{"id":268,"date":"2010-02-18T12:49:44","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T17:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=268"},"modified":"2013-06-26T11:29:40","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T15:29:40","slug":"theological-triple-jump-part-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=268","title":{"rendered":"Theological Triple Jump (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

All of life is to be processed Biblically.\u00a0 As we think our way through life we attempt, rightly, to process life theologically.\u00a0 As we make our way down the path of life one step at a time, we attempt to plant our feet on solid Bible truth.\u00a0 We aim to make each thought correspond to truth that can be identified with a chapter and a verse.\u00a0 We want to think the thoughts of God after Him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this regard God\u2019s revelation is full and sufficient (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:3-4).\u00a0 All that God has told us is true.\u00a0 Yet God has not told us all that is true.\u00a0 There remain matters which are not revealed to us.\u00a0 \u201cThe secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law\u201d<\/em> (Deut. 29:29).\u00a0 God is beyond tracing out (Rom. 11:33).\u00a0 No amount of mental exertion will allow us to break through beyond the veil of revelation.\u00a0 We can\u2019t figure God out.\u00a0 He is infinite.\u00a0 We are finite.\u00a0 We are at the mercy of His revelatory grace.<\/p>\n

What God has revealed is clear.\u00a0 What God has not revealed remains a mystery.\u00a0 We may rest assured that what is not revealed will be consistent with what has been revealed.\u00a0 We are not, however, exactly sure just how that consistency extends out beyond what God has revealed of Himself and His ways.\u00a0 What God has revealed is breathtaking (Rom. 11:33-36). \u00a0What God has not revealed remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

To this end we must be wise as we approach the limits of God revelation on any given subject.\u00a0 There comes a moment in our step-by-step process of thinking through life Biblically that we reach that boundary of what God has clearly revealed.\u00a0 Beyond that boundary we must tread cautiously.\u00a0 God is rational.\u00a0 God has made us in His image, part of which is being rational creatures ourselves.\u00a0 Thus logic is a gift from God.\u00a0 But the limits of our finite minds fetter this gift from its perfect fullness, at least in this life.\u00a0 We are welcome to telescope our thoughts logically outward from what we know clearly from the Bible.\u00a0 This is where the \u201chop, step and a jump\u201d of theological thought come in.\u00a0 We reason our way through the Scriptures, under the ministry of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 But then, having come to the limits of what God clearly says, we make a logical leap\u2014a deduction<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 This deduction is a logical leap launched from solid Biblical truth with a chapter and verse.\u00a0 Yet the deduction itself does not have such clear, firm footing.\u00a0 This deduction makes sense to us and we may feel a sense of confidence<\/em><\/span> in our conclusion, but the ground beneath our feet is less solid than just one step prior.<\/p>\n

From this we may take another leap, logically of course.\u00a0 This we might call speculation<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 This is worthy of our Biblically-informed consideration<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0 In eternity it might even prove to be true, but we don\u2019t know this with revelatory certainty.\u00a0 Awareness that we are presently two steps removed from the firm footing of solid Biblical revelation is urged.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean the thought is untrue necessarily, but our level of confidence in that thought and particularly our level of confidence in pressing this thought upon others is diminished.<\/p>\n

We may feel the urge to make yet another leap of logic.\u00a0 To do so is not wrong and we should not feel guilt for doing so.\u00a0 We must, however, be clear just what we are undertaking.\u00a0 We are now three logical steps removed from the solid clarity of what God has revealed in the Bible.\u00a0 We have arrived in the land of fancy<\/strong><\/span> and conjecture<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 We must be exceedingly cautious about such conclusions and especially about pressing these conjectures upon others as \u201cBiblical.\u201d<\/p>\n

God wants us to live with conviction, based upon a clear understanding of what He has clearly revealed to us in the Bible.\u00a0 We can thus live under the authority of Scripture.\u00a0 God invites us to think!\u00a0 The ability to launch into the realm of conjecture is a God-given gift, but one which comes with an appropriate warning label.\u00a0 In the land of conjecture any deductions are made on the authority of logic (flawed and fallen and not yet fully transformed, Rom. 12:2), not on the authority of God\u2019s revelation in the Scripture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of life is to be processed Biblically.\u00a0 As we think our way through life we attempt, rightly, to process life theologically.\u00a0 As we make our way down the path of life one step at a time, we attempt to plant our feet on solid Bible truth.\u00a0 We aim to make each thought correspond to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hermenutics","post-preview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-4k","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1628,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/1628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}