tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post5359027587022728389..comments2024-03-28T00:17:55.823+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: How do we know if someone understands The Bible?Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-31455351988398438612013-01-15T17:04:19.265+00:002013-01-15T17:04:19.265+00:00@BB - I think this is right - but what I'm say...@BB - I think this is right - but what I'm saying here is that it is primarily a matter of the *story* being concealed/ revealed, rather than the abstract truths or lessons. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-41386527334498144072013-01-15T15:53:13.398+00:002013-01-15T15:53:13.398+00:00I hope I don’t say something stupid or heretical b...I hope I don’t say something stupid or heretical but here goes:<br />I think the way to understand the Bible is to relate everything to the core Christian truth, that is, the incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. So every story can be seen as pointing to this. This is particularly true when trying to understand the Old Testament: “The Old is the New concealed, the New is the Old revealed” as someone told me.<br /> I like the way that David Bentley Hart explains it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlYXohl0szo<br />He says (The Old Testament) “serves as a spiritual text to the degree that the mind of Christians read it and allegorize it in relation to the truth that is revealed in Christ.”<br />Which, of course, isn’t the same as saying the each story IS an allegory.<br />I don’t see why New Testament stories (parables in particular) can’t be understood in the same way so this principle seems to apply to the whole Bible. He seems to claim that this is how the ancient Church did it.<br />Bruce B.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-88060587931927819572013-01-12T05:44:25.574+00:002013-01-12T05:44:25.574+00:00I love the analogy of music and larger and smaller...I love the analogy of music and larger and smaller elements incorporated into the themes of salvation history and of God and humans, His putative sons.<br /><br />St. Augustine (and many of the Church doctors) was a master at showing Christ in nearly any passage of the OT.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11373499755338709217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-49051055362441508722013-01-10T09:44:40.058+00:002013-01-10T09:44:40.058+00:00@WmJas - I have thought of an example (and realize...@WmJas - I have thought of an example (and realize that MLJ, being a Calvinist, does tend towards abstraction rather than narrative in his expositions). <br /><br />The parable of the Prodigal Son. <br /><br />As a story, going upwards, or taking a larger scale view - it is embedded in the larger story of the Gospel of Luke - which is itself embedded in the New Testament, and the Bible as a whole.<br /><br />So, the parable as a whole is a microcosm of the Bible/ Testament/ Gospel as a whole (and is, in fact, intended to be taken as such). (Of course, each microcosm is not identical, nor intended to be idential - rather, variations on a theme.) <br /><br />Going downwards (or moving into close-up) the Parable is encapsulated in several places, for example the final two verses:<br /><br />Luke 15: 31: And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32: It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.<br /><br />And these could be reduced to the aphorism: "This thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."<br /><br />...which, in a sense, encapsulates the whole Bible. <br /><br />The aphorism is the minimum unit of narrative.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-71671929265367836572013-01-10T08:04:27.819+00:002013-01-10T08:04:27.819+00:00@WmJas - that isn't really what this blog is a...@WmJas - that isn't really what this blog is about. If I went into specific detail, people would not read the whole post. <br /><br />But the specific examples would be simply examples of great preaching (and therefore beyond my own abilities): the best sermons of Martyn Lloyd Jones, for instance.<br /><br />http://www.mljtrust.org/ Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-57559439698698263982013-01-10T06:39:43.158+00:002013-01-10T06:39:43.158+00:00Some specific examples would be very helpful.Some specific examples would be very helpful.Wm Jashttp://wmjas.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com