Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 ESV)
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider.
Sir Francis Bacon
I am running ahead a bit in Jeremiah. He makes it hard not too.
What a compelling picture!
A king sitting by a burning fire pot, literally cutting into pieces and burning these words brought by Blessing (Baruch).
How easy to cut up words from viewpoints off our grid rather than really hearing and seeing what is in them.
Reading the newly released book Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative by Carl Trueman managed to put me square into Jehoiakim’s chair – or at least to wonder just how well, in fact, I fit there far too often still. Trueman’s “confessions” deal with both politics and religion, and so what he "confesses" as to one realm very nicely (and uncomfortably) applies to the other. Here are some excerpts from his chapter entitled “Not-So-Fantastic Mr. Fox” under a section entitled “Let’s Use Our God-Given Critical Faculties.” Put away your knife, step away from the fire, and consider:
When it comes to listening to the news, Christians should be eclectic in their approach and not depend merely on those pundits who simply confirm their view of the world while self-evidently using terminology, logic, and standard rules of evidence and argumentation in sloppy, tendentious, and sometimes frankly dishonest ways, such as Mr. Beck and his “welfare means totalitarianism” claims. There is a sense in which we are dependent for our view of the wider world on those media that give us access to the world, so surely it is incumbent on us to make sure that we expose ourselves to a variety of viewpoints on the great issues of the day….
Either human beings are critical creatures, provided with brains that allow them to think for themselves, or they are mere sponge-like receptors who believe whatever they are told by a third party. Biblically speaking, it would seem like the former is the case. Luke, for example, constructed his history by talking with eyewitnesses, and we can presume he used only those sources that he found reliable while discounting the rest. When the Bereans heard the gospel, they searched the Scriptures to see whether the things they heard were so. Critical faculties were engaged in both instances.
When Christianity was starting to penetrate the Roman Empire in the second century, there were a number of thinkers, called by scholars the Greek Apologists, who took it on themselves to argue the case for Christianity in the public square. One of their most powerful arguments was that Christians, far from subverting public order (and that, of course, was, at the time, a profoundly unChristian public order), actually make the very best citizens in terms of hard work, loyalty, and civil obedience. Later, Calvin made essentially the same point in the prefatory letter to his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Today, our obligation is no different: we are called to be good citizens in this world, and in a democratic society, that involves having as many well-thought-out and informed opinions on the things that really matter as time allows. It is incumbent on us not to surround ourselves with things that confirm our prejudices but seek to listen to a variety of viewpoints. The listening is not an end in itself, as so many postmodern conversationalists would have it; the purpose is to become more informed and to have better-grounded and better-argued opinions. But that can happen only when watching the news becomes more than just having our gut convictions continually confirmed.
This is the essence of true Word havering.
He that hath ears…put away the knife and truly hear some different perspectives. You just might learn something. And while you're at it, you just might enjoy picking up Trueman's book.
Bon appetit.
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