July 18, 2007
Inferiority
I’ve often heard older preachers and teachers jokingly say to their audience, “You have a right to disagree and be wrong it you want.” While we laugh at the statement, the truth is few will openly disagree with them in a class setting. The average person in the pew may suffer from a self-imposed inferiority complex when confronted with those who have Bible College credentials. I remember when I began shaking off the shackles of Biblical inferiority. A friend in my Bible study called and asked me to help her find a particular passage of Scripture. She could have called the pastor or the teacher, but she called me. What a compliment – both to me and my trusty concordance.
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Gail;
-----I remember when I was in high school, it seemed to me like there was a big sociological push to mind your own niche in life and let the experts tell you everything else. Then as the complexities of life have grown, our separate niches have been whittled away to tiny cubbyholes. Although I know I need experts, I resent the intrusion they make into my life from every angle. If I want to build shed, I have to go get a building permit to make sure I build it their way of right. If I want to ride my bicycle, they shove a helmet in my face. When I‘m working on my Bronco II, I can‘t reach through the door, move the shift lever to neutral, and bump the starter to roll the engine a bit. I must crawl into the driver’s seat and put the clutch in for the starter to activate. The experts now lock the car doors for you, make sure you’ve pressed the brake before engaging then transmission, turn their lights out for you after you’ve parked, and some of them even tried to latch your seat belts for you. It seems anymore that some expert always has to have a part in what you do.
-----But this attitude is not new in the church. We all know the Catholic Church of the Medieval times forbade the commoner to read the Bible. It was too above them. Eventually, for a time, the wine became off limits to the commoner at communion, he might spill it. And we are all too familiar with the expert demand for the old “new church paradigm.”
-----I understand the need for experts and expertise. There is far, far more I do not know than I do know. And I often have to go find an expert to help me with an issue. But that is usually when there is only one right answer to the issue. Many aspects of our equipment, homes, and toys are not generally very forgiving about how they are used and repaired. But our Lord and His Word are. I believe that there is one absolute right way of understanding every issue in the Bible. And every one of those right ways is knowable by man. But no man is going to know them all; I doubt if any man is going to know most of them. The Lord knows me and tolerates my error because He loves me. He does that for you, too.
-----So I can feel free to place a higher or lower tolerance level on the accuracy of my understanding, as long as it fits within the tolerance level allowed by His Word. I am glad to have those around who have required such an exacting tolerance on their need to know and understand that they have pursued a Bible College education. I am more glad to have those around who have had even a tighter tolerance level, and therefore, committed their lives to studying issues thoroughly themselves. But what always seems most to bring alive my thoughts on an issue are not the carefully educated, historically connected insights of the experts, as much as the practical, been there done that insights of the experienced. They are all around us in our common brethren, and they are useful in their places. After all, facing a situation begging to become an experience is generally why most people need to know answers to issues. And to them, accomplishment will do, because perfection must await the return of the Lord.
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