maturity. God’s Spirit is not limited but we can limit it’s impact in our lives and in our hearts. Look at Jona. He knew that God could do anything but in his heart, he didn’t want to preach to Nineveh bc in his heart they were not worthy of God’s grace. Jonah was a prophet who knew much about the spiritual power of God, yet his heart limited him in ways that impacted his ministry and almost cost the lives of the people on the ship that he was traveling on. Where your heart and mind go your spirit will follow. So just bc you have his Spirit in you does not mean that you are using spiritual discernment in a mature way. My friend who dating someone outside of church and had a baby with them and then got married did not find happiness. Their life is full of problems. This is not to throw stones at them. Bc we will have problems in life rather you are in church or not. But my friend walks through those problems without God’s help bc they decided to build a love life that was guided by emotional desire instead of spiritual discernment. This person was full of the Spirit of God but not emotionally nor spiritually mature enough to weigh out the long-term consequences of their choices.
If people in church can struggle with this just imagine those who aren’t Christian. Those who don’t have God’s Spirit in them will often be against the things of God and.. the word of God.
They will look for things to discredit scripture as a way to try and discredit Christianity. They forget that before the teachings were ever written down the early followers of Jesus were living them out. They lived the meta-narrative.
When it comes to the Meta-Narrative.. the Big Story of God… Holy Scripture is a vital part of that story. From the Bible we learn about God and His big story. We learn about how he created everything. We learn of his desire to be in relationship with us. We learn about the price of sin and the power of the cross. We learn that we are called to know him and to make him known. We learn that he has a purpose for us in His Kingdom. We learn about mercy and grace and justice, and love. We learn how to rightly love others and how to be loved by others. The Bible works to shape our heart and mind as we walk with God. One scholar said: as we work on Scripture, it is also working on us [Richard Briggs].
[Rd pg 134 4th Par (2 min)] Author writes short story about students doubting the Bible
I’ve been there.. where you’re the only Christian at the table. In this example the students are doubting the scriptures because of:
1) Other ancient books that are on the news and seen as “secret books of the bible” that go against the actual books of the bible
2) Something known as a textual variant. Which simply means a variation in the written text.
3) The belief that over time there is no way that the message of the Bible could have been copied accurately.
Let’s first look at the textual variants:
Consider first a few terms:
[Slide] Manuscript: A manuscript is a handwritten composition on paper, bark, cloth. This is how most writing was done back in ancient Biblical times. Not just with biblical writing but with most if not all writing of that time.
[Slide] A textual variant is a difference between the wording of two or more manuscripts
[Letter slide] Ladies, imagine that the man of your dreams writes you a love letter. But let’s say that man has handwriting that is as bad as mine so he has someone re-write his words but in much nicer handwriting. Would that change the meaning of the message? Let’s say he had multiple copies of that letter made so that he could keep one for himself but the person who copied those letters for him made a few minor errors in some of those copies. They left out the first letter of your name: so instead it’s “auren, lisia, iki, etc.” they forget to put the “L” in love so in one of the letters so it says, “I ove you so much.”
You would still know what they meant to say. You would still know that it was your name they were meaning to spell. Let’s say a thousand years from now someone comes across that love letter and they see “auren” or “lisia” and they think that’s your name. Until they come across the other copies and those begin to fill in the blanks and they realize your actual name and that the person who wrote you the letter doesn’t “ove” they love you.
The variants in the writing, the textual variants were so minor that they didn’t change the overall meaning of the letter. Over 90% of the textual variants in the biblical manuscripts are that kind of variant.
[Slide] Until the middle of the 20th century the oldest manuscript that we had was from Leningrad (in Russia) and it dated to the 10 century.
[Rd Pg 135 3rd-4th par “Indeed, up until...”]
So, when the students in Prof Norris example compared the biblical text to a game of telephone they were assuming that the textual variations mean that you can’t know or trust the message of the Bible. Even though the vast majority of the variations are minor things things like a missing letter or a missing word in a manuscript. Since there are other copies of that same book it’s easy to compare them and see what the original message said.
[Rd p 136 3rd par - 2nd par on p 137 “The New Testament presents...”]
Talk about Bart Erhman… his journey, his loss of faith, etc. why knowing what you believe matters
Change Slide [Rd p 137 par 3-5]
Change Slide Gnostic Gospels [Read p 138 - 139]
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Earlier, I said from the Bible we learn that we are called to know him and to make him known. We learn that he has a purpose for us in His Kingdom. We learn about mercy and grace and justice, and love. We learn how to rightly love others and how to be loved. You know from personal experience that there is real power in living our the teachings of scripture. That it’s not just man’s wisdom bc it speaks to things that go deeper than human understanding. (Andy Stanley’s comments on Moses bringing the Law)
Yet, the world that we live in does not discern the things of God. Our world can question what it does not understand with God, but it cannot comprehend the answers. Because those answers are spiritual. So instead it seeks to disprove the book. Why? Because that’s a whole lot easier than living the book. What else asks us to bear our cross and die daily? To check our attitude when dealing with a frustrating person or situation? To treat our lives as though they don’t belong to us. It is Christianity, it is the Bible that asks of us things that our flesh wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. It is this sacred text that challenges our passions. Our world does not like that challenge. It would rather live out it’s every passion no matter the outcome. The irony is that our world likes the fruit of the Christian life: kindness, mercy, justice, and love. But it does not like the cost of Christianity. Our world does not want to die daily. It does not want to lay down it’s desires and personal dreams and selfish ambitions. So, it would rather challenge the Bible then be changed by it. Like the toddler playing in the toilet, they can’t comprehend the value of the things they are flushing away.
Conclusion
[You/We]
[Rd p 141 2nd Par - p 142]
Q: What’s something that you wondered about the Bible books?