dawny0826 said:
Gotta love the warm and fuzzies.
I really am "with you" when you get the warm and fuzzies by praying and reading the Bible. Unfortunately, you really have no clue what it
really means unless you engage in some kind of critical study, be it following the steps of text criticism, translation, grammatical exegeis, and historical exegsis. You don't live in the first century (for the NT), so there is no way that you can understand what it means unless you understand the first century Mediterranean world, which is a far FAR cry from our world.
Not much is the same. We are human beings. On planet earth. End of comparison.
The thing is that God can work in our lives when we seek God, and work in our hearts and lives even when we can't understand what the Scripture actually says. Interpretation is a science and an art, and it is reserved for those who actually do the work of interpretation.
Watching TV is an act of interpretation, and you can understand it because it is a part of your historical context. Go to another country and watch TV, and you'll have a hard time actually understanding it no matter how warm and fuzzy you feel.
Praying to interpret Scripture is like praying to understand a TV show in another language in a foreign country. The langauge and all of the customs are completely foreign and you honestly have no clue what is going on, but God can go on with his work anyway.
With the Bible in English, we have the TV script only. The gestures, the context, the dynamics, the layers of cultural meanings that have dramatic impact on interpretation are not present. These issues are critical and must be considered if one is to actually interpret the Bible.
Otherwise, we are just saying what makes us feel warm and fuzzy.
Beer and pizza make me warm and fuzzy too.