It was too sad to be funny – and too true.
You see, last week I was talking to a bunch of guys about the rapture (yelp, that can of worm) and I mentioned some cultural and historical references that the 1st-century church in Thessalonica would have known about concerning Paul’s statements. The overwhelming response that I received was – in my words:
Culture and historical references are not valid with Biblical prophecies because only the spiritual mind can understand the things of the Bible.
You can guess my response – granted, I did hold back most of the…umm…not some Biblical words.
Seriously – I mean, hello?!
One of the first rules of Biblical hermeneutics is to look at the “history and culture surrounding the authors.” You do not create church doctrine bases simply upon the printed text – you have to look at the full context of the scriptures to see what the author was meaning.
Granted, there will be times when someone reading the text will not have access to the historical and cultural knowledge surrounding the Biblical text in question. In those times, we just have to trust the Spirit to guide them into truth.
Yet, when the Lord has provided us with access to the information – we should consider it.
[@more@]This does not mean, however, that we should throw out parts of the text because they are un-scientific or that we should stop prayerful considering the verses. By no means are we to throw out the “spiritual” – instead we are to look at all the information surrounding the text, pray, and see what God tells us.
For example, I was listening to a Christian radio talk show about burial and cremation. This isn’t something that any of us want to think about, but as death is inevitable, choosing to click here to learn about cremation services, for example, might be better done sooner rather than later, especially if a loved one has recently passed.
The host started off good, recognizing that the Bible does not condemn or support either burial practice. However, he then went off the deep end saying that the Bible strongly points towards in the ground burial vs cremation.
Why? Because that is what Abraham did – what happened to Moses and Jesus….It seems that this radio host has never heard of a historical book describing the cultural practices of the day and age in which it was written. Hello! Just because the people four thousand years ago buried their dead in a tomb does not mean it is “Biblical” or “Biblically recommended” to have my body buried in a tomb. Sigh…
Wait – I’m not done yet.
You see, this whole idea of “you must read the Bible through spiritual eyes and not through the historical and cultural context of the author” sticks me as very postmodern.
Yeah. Postmodern.
One of the main foundations of the Postmodern movement is that the meaning of anything is determined by the reader. Or in other words, it does not matter why you wrote something – all meaning it at the whim of the person who reads it.
Sound familiar? It should. Because that is what we are doing when we ignore the historical and cultural views of the Biblical author and the audience to whom it was written.