Why Does the Bible Have to be Difficult?

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him." -- 1 Peter 3:18-22

In 1998, John Piper preached a sermon from Romans 3:1-8 entitled "Why God Inspired Hard Texts." He argues that schools, among other things, are one of the main answers to this question. "Education is cultivating the life of the mind so that it knows how to grow in true understanding. That impulse was unleashed by God's inspiring a Book with complex demanding paragraphs in it."

So get into the Word and grow your mind!

Todd

Puritan Interpretation - Six Questions to Ask of the Text

J. I. Packer, in his book A Quest for Godliness, suggests six questions one must ask the text in order to interpret the text faithfully (like the Puritans):

1. What do these words actually mean?
2. What light do other Scriptures throw on this text? Where and how does it fit into the total biblical revelation?
3. What truths does it teach about God, and about man in relation to God?
4. How are these truths related to the saving work of Christ, and what light does the gospel of Christ throw upon them?
5. What experiences do these truths delineate, or explain, or seek to create or cure? For what practical purpose do they stand in Scripture?
6. How do they apply to myself and others in our own actual situation? To what present human condition do they speak, and what are they telling us to believe and do?

These are important questions for the faithful preacher or teacher to answer; may God grant us to be more like the redwoods.

May we all be more influenced by the Puritans,

Todd