The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Anjela Paje of Spokane, WA, from the tape, GC 1301-T, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 22."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1982. All Rights Reserved.

Question

Concerning last week's teaching on the illumination of the Spirit of the scriptures, how do we understand that so many spirit-filled and studious men come up with so many different doctrines?

Answer

Yes, that is a good question. Why is it that good men disagree, right? If it is the Spirit of God who is our teacher. Okay. Let me tell you. And, this is hard to clarify in a simple way, but look at this: We are all going to be wrong somewhere because we lack perfection. True? I know I have errors in my theology. I just don't know where they are. If I knew where they were, I would change them. I am working real hard, and I believe everything I say. I really do, and I preach it that way. Don’t you get the idea that I really believe what I say? Now, I know that I am imperfect, and so, to start with, no one person is the repository of all divine truth. And, I say that to say this: That all of us are made, to some extent, incapacitated because of our humanness. And, so, there will be times, for example, when we are working on a passage, when we are interpreting a passage, that it will go into our permanent file and we have done less than adequate scholarship on that passage. And, so, that part of what we have done may not be truly representative of what that text teaches.

So, you are dealing,

1) With the human element.

2) The reason there is disagreement is because of background and presuppositions. In other words, men are raised in a certain environment with certain definitions and parameters in life and certain presuppositions. The hardest thing in Bible study is to divorce yourself from all your presuppositions and take every text purely on its own merit. We tend to go into the text with all of our preconceived ideas and then fit this thing into the system that is already been developed. Rather than to keep the system open enough to take what that thing says.

3) I think, there is a very important reason why good men don't agree and that is because many good men don't really dig deep enough. And, they are too superficial. And, if they really were faithful to dig with great diligence, they would find themselves coming together much more than they do. And, that is important.

4) The fourth reason that good men do not agree is because some text are obscure and difficult to interpret. And, since you can't really be utterly, absolutely dogmatic about them, there is room for latitude at that point. But, the thing that is so wonderful in all of this is that those who represent the word of God and who believe the word of God and who teach the word of God as the word of God and who love the Lord Jesus Christ will have differences, but they will inevitably be peripheral differences. The core of the main line of God’s revealed truth will be there. See. And, the differences will come through their background, through their scholarship, adequate or inadequate, through their presuppositions, through their diligence or lack of it, through the fact that this text does not have enough information for us to really know...for example, we were talking about the baptism for the dead in 1 Corinthians 15. But, I think, that good men, basically, agree right down the line. I stand in a historic context. I am basically teaching you what has been the main line doctrine of the church since Jesus Christ. And, I haven't deviated from that. Oh, there may be some passages where I will go off a little bit here and there from somebody else’s teachings, but the heart and soul of the message of the word of God is intact. And, the other reasons that I gave you will explain why those variations appear. Really, what we need to do is work harder and get rid of our preset presuppositions. That really helps.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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