In my last post, I pointed out that some evangelical relativists are upholding the belief—through insinuations and at times through assertions—that God’s word can only reach us through human interpretations, at least in what has to do with morals. And since human interpretations are fallible, and therefore doubtful, the Bible offers— according to them—little help regarding moral conclusions. This sort of relativistic approach is growing in popularity and its infectious influence is creeping into numerous churches. Granted, human interpretations are, per se, insufficient to engender valid convictions, the question remains: Is there anything else that can generate them? The answer, together with its explanation, will be the subject of this little article.

The Bible as a description

As I have written elsewhere, the Bible can remain a mere description, and descriptions per se can have no impact on us. For instance, you can have a young man sitting under a tree in Andalusia Spain, when the temperature reaches 48°C, reading a little book describing a mighty snowstorm in Finland on a very cold day. Yet, although he reads about the mighty freezing wind, the hair on his head doesn’t move, and the sweat on his face is still running down. It is so because descriptions can have no impact on us.

Now, let’s say this young man has never seen a snowstorm, not even on television or digital resources. What can he get out of the description? The only thing he can get is the depiction of his imagination. But there lies the problem. If ten other people, having never seen a snowstorm, read the same description, they will all imagine the snowstorm differently. In other words, each one will have their own interpretation. So is there a way out of the maze?

The only way out is to pass from a mere description to the object being described, that is, to pass from an interpretation to a revelation. In the case of the snowstorm in Finland, the readers will have to purchase an airplane ticket, travel to Finland, rent an apartment, and wait for a massive snowstorm to hit the land on a bitterly cold day. Now if they are willing to pay that price, they will eventually find themselves in the midst of a mighty snowstorm. By then, they won’t need to imagine or interpret anything, because they will see the object of the description with their own eyes, and what is seen doesn’t need to be interpreted; it can only be described. Sadly enough, when it comes to the Scriptures, we Christians are often unwilling to pay the price to see the object of the description. Consequently, we are left with scriptures that need to be interpreted to the best of our ability.

The Bible as a map

The Bible can also be compared to a map. The problem with maps is that you cannot drink from their rivers or swim in their lakes. They only show where the rivers and the lakes are. But the marvelous thing with the Bible is that when the reader reads and believes it at the point of obedience, i.e., when he begins to act in accordance with what is written, a miracle takes place. God’s Spirit takes him and transfers him into a real land, namely, the Land of God.
In what follows, I will use an analogy to express some spiritual truths related to the Bible.

The analogy

When God transfers a person from a mere map to the real land of God, the person finds himself, at first, at the bottom of a very high mountain, where Paul, Peter, James, and many others once found themselves. When they were there, they described what they saw. We have these descriptions in the Scriptures. Therefore, the person who finds himself at the bottom of the mountain doesn’t only have these specific descriptions, he actually sees what these men described, i.e., what was not seen has now been shown, revealed, or uncovered. That is completely different than a mere human interpretation. It carries certainty in its wings.

The ascent

Now, the person who finds himself at the bottom of the mountain is called to climb up. At first, the ascent is relatively easy. He can proceed with his heavy backpack, which carries all that is very dear to him. As he climbs, he sees things he could not see at the bottom of the mountain; things the apostles saw and described in the Bible. But since he now sees them, no interpretation is needed, for as I have written earlier, what is seen needs no interpretation.

As he continues the ascent, he eventually comes to a cliff. Soon enough, it dawns on him that he will not be able to continue his ascent if he doesn’t forsake his backpack. But how can he forsake it? It is full of things very precious to him. Here lies the difficult decision. If he doesn’t forsake it, he won’t be able to advance. And if he doesn’t advance, very many scriptures in the Bible will remain mere descriptions, i.e., the objects described will not be seen. The only thing he will be able to do at this point is to imagine the descriptions and reach a personal human interpretation. Therefore, he will be left with no convictions, only human opinions.

Paul’s testimony

The apostle Paul didn’t experience this sort of problem. He climbed the way he did for one reason. Here you have it:

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Phil. 3:8)

Paul reached the heights he did because he had no backpack on his back, so to speak. No wonder he could write:

“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.” (2 Cor. 12:7)

Paul received abundance of revelations because he had made up his mind. It was all or nothing, the summit or absolute uncertainty:

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12–14)

Brethren, there exists an upward call, and it cannot be reached with the heavy load of worldly affairs on our backs. The author of Hebrews seems to point to the same reality when he writes: “let us lay aside every weight” (Heb. 12:1). It is our love for the earthly which often precludes us from revelations, and there we are, left with the uncertainty resulting from human interpretations. Let us not forget, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
It is also interesting to notice that the passage in Philippians 3:12–14, quoted above, is followed by these words:

“Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” (Phil. 3:15)

Here Paul doesn’t write that their hope resided in human interpretations, but rather in divine revelations. The problem today is that the new avant-garde is afraid of revelations. In addition, if someone expresses certainty, i.e., valid convictions obtained through revelations, he is regarded as someone very arrogant.

Now I am not saying new revelations are on the way. What I am saying is that as we ascend, God can reveal to us what is written in the Bible, and this in such a way that there will be no need for dubious human interpretations.

A basic prerequisite

Jesus, understanding the cost of the ascent, has made it clear from the very beginning:

“So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33)

Take note that the word “disciple” means a learner, not an interpreter. The problem today resides in the fact that the conditions of discipleship have been presented to us as optional. Therefore, they are often unmet. So instead of learning, we interpret, and the outcome is the new evangelical confusion which is being rammed into our congregations by the clergical relativists and their followers. This is indeed a disaster.

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