Proclaimer Blog
Which lens?
Increasingly I come across Christians who interpret the Scriptures through the lens of experience. No. Just, no. However, it’s quite possible to over-react, as though experiences counted for nothing. That reduces Christianity down to an intellectual assent or study, and – we must be honest – there’s plenty of that around.
No, experiences are real and must be accounted for – but they must themselves be interpreted through the lens of Scripture. We all do this, in some areas. Take the vexed question of same-sex attraction. No good Bible man or woman says, “this is what I feel, so it must be right” – and therefore we take the experience and we filter it through the lens of solid Biblical faithfulness to understand what exactly is going on.
All well and good. Except in other areas we are remarkably sloppy. Just the other day, a Christian basically argued with me on a point on which we don’t agree that “if God didn’t intend it, he would not have made it like this.” I appreciate that personal issues can be very, well, personal – but that is precisely the same argument that interprets the Bible through experience, rather than the other way around. Wrong lens, friend.
Which all leads me to ask a question of own blind heart: where am I doing exactly the same?