Discernment for Life – Purpose is Structure
My purpose as set forth in the Bible, “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil,” (Hebrews 5:14 ESVST). The Bible will be the final authority on all things in our blog. However, when I say the Bible I mean the Bible in the original languages using the Normative Hermeneutical Exegetic technique along the lines as taught by largely through the examples of Christ and Paul. A sincere attempt should be made to avoid the Eisegetical technique, reading one’s meaning into Scripture rather than understanding the meaning from Scripture. Eisegesis usually begins with the phrases, “I think”, “I believe” or “people say”. Exegesis usually begins with, “the Scripture says” or “it is written in the Bible” and so forth.
Discernment, as defined by the above verse, is the practice of distinguishing good from evil in order to accept the good and reject the evil (as defined by the Bible and not current societal demands or fads). This is a call to exercise judgement. Not as a judicial pronouncement which passes sentence for this role is reserved for God alone. Believers are called to make a choice, a decision, between good and evil and this necessarily involves making a judgement. A decision to accept or reject is in fact a judgement call, in this case based on the Bible.
There will necessarily be honest disagreements in the interpretation of Scripture and the application of Scripture to current events. This is to be expected for a variety of reasons. A reasoned dissenting opinion is appreciated; however, responses that involve the following will be deleted:
- Screaming diatribes
- Profanity ladened responses rather than a reasonable use of the English language
- Logical fallacies in place of reasoned responses
- Silliness or disruptive responses simple for the purpose of creating “noise”
- Christian blogs seem to attract those elements whose sole purpose is to attack beliefs which are not their own in order to crash the site, these will be eliminated
Since this is my first blog and my first entry I expect that I will learn a bit more about how to do this properly so if everything looks and feels a bit rough it is because this is my first attempt. I pray your indulgence as I go through this learning process.
Sincerely,
Dr. Leon L. Sanders