Truth, 9/11, Perception & Biblical Understanding

I've been transitioning into a new role at work, and writing personnel evaluations so I haven't been putting much effort into On My Walk lately. In fact my study time has been next to nil, which I admit is not a good thing.

One thing I have been spending a bit of time on is watching various videos about the 9/11 attacks in the USA and the various theories about what happened that day. I have a view of what happened that day that is based on my perception, and the information I've viewed both accurate and inaccurate. My view of what happened isn't important to this post so I'll leave it out, I really don't want to talk about "What really happened!" on my blog at all.

I'm very interested in how people study the Word of God and in inspiring others to take the highest possible view of Scripture. I truly believe everyone can "know truth and be sure of it!" as I state on the back cover of Fail-Safe For Fallacy, if they but just read the Scriptures and believe them.

There's a bit of a problem though. People are not very good at "finding" truth. We are very good at supporting what we think is true with our perception of various evidence. We all suffer from selective perception, and a tendency to weigh evidence that we can explain within our chosen perception much more heavily than evidence we can't. We are excellent at self deception through the process of agreeing with ourselves.

Fred Lybrand had an interesting thread about how people come to faith last year. I think the discussion could be expanded to include how people understand any type of evidence, be that Scripture or YouTube videos.

You see, I decided to check out the "other position" about 9/11 and watched a number of videos. I felt a familiar emotion rising up in me, fear that maybe I've been wrong and would have to admit it. As I watched the videos I found there were some convincing points being made by the supporters of the "other position." I started to wonder at how easily I could be swayed by media, which led to me being much more critical, and I realized that I was not going to actually be convinced by clever videos to change my mind.

So why do so many people look at 9/11 and see things one way, and many others look at it and see something absolutely different? More importantly why does one group of people look at the Scriptures and see Covenant Theology, NuCalvinism, and Lordship Salvation while another group sees Dispensational Truth (that's the title not an intended slight), Progressive Revelation and Free Grace? Well OK I guess I'm actually more interested in the why those who are wrong (whoever that might be - because the who is wrong is not important for the question) can't seem to see the truth. Why is it?

I think we are victims of our selective perception. We are not very good at finding truth. Truth must be revealed, and once it is revealed it is undeniable. Please note that everyone thinks their theology is "undeniable," therefore it's "undeniability" is not a good test of it's validity.

What do you think? Are we able to find truth? Maybe I have some agreement with "inability" after all...

Why one is, and one is not a Dispensationalist

I decided to take a rare peek in over at Sharper Iron. I found an article that really speaks to my experience with Scripture called Why I'm a Dispensationalist.

I really liked two portions of the article:

I have found that dispensationalism is not a distraction for such men, nor does it deter them from teaching “the weightier matters of the law” Mat 23:23 . Rather, it drives them to perfect their understanding in all areas of theology so that they might build upon the foundation offered by historic, orthodox Christianity with the surpassing glory of dispensational truth.What I found very strange though was how the very next article underneath it on the front page

and

Though he would be horrified at the thought (as Dr. Myron Houghton, my theology teacher, once said), Luther taught me dispensationalism in seed form in my Lutheran grade school religion classes. His emphasis on the distinction between Law and Grace is truly the basis for understanding the Bible dispensationally. It reveals the truth that God has dealt with mankind on the basis of different stewardship responsibilities at different times in history without providing different ways of salvation

I agree with these statements.


What saddened me was to find that right underneath this article was one entitled My Journey Out of Dispensationalism. I'm not saddened because the person disagrees with me, or my theology but because Sharper Iron is entertaining a diversity of doctrines. Two opposites can not be true at the same time as per the Law of Non-Contradiction. Therefore, Sharper Iron is portraying their abandonment of the pursuit of truth.

I think these are two of the more important portions of this article;

My friends have often heard me say, “The more I read my Bible the less dispensational I become.” This statement comes from someone who was spiritually nurtured in churches with dispensational theology, who graduated from a Christian university steeped in dispensational theology, who received his first graduate degree from a dispensational seminary, and who—for twelve years—preached sermons that reflected dispensational theology. For the first sixteen years of my Christian life, I rarely questioned the fundamental distinctions of dispensational theology.

and

As I continued to pastor and preach, I realized that my training in the Old Testament was weak. I decided to pursue a Master of Theology in Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary. My dispensational comrades in ministry assured me that Westminster would ruin my theology. I suppose many of them believe that has happened. Nevertheless, I was drawn to Westminster primarily because Bruce Waltke was teaching there. I had read books and articles by Dr. Waltke and had profited immensely from them.

While at Westminster I had the privilege of learning from Vern Poythress, Tremper Longman, and Raymond Dillard, along with Bruce Waltke. At first I listened as an antagonist, but I was soon won over by their personal graciousness and their commitment to Scripture. I began to experience discomfort as I realized that my commitment to dispensationalism was often unyielding, even when contradicted by the results of exegesis.

If this person's training in the OT was weak, then I submit that he wasn't actually very well trained in the Scriptures. His claims of being so well brought up in Dispensationalism, which appear to be emphasized to give his new convictions more credibility, are surely contradicted by his own admission. As he admits later he "realized that [his] commitment to dispensationalism was often unyielding, even when contradicted by the results of exegesis." This claim makes it clear to me that he was a dispensationalist by association. Those in his sphere were of this theology, and he sat comfortably in that sphere but never actually was dispenstationalist himself.

Dispensational Theology is a whole history, whole Scripture theology. It is a study of God's plan not only for Salvation, but for all of History including Eternity Past and Eternity Future. One may have Dispenstational leanings without being well grounded in OT Scriptures, but one can not honestly say they are truly Dispensational unless they are.

I'm sad to say that after reading these articles I see that Sharper Iron is loosening its grip on the Truth, and the fruit of that is a theology of association. Or in other words, which ever way the wind blows is just fine....