19.7.12

My Final Authority

Back up. Rewind. In the South when a comment may not mean what we think we heard, sometimes we ask "Come again?" meaning please repeat that, surely I misunderstood.

A few years ago I didn't know what a blog was. Now I read more and more of them as I've become part of several online communities and even real life friends and I share with each other through our blogs.

But yesterday I read something that made me pause and realize I had read the same concept twice this week without questioning. And I am "Ms. What if" who looks at things from uncommon perspectives. I realized I had slipped into the comfortable friendship with two truly unknown to me blog friends, and I was conversing with them in a way that could be interpreted as me agreeing with their views.

This way of communicating without the emotions of faces is a tricky thing. I learned that soon after I began e-mailing. In real life I joke and smile and it is pretty obvious when I am serious and when I'm just kidding. But the written word has a way of stripping emotions and just sharing facts.

So yesterday I read right over the words of a blogger sharing a personal conviction and why she believed it, but that she wasn't going to use an often quoted Scripture from Deuteronomy to back up her stance as we (that collective we that I was letting her include me in) don't follow everything Deuteronomy says. I kept reading and agreeing with most of what she shared though still disagreeing with the main argument that was the whole purpose of her blog post. But then I started to realize how much weight I'd been giving to other bloggers. Snippets shared, comments of agreement. Don't get me wrong, I have some close blogging friends, but they should never be turned to before God's Word as my authority. And that instance just happened to make me realize that was the second time that day I had read a persuasive argument that dismissed God's Word.

God's Word is my final authority. (Tweet that comment.)

Study the Scripture for yourself! Examine God's Word to determine if what you are reading on a blog or anywhere else holds up to that truth. It is so easy to be misled.

So this morning I began reading Deuteronomy again, interestingly enough the different verses cited by both bloggers as oft quoted but not to be used in their arguments were from that same book. I see that it is a book of God's law. I study about Jesus and the veil ripping, but I can't make myself believe that that means all old testament law is to be thrown out the window. I don't have all the answers and won't pretend to. But I do know this- God's Word should be our final authority. So while you still won't find argumentative comments from me in your blog as I run from arguments, you will find me standing up for God's Word. What about you?
Jennifer

8 comments:

  1. Very well written. It is so easy, I think, to get caught up in the 'conversation' of blogs that sometimes we forget {*we* here doesn't necessarily mean 'you and I' *wink*} to move beyond their words and see what the truth of it all is. Like you said so well- "God's Word is my final authority."
    This is something that has been on my mind lately but I couldn't have put it into words near as well as you have done here.

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  2. So true Jennifer. We have to be very careful.

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  3. So true. We have to be careful when we are reading to be discerning and go to the Bible ourselves.

    BTW, you've stumbled upon an interesting disagreement among Christians. There are some that think that the entire law was abolished by Christ. Anytime someone says they shouldn't do something, they say that they're not under the law.
    Then there are others who see the wrong in that, but have tried to go back to obeying all the Jewish law (except for the sacrifices. I haven't heard of anyone doing that.). I've had a lot of confusion over this myself. My understanding is somewhere in the middle. With Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, the ceremonial law was abolished because he completed it. But the moral law was not. The moral law is unchangeable. The moral law is summarized by the 10 Commandments. Now the really sticky part is determining which part is the moral law and which is the ceremonial law.

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  4. Great post, Jennifer. God's Word must be our final absolute authority, because without that we have no foundation!

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  5. Interesting. Your post makes me want to know whose blog you were reading... I agree with your final analysis of where your final authority should come from. I guess it is good that reading blogs is making you think these things through right?

    Amy B

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  6. Interesting. Your post makes me want to know whose blog you were reading... I agree with your final analysis of where your final authority should come from. I guess it is good that reading blogs is making you think these things through right?

    Amy B

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  7. It wasn't yours, Amy, though I do read it, too. One was a much larger blog and the other I linked to from a friend's blog. I wanted to make people think though instead of pointing fingers.

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