Recently, Brett Kavanaugh was nominated for the Supreme Court. As expected, most liberals whined and most conservatives rejoiced. There was one response that I found to be quite enlightening. And it has to do with the differences in conservative and liberal Supreme Court justices and judges in general. The man said that he was disappointed, not because Kavanaugh was not a liberal, but that he was ideological. He longed for the time when justices had no ideology. (I am tempted to ask when that was.)
He has the mistaken idea that conservative justices today and liberal justices are mirror opposites of each other. They are not. Liberal justices "interpret" the Constitution, bending it to suit their own views on how things should be rather than simply applying the Constitution as it is written. I think we all know this, but many assume that conservatives do the same in the other direction making the Constitution to say something it does not to suit their own agenda.
But that is not the case. Today's conservative justices are not activists like the liberal justices who try to say that the Constitution says something it does not say. The Constitution says nothing about abortion or same-sex marriage yet liberal justices have somehow come up with the idea that the states cannot forbid abortions or refuse to recognize same-sex marriages. That is liberal activism in action. It is not applying the Constitution as it is written. However, conservative justices do not do the "opposite". They simply apply the Constitution. If they were activist ideologues, they would not only try to overturn Roe v. Wade, but they outlaw abortion entirely. We used to have conservative activists on the court in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. That is how we got decisions like the Dredd Scott decision and Plessy V. Ferguson the latter which upheld Jim Crow laws.
But that is not what conservative justices do now. They would simply overturn Roe v. Wade and let the states decide what laws they wish to make about abortion. That is applying the Constitution, not imposing a conservative ideology. There is not activism on both sides. Only the liberals are the activists. The conservatives are originalists, taking the Constitution for what it actually says.
We have a similar thing happening with regards to the Bible. Theological liberals want the Bible to agree with their own views on a variety of issues and often corrupt or ignore what the Bible clearly says rather than simply letting the Bible speak for itself. They want to "amend" the Bible to justify things like homosexuality which the Bible clearly condemns as immoral.
The last two verses of the Bible make it plain what happens to those who 'add to' or 'take away' from the Bible. "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Rev. 22:18-19) Liberals are trying to take away the passages in the Bible they do not like. The verses regarding homosexual behavior is only the latest example.
So there is clear comparison between political liberals and theological liberals on how they approach the Constitution and the Bible. They treat it as if it malleable. They believe these documents have a different meaning from when they were written. That is clearly a corruption of these vital texts. Of course, it is far worse to tamper with the Scriptures than it is to tamper with the Constitution.
Having said all that, I want to give a little admonition to my conservative theological friends who are not immune from trying to make the Bible say something it does not say. Conservatives generally take the Bible for what it says, especially in those things which are of great importance. (We may disagree on lesser things which are less clear.) But too many conservative Christians have begun to seek revelations rather than the Lord. This is not good. We should always seek the Lord and not some new revelation. Some have followed after visions and dreams and prophecies. They have shared these things and people have gotten excited and gotten off track with the Lord. In some cases, people have been hurt. Often, though, it is harmless nonsense with people wasting their time and energy with something they think is from God. (Any good historian of the church knows what I am talking about. These things are not new.) It is deceptive especially since people think what they are doing is in line with the Bible. They have a few scriptures which, if read in a certain way, may seem to back up what they are saying. But they have not really studied the matter out and found if it lines up with all of the Bible. That takes study and seeking the Lord in the Scriptures.
Am I saying that I do not believe that God gives His people visions and dreams and revelations and prophecy? No, the Bible teaches that we can experience these things. I believe in them for today, but that does not mean that we can have any true revelation apart from the Bible. We have to test all things and hold fast to what is good. (1 Thess. 5:21)
I do not believe that we are making a good effort testing these things. We especially do not like testing things we get ourselves. We are so sure that they are from God. We can just feel it.
Here is a good example of how to correctly handle a revelation: Kenneth Hagin, a great teacher of the Bible, said that Jesus appeared to him and told him that he had to rebuke an evil spirit since he had the authority to do it. Hagin could not accept that and told the Lord to prove it from the Bible. And he said he wanted two or three Scriptures to back it up. He said that Jesus did not get mad. In fact, Jesus smiled at him and gave him four. This new idea greatly challenged Hagin's theology. He had trouble accepting what we now call 'the authority of the believer'. This was the early 50's and nobody was teaching it.
Now, Hagin could have discarded it, or he could have accepted it. His natural tendency may have been to forget the whole thing as a demonic deception but he decided to test it against the scripture. So, he studied these scriptures the Lord gave him and others and began to meditate on the scriptures. As he accepted this truth and understood it, he applied it in his own life. He proved it by the Bible and by living it out personally. Then he put it into a form where it could be taught. But when he taught it, he sometimes told of his experience with the Lord, but he taught it from the Word.
What he did not do, as many do today, is get a revelation this week and teach it the next. I find that many so-called revelations today have little Bible to back them up and certainly are not proven out in the lives of those teaching it. Reading the NT carefully, you will find that the apostles wrote things, especially the deeper revelations, towards the end of their lives. They taught the Word all the way along, but apostles like Paul wrote after years of reflection and of living out those revelations.
Early in his ministry, Paul was taken up into heaven where he got much of the revelation he got from the Lord. But many of those things he did not write down until decades later when he had a fuller and complete understanding of what the Lord had showed him. Also, the gospel writers did not record Jesus' words for many years until they had a complete understanding of what He had taught.
Today, instead of expounding the Bible, many seem to have a new revelation every week or every month. But when I hear or read what they say I am hardly sure of what exactly they are saying even means. They use new expressions which often go unexplained and it is evident to me that if I asked them they would struggle defining precisely what they do mean. Terms and expressions are thrown around like they are deeply meaningful when sometimes they mean almost nothing at all. It is confusing probably because they are not well thought out. Little scripture is used and when it is used it is often in a cursory way. But we are sure that this revelation is what we need at this very moment. No time is allowed for study and reflection much less applying it to one's own life.
There is even one person, who shall remain nameless, who constantly has revelations regarding Jezebel. That is not the Queen Jezebel in the OT, but the "spirit of Jezebel". (I have been reading the Bible for over forty years and have not come across this so-called "spirit of Jezebel". If you find it, please let me know.) This person has written more than a dozen books on this "spirit" and she keeps having more and more revelations and keeps writing more and more books. She seems to know all about this spirit and how to overcome it. But then she gets more revelations and writes more books. Apparently, this "spirit" causes all kinds of problems in the church. The "spirit of Jezebel" supposedly causes rebellion, idolatry, witchcraft and a whole litany of sins which includes almost every vice one can imagine. This spirit is quite busy. Should I be looking out for this spirit as she suggests? Not from what I read in the Bible. The Bible calls these things "the works of the flesh" not the works of some evil spirit. It is obvious to me that all she does is find a scripture to back up her "revelation" and declare her "revelation" to be all-important. There is not true testing it by the Word, only an admonition to "watch out" and to "act now". There is not real reflection on whether the Bible even teaches us to beware of any spirit. We are supposed to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, not on an evil spirit either real or imagined. Her entire focus is wrong so she keeps getting more and more "revelations" and has not tested them by the Word, nor has she lived them out in her life. She couldn't have because she has not taken the time.
We need to listen to those who have, by experience and a thorough understanding of the Word, taught using the scriptures to prove what they say. It is interesting that only two people in the NT tell us that a celibate life is possible in the Lord. One was the Lord Himself and the other was Paul. Both were celibate men who had proved that what they were teaching was true. So, I am not impressed with a revelation received last week that is now available in a new book. I am willing to listen to those who live by the Word and teach what they have lived out.
It was many years before Kenneth Hagin wrote his first book on the Authority of the Believer and it has become a classic work. He studied it out. He lived it out in his life and ministry. He gained a mature understanding of it. And now it is standard teaching in Pentecostal and charismatic circles. It has stood the test of time. And now it is pretty much taken for granted. Most teach it in some way, but most have no idea where it came from. It came from mature reflection and living by the Word. We need the revelation of the Spirit, but we need to put the Word first and the Spirit second. Some have put the Spirit first and have gotten off into a fantasy world they think is some sort of deep spirituality. But all things must be tested by the Word.
So let's use a little caution when dealing with this whole area. There is a lot of deception and a lot of nonsense and foolishness. For my part, I am going to just keep teaching what the Word says. That is the revelation already given to us. Let's not be like the liberals who add to and take away from the scriptures.
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