I grew up in a denomination where “proof-texting” became a way of life. The Bible concordance, it seems, has been one of the most misused and abused tools in the last 100 years. It gave birth to a generation who made “cut and paste” theology almost an art form.
Now the concordance has its place and used correctly can be a most valuable asset.
I have observed something at work in my life In that I have a strong propensity towards biases in fact my own biases influence almost everything I do and say. I have a book in front of me The Journey of Life- finding your true self some people will not read this book because the words true self are on the front cover, now if we judge a whole book based on just two words what happens when we read chapters even whole books of the Bible.
As Richard Rohr points out there are nine levels in which we can understand things and we all find ourselves on one of those levels and if I communicate something from the fourth level and it is interpreted by someone at the first level misunderstandings will prevail- all the time thinking that they have understood what it is I am communicating. One such example happened recently when I preached about the love of God. At no point during this talk did I make any reference to any wrath or anger or judgment yet afterwards- when speaking with a women- she felt condemned and judged.
All to often the concordance has been used as a way of ending and not opening conversation and all to often, due to our own “internal buffers” we cannot conceive of ourselves being “biased” that happens with those other people, in particular those non-christian people.
In the cold light of day I now see that and I went looking for verses to support my biases but at the time I called them beliefs.
In the seventies and early eighties I remember seeing that bumper sticker God said it, I believe it, that settles it looking back now I think it should have read I believe it, and God says it, that ends it of course it was always purely good fortune that God happened to “see things” the same way as I did.
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