The good news of our age is that information is king. Knowledge rules. So by desktop, smartphone, or tablet, we have instant global access to the exploding journalistic, scientific, and commercial data of the world—sort of.
The challenge is that we have a bit of an issue getting past the unnerving discovery that every question seems to have alternative answers, each of which uses the available data to support a different economic theory, biblical interpretation, or political agenda.
From ancient times the problem has always been that only fools dismiss the need for knowledge and understanding. Yet, who can deny that the Solomons of the world too often end up making late night comedians sound like the real wise guys.
The Apostle Paul probably seems more prophetic now than in the day that he wrote about those who were always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2Tim 3:7). He had seen the way the Greek philosophers and intellectual gossips of Mars Hill were obsessed with being at a place where they could always hear or say something new (Acts 17:21).
Have been wondering what he would think about my approach to Bible study, doctrine, and theology?
Seems that I’ve been around long enough now to see that any part of the Bible can be done to know Christ, his love, his joy, what hurts him, and why I need him– now (Phil 3:8-11). Or, as too often has been the case, I can use any study of any part of the Bible in worship of the data gods, with the result that I may be the last to see what others are probably suspecting—that it’s been awhile since I’ve been with Christ (1Cor 13:1-3).