The other day, I had this observation:
It seems like the majority of the time, Charismaniac preachers base their sermons out of the Old Testament. They base their teachings about tithing and giving out of the Old Testament. They rationalize their millionaire lifestyles by using themes and passages from the Old Testament.
They neglect what the New Testament has to say about humility, servanthood, and loving worldly goods.
BUT…
When they prophesy, these same Charismaniac dudes (and dudettes) are lightning-quick to declare that Old Testament rules and regulations for prophets do not apply to them. They will not be held to Old Testament standards for truth or accuracy. They invoke what they see as New Testament protection for mistakes as they exercise their ”prophetic” gifts.
What’s wrong with this picture?
It’s simply cherry-picking in the Bible. I believe that all Christians have done it or currently do it to some extent, and not just Charismaniacs. When we try to support our pet doctrines we tend to use only the verses that help us and ignore all the verses that may contradict our idea(s). We even ignore the context in which many of the verses are written. And it’s extremely difficult to avoid because we must use the standard of the entire Bible, treated as one continuous story of God’s justice, redemption, and grace, to bring all verses into the context of truth. Otherwise, we turn the the Bible into disconnected parts that have nothing to do with each other; truth can not be ambiguous. There should be no dichotomy between the Old Testament and New Testament. Since the law was fulfilled in Christ, and in Christ we have the law of love and the standard of His Lordship, the Old and New Testaments are centered upon Christ and can not and should not have dichotomy. Christ is truth and the Bible is an inerrant witness to Christ, therefore we are held to the standard of the entire Bible. How can we have a solid foundation when we treat the Bible as the secular world does: sporadic disconnected verses.
I have been aware for a long time that much of the doctrine and practice in charismania couldn’t exist if OT teaching wasn’t taken out of context and NT teaching ignored. I think this type of theology is an extreme example of what David referred to cherry-picking in the Bible.
Exegesis is so important. While we all face our human limitations on the Scriptures, we must due what we can to correctly interpret the Scriptures. This is not easy and requires patience, reading, and seeking to understand the all of a passage and not just what we are reading in that one place.
Good post.
Hey, Seeking…
Thanks for your comment!
I agree, exegesis is important.