Point of View

While I was driving along the road on the weekend, I thought to myself that it isn't really possible for anyone to convey a meaning he wants, about anything, and to make sure it can't be taken the wrong way, just by picking the right words.

Nearly always, a particular point of view on the words is needed too, in order for their intent to be grasped. Otherwise, without the right point of view on the words, someone can easily mistake what's meant.

That's nearly always the case - it's just how language works! How much more when it's an ancient manuscript we're considering, such as the Bible.

The thing is: even when we think we're not reading with a point of view, we are. A Lutheran person once protested to me that it's unnecessary to seek to understand Paul's writings in light of any particular worldview or backstory Paul may have had - because Paul's inspired words stand on their own right. And yet by not taking Paul's point of view into consideration he unknowingly was actually imposing another point of view, his own, onto it!

Reading words without a point of view, is unavoidable. What's important then, is to read them with the right point of view - the point of view of the writer!

I decided to put my idea to the test, on some of the most fundamental statements in the Bible, that:

"...Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (I Corinthians 15:3,4).

All sounds simple enough - yet without the right point of view even that can be (and has been) misconstrued.

For example, there are different points of view on the word 'death', some saying Jesus not only died physically, but also spiritually; while others insist He only died physically, but not spiritually.

Or some have the point of view that 'resurrection' is just a pretty way of talking about the existence of the soul after death; while others insist it meant the resurrection of the body.

Even if words were added to the statements in order to ensure a particular conclusion to those questions, it still might leave other questions unanswered.

Point of view matters - because whole systematic theologies have been read into the Bible either way!

That's why, in the verses above, Paul said twice:

"...according to the scriptures..." (verse 3);

"...according to the scriptures" (verse 4).

It helped set the point of view! It provided the backstory. The worldview in which the statements were to be understood.

Doing this discipline is particularly important for us when considering the topic of 'election' in the Bible, particularly in Romans 9-11.

Unless we seek to understand it in light of its place in the overall flow of the Epistle; and in light of the story in which Paul himself lived; his mindset, point of view and worldview, it's possible to (and has been!) mildly to severely misconstrued.

Very often the passage is approached with the mindset that existed in the Synod of Dort in the early 1600s where Calvinists summoned Arminians over specific questions - looking for statements which might be about those same questions. That's a 'point of view' - and it can affect how we understand the passage.

But in writing it, Paul had his own point of view!

He used definitions of terms which were well-known in his own time but which may or may not have had the same connotations in later centuries;

He was answering specific sets of questions, which incidentally weren't the same as the questions being debated at Dort;

He was dealing with stated issues, first century issues, not 17th century ones;

He was going somewhere, at this point in his Epistle;

And all of it fit neatly in his own life and career-objectives.

So when Paul spoke about 'election', I don't think he was making some standalone point about why some individuals get saved while others don't. I think he was doing something quite different.

I think he was celebrating the essential unity which the gospel achieved for Gentiles and Jews;

He was addressing specific first-century misconceptions about the gospel which could have undermined that unity;

He gave the theological basis for that unity;

And after it was all said and done, the passage ends-up with Paul inviting Gentiles and Jews to join him in praising God - not for some strange Sovereign characteristic which predestines most people to damnation - but for God's GOODNESS, as it unfolded in the cross of JESUS Christ!