How does one interpret the will of God Almighty; the creator of all?

Question

After all, aren't we but feeble mortals?

Answer 1

The Relation of the Holy Spirit to Interpretation

My preliminary conclusions are offered here. I believe that there are at least seven or eight ways in which the Holy Spirit relates to interpretation. Many of these are overlapping; some folks might want to organize them differently.

1. The Spirit’s work is primarily in the realm of conviction rather than cognition. At the same time, even this area needs some nuancing. One’s convictions do impact one’s perceptions. Thus, it seems that the Holy Spirit may be said to aid our interpretation, even if his role were limited to that of conviction. How?

2. Experiential knowledge has a boomerang effect back on intellectual comprehension. In several areas, to the extent that an interpreter has experienced what is being proposed, he/she can comprehend it. For example, if someone has never been in love, he/she has a more difficult time understanding fully all that romance involves.

3. To the extent that one is disobedient to Scripture, yet respects its authority (at least with his lips), he will twist the text. Cf. 2 Pet 3:15-16. Conversely, to the extent that one is obedient to Scripture, he/she will be in a better position to understand it and deal with it honestly.

4. Sympathy to the biblical author opens up understanding. The most sympathetic exegete is the believer. An unsympathetic interpreter often misunderstands because of the lack of desire to understand. This can easily be illustrated in the political arena. Those who are vigorous about the rightness of a particular party tend to villify all that is in the other party. Even among Christians there is often a “canon within a canon.” That is, some books/authors are respected more highly than others. To the extent that we do not cultivate sympathy for all the authors of Scripture we close ourselves to the full impact of their message.

At the same time, if one is sympathetic to the divine author while ignoring the human author, several tensions in Scripture will be overlooked. Thus, ironically, when inerrancy is paraded along docetic bibliological lines (as it often is today), one’s interpretation is often more a defense of a supposed harmony than an honest investigation into an author’s meaning. Progressive revelation gets flattened out; human authors become mere stenographers. Tensions go unobserved, only to be raised as flat-out contradictions by those who do not have much sympathy for Scripture, leaving evangelicals in a position of having to do damage control. Recognizing the tensions in Scripture as well as the progress of revelation—and that the Bible is both a divine book and a very human book—avoids such problems.

5. Those who embrace in principle a belief in the supernatural are in a better position to interpret both miracles and prophecy. These elements of Scripture simply cannot be treated adequately by non-believers. This goes beyond mere sympathy to world-view. If one steadfastly disbelieves that prophecy can take place, then he will have to explain the prophetic portions of Scripture as other than real predictions. They will either be discredited as unfulfilled or else treated as vaticinium ex eventu (or prophecy after the fact). Miracles also need to be rewritten so as to be demythologized. C. S. Lewis’ critique several decades ago still stands as a valid indictment against this treatment of Scripture: to treat Scripture—especially the NT—as full of fables presupposes a timeline that is demonstrably untrue. The gap from the time of the events to the telling of the tale is simply too short, finding no parallels in any purportedly historical literature. Lewis concludes that those who call the NT fable-filled have never really studied fables. Or as Vincent Taylor, the British NT scholar, noted, to regard the NT documents as full of myth presupposes that all the eyewitnesses must have vanished almost immediately after the events took place. In short, when it comes to miracles and prophecy, the believer is in a far better position to understand the message. This bears some similarities with Jesus’ indictment of the Sadducees for not embracing the resurrection: “You do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

6. The inner witness of the Spirit (cf. Rom 8:16; 1 John 2:20, 27, etc.) is an important factor in both conviction and perception of the central truths of Scripture. From my tentative study, I would say that the Spirit’s witness is an immediate, non-discursive, supra-rational testimony of the truth of the central tenets of the faith. The Spirit convinces us of their truth in an extra-exegetical way. What exactly does he convince us of? Some of these things are: (1) our filial relationship to God; (2) the bodily resurrection of Christ; (3) the humanity of Christ; (4) the bodily return of Christ; (5) the deity of Christ; (6) the nature of salvation as a free gift from God. The Spirit’s testimony may, indeed, be broader than this. But how broad? It is doubtful that the Spirit bears witness to the time it took for God to create the universe, or whether dispensationalism or covenant theology is the better system, or whether inerrancy is true. I doubt that he bears witness to what form of church government is to be preferred, the role of women in leadership, or how to define spiritual gifts. There are so many matters in Scripture that are left for us to examine using the best of our rational and empirical resources! But this does not mean that we cannot come to some fairly firm conclusions about them. It does mean, however, that these are issues that are more peripheral than others regarding salvation. I do believe that these ‘negotiables’ are important areas of investigation. Proper conclusions about many of them (but not all) are necessary for the health of the Church, but are not essential for the life of the Church.

Three final comments on the inner witness of the Spirit: (1) That I have even offered a preliminary taxonomy of doctrine may be startling to some. The alternative is to view all doctrine as of equal importance. But this is problematic historically, exegetically, and spiritually. Such a ‘domino’ view of doctrine results either in unsupportable dogma coupled with smug arrogance, or a crashing of virtually all one’s doctrinal beliefs (because if one falls down, they all fall down). (2) That several areas are apparently not witnessed to by the Spirit does not mean that they are not important. Rather, it means both that the less central they are to salvation and to the health of the Church, the more freedom and tolerance we should allow to those who disagree with us. This requires a measure of humility in such matters—even on issues that are currently hot topics (such as spiritual gifts and the role of women in leadership). Part of the real challenge of grappling with these issues is to determine how much the health of the Church is impacted by our exegetical decisions. But the presentation of one’s findings must always be accompanied by a spirit of charity. Be careful not to elevate your own non-central beliefs to the first level of conviction that is reserved for those truths which the Spirit bears witness to. (3) The inner witness of the Spirit can be suppressed to a degree. One must keep a warm heart toward God (through prayer, worship, community, humility, obedience, etc.) and a nuanced vigilance over the preciousness of these central truths (through study of both the Scriptures and the history of the Church), in order to cultivate the apprehension of the Spirit’s inner witness.

7. General illumination is also an area in which the Spirit helps our interpretation. By general illumination I mean his work in helping us to understand any area of life and the world. This needs more exploration. In general, I believe that the Spirit helps us in clearing our minds as we wrestle with many things—from paying taxes, to finding car keys, to taking exams. Why would we exclude Scripture from this matrix? Certainly Scripture is not outside the purview of the Spirit’s general aid offered to believers. Admittedly, this area of investigation needs more work. My thoughts are merely preliminary.

8. Corporate and historical illumination: Via the whole body of Christ—both in its current manifestation and throughout history—believers have come to understand God’s will and God’s Word better. We dare not elevate either consensus opinion or tradition to the status of infallible authority however! But such areas ought not to be relegated to disdain either. After all, the Holy Spirit did not start with you when he began teaching the Church; he’s been in this business for a few centuries.

Answer 2

Man is the best creator of almighty. He gives the ability to find out the secret only to us. If any one wish and do effort for that will definitely get the result. Nothing is impossible for a human being.

Ofcourse we r feeble but have strong support from the creator. He will bear the weight of all difficulites and make one man successful for his destiny..............

Answer 3

As a Christian, I am somewhat biased, but here goes.

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus has certain experiences that can be used to ascertain God's Will. Read the Gospels and the Book of Acts. They'll be the most help.

Then remember, the Will of God for you is basically; love Him, love others, love yourself and do no harm. Try thinking of will as desire rather than command. God's desire is that you be happy, be fulfilled in your life and remember to say "thank you" for whatever he sends your way.

And NOTHING made in His image is "feeble", pal. We have all the power we need. All we gotta do is ask and we shall receive.

Answer 4

Our interpretation should result in asking God for guidance. There is several different ways that each and every verse in the Bible can be taken, but you should ask God to decipher the meaning that you are seeking and He will show you the way.

Answer 5

God grew to become into created via a mass hallucination of the superstitious. i'm hoping they're going to all spontaneously come to their senses and understand how absurd the completed thought is, sense stupid approximately it with some days, and get on with their lives.

Answer 6

Well, if something bad happens, it was Satan OR god working in mysterious way to teach us a lesson. If it is something good, it is god's work. Since the bible contradicts itself (like thou shall not steal and god asks to steal), just remember god is right for whatever reason comes up to you.

Answer 7

We try the best we can, and in making a world as we are it's caretakers you hope and stay strong in your belief.

In the end only the Almighty knows what your intentions are.

Answer 8

NObody can interpret as nobody knows God's beginning and ending.

Answer 9

I can answer that!!!
Every sinlge person interprets "God's Word" in the way that most suits that individual and his/her needs/desires/short-comings.

Answer 10

That is why to have His own Word and the example of His Son is a tremendous blessing.

Answer 11

Yes, we are, but we have the ability to know the spirit of God....Very few ever follow that path.