Isaiah 28:13
New
Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them,
“Precept upon
precept, precept upon precept,
line
upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little,”
in order that
they may go and fall backward
and be broken and snared and taken
This past week I watched The Final Events of Bible
Prophecy, by Doug Batchelor. It reminded me of the times I have studied,
and what I used in my studies with others. For example, when studying the
importance of the Sabbath, Batchelor covered all (is it?) New Testaments texts
that mention the “first day” of the week, plus numerous NT and OT texts that
mention the Sabbath, to convince us of the importance of Sabbath keeping. I
have listened to another pastor (from a different persuasion) use a similar
technique, and the same eight texts, to convince me of the sanctity of Sunday.
Once while hitchhiking from Lusaka to Salisbury (Harare
today), I was picked up by a Jehovah’s Witness elder. We had to wait for at
least 45 minutes near the Zambesi River as a tropical storm dropped so much
rain that we couldn’t see the road we were on. While he was driving and
waiting, he gave me studies of the key doctrines of his denomination. In those
days I was an irreverent 17-year-old, who had studied all those texts he used
in 10 years of study in Adventist parochial schools. I would use those same
texts to show that they could also support a completely alien doctrine to his. Eventually
I became so obnoxious that he couldn’t take me anymore. The road we were on was
in dense bush and very wild. When he was near the Sinoia Caves (now called
Chinhoya), about 400 km from Lusaka and 100 km from our destination, he pulled
over, took my little suitcase from his trunk, and told me had taken me as far
as he was going to take me. Then he drove off leaving me standing beside the
road.
In retrospect I find the following:
1.
He was a far better Christian than I. He dropped
me near the only bush hotel on this desolate road where all of Africa’s “Big 5”
freely preyed. Anywhere else I would have been easy prey. At Sinoia Hotel, I
could at least find food, water, and a bed.
2.
He knew his Bible very well and enjoyed the
comfort of resting in his faith. He supported his faith from scripture,
confidently.
3.
My uses of his texts to support a different view
than his may have started to cause him to doubt his faith. He did what the
Bible admonishes us to do—flee from the devil.
4.
I worry that using the proof-text method to
support my faith may result in my going or falling backward and being broken
and snared and taken!
Surely Isaiah viewed the Bible study technique described in
verses 10 and 13 of chapter 28—the proof text method—as valid. Yet he also
sounds the warning that this method could become a snare.
Lord, may
Your Holy Spirit guide our study and lead us into all truth!
[1]
https://bible.art/p/eknuZ6meXfZX7KL7nN0D I take no responsibility for the misspelling in the picture. I do like the complicated design--which matches the complicated reasoning we sometimes employ.
