Keith characterizes it
in this way:
“the Scriptures
display a fundamental unity
that allows this
kind of typological and intertextual
play within
the bounds of this grand story of redemption”
(31).
Keith meant to say that there are many TYPES
or TUPOS in Scripture.
Keith
means that there are several copies of a DOCTRINE
in many sources. Paul said that he taught
the same things in all of the churches.
The
SPIRIT is the UNDERSTANDING of the BLACK text: when yo
understand the SPIRIT of the Declaration of
Independance, you cannot dispose of the LETTER.
You know the SPIRIT only by reading the LETTER.
Any Greek kid in Corinth would have understood that:
only the false prophets claimed to understand the
SPIRIT (meaning) of a sealed envelope without reading
the LETTER. Of course, like Tel-evangelists the
literate knew that they opened the sealed envelope and
peeked.
One
of the parts of education for all important people at
the time was RHETORIC:
Rhetoric of
Aristotle commentary
1.13.14 If then it be
thus impossible to determine all these particular and
exceptional cases, and yet there is a necessity for
legislation,
the law must
be expressed in general terms;
so that if a man
wearing an iron ring lift his hand (to threaten) or
strike another,
by the written law (the letter of the
law) he is liable (to the penalty), and has committed
a crime,
but in truth and
in fact he is not guilty of a crime,
and herein (touto,
in this fair interpretation of the act) lies equity’.
1.13.15 If then equity be such as we have
described it, it is plain what sort of things (i.e.
charges, imputed crimes) are equitable (i.e. suitable
for equitable treatment), and the reverse, and what
sort of men are not equitable’.
And hence to the end of the
chapter we have an analysis of the popular objects of
equitable treatment,
and the
characteristics of it, or of the absence of it,
the negative
which may be inferred from the positive, in these
subjects.
17—18. ‘And to look (in
interpreting the offence and the amount of the
penalty), not to the law, but to the legislator, and
not to the mere words (the letter) of the law, but to
the mind (the intention) of the legislator’
‘Vexed
at this, and thinking life intolerable at the price,
he is said to have ventured to propose a law,
LETTER: that if
any one deprived a one-eyed man of an eye, he should
lose both his own in return, that the loss of each
might be equalized’.
SPIRIT: This is a
case of epieikeia, the
spirit of the law rectifying the imperfection
of the letter. Rhet. I 13. 13--19.
The epiekeia or the SPIRIT of the
law is
Epieikeia A.reasonableness. 2.
. equity, opp. strict law, 3. . 2.. equity, opp. strict
law of persons, reasonableness, fairness, Charity ,
2 Cor 10:1, II.. personified, Clemency,
Plu.Caes.57.
merciful indulgent consideration, remembers
only the benefits and forgets the injuries; remembers
kindnesses received, forgets those that it has bestowed
2Cor. 10:1 Now I Paul
myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness
[spirit] of Christ,
who in presence
am base among you, but being absent am bold toward
you:
G1932 epieikeia From G1933 ; suitableness, that is,
(by implication) equity, mildness:—clemency,
gentleness.
THE LAW is also the same as THE
FLESH
2Cor. 10:2 But I beseech you, that I may not be bold
when I am present with that confidence,
wherewith I
think to be bold against some,
which think of
us as if we walked according to the flesh.
2Cor. 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do
not war after the flesh:
2Cor. 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, [lifeless instruments]
but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Example of Epieikeia (spirit)
Isocrates. [34] For
this law-suit difiers so greatly from other private
suits in this respect that, while the latter are of
concern to the litigants only, in this private law-suit
common interests of the city are likewise at stake. In
trying this case you are bound by two oaths: one is the
customary judicial oath which you take in all ordinary
cases, and the other is that oath which you swore when
you ratified the covenant of Amnesty. If in render
an unjust verdict in this case, you will be violating
not only the laws of the city, but also the laws
common to all men. Consequently, it is not fitting
that your votes should be based upon favor, or upon mere
equity, nor upon anything else than upon the oaths you
took when you made the covenant of Amnesty.
Irenaeus knew that
everyone reads the text against the background of a hypothesis,
which norms what
the text can mean or gives boundaries
to the meaning of a text.
THIS IS DECEPTIVE:
Irenaeus is speaking of unclear PARABLES
http://www.pineycom.com/FathIrenaHerII.html#P7131_1850249
For, if
this be not done, both he who explains them will do so
without danger, and the parables will receive a like
interpretation from all, and the body [veritatis corpus] of truth
remains entire, with a harmonious adaptation of its
members, and without any collision [of its several
parts]. But to apply expressions which are not clear
or evident to interpretations of the parables, such as
every one discovers for himself as inclination leads
him, For in this way no one will possess
the rule of truth; but in accordance with the number
of persons who explain the parables will be found the
various systems of truth, in mutual opposition to each
other, and setting forth antagonistic doctrines, like
the questions current among the Gentile philosophers.
Belgic Confession Article 2: The
Means by Which We Know God
We know God by two means:First, by the creation,
preservation, and government of the universe, since that
universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in
which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to
make us ponder the invisible things of God: God’s
eternal power and divinity, as the apostle Paul says in
Romans
1:20.All these things are enough to convict humans
and to leave them without excuse.
Second, God makes himself known to us more clearly by his
holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for
God’s glory and for our salv
ation.
2.
According to this course of procedure, therefore, man
would always be inquiring but never finding, because
he has rejected the very method of discovery. And when
the Bridegroom comes, he who has his lamp untrimmed,
and not burning with the brightness of a steady light,
is classed among those who obscure the interpretations
of the parables, forsaking Him who by His plain
announcements freely imparts gifts to all who come to
Him, and is excluded from His marriage-chamber. Since,
therefore, the entire Scriptures, the prophets, and
the Gospels, can be clearly, unambiguously, and
harmoniously understood by all, although all do not
believe them; and since they proclaim that one only
God, to the exclusion of all others, formed all things
by His word, whether visible or invisible, heavenly or
earthly, in the water or under the earth, as I have
shown from the very words of Scripture; and
since the very system of creation to which we belong
testifies, by what falls under our notice, that one
Being made and governs it,-those persons will seem
truly foolish who blind their eyes to such a clear
demonstration, and will not behold the light of the
announcement [made to them]; but they put fetters upon
themselves, and every one of them imagines, by means
of their obscure interpretations of the parables, that
he has found out a God of his own. For that there is
nothing whatever openly, expressly, and without
controversy said in any part of Scripture respecting
the Father conceived of by those who hold a contrary
opinion, they themselves testify, when they maintain
that the Saviour privately taught these same things
not to all, but to certain only of His disciples who
could comprehend them, and who understood what was
intended by Him through means of arguments, enigmas,
and parables. They come, [in fine, ] to this, that
they maintain there is one Being who is proclaimed as
God, and another as Father, He who is set forth as
such through means of parables and enigmas.
Irenaeus uses hypothesis in connection with the pagans.
Irenaeus Against Heresies Book I
For if he has named the Father, and
Charis, and Monogenes, and Aletheia, and Logos, and Zoe, and Anthropos, and Ecclesia, according
to THEIR HYPOTHESIS, he has, by
thus speaking, referred to the primary Ogdoad, in which there was as yet no
Jesus, and no Christ, the teacher of John. But that the apostle did not speak
concerning their conjunctions, but concerning our Lord
Jesus Christ, whom he also acknowledges as the Word of
God, he himself has made evident. For, summing up his
statements respecting the Word previously mentioned by
him, he further declares, "And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us." But, according to
HYPOTHESIS,
the Word did not become flesh at all, inasmuch as He
never went outside of the Pleroma, but that Saviour
[became flesh] who was formed by a special
dispensation [out of all the Aeons], and was of later
date than the Word
For, since
Logos, and Monogenes, and Zoe, and Phoµs, and Sorer,
and Christus, and the Son of God, and He who became
incarnate for us, have been proved to be one and the
same, the Ogdoad which they have built up at once
falls to pieces. And when this is destroyed, their
whole system sinks into ruin,-a system which they
falsely dream into existence, and thus inflict injury
on the Scriptures, while they build up THEIR
own HYPOTHESIS.
4. Then, again,
collecting a set of expressions and names scattered
here and there [in Scripture], they twist them, as
we have already said, from a natural to a non-natural
sense. In so doing, they act like those who bring
forward any kind of HYPOTHESIS
they fancy, and then endeavour to support 127 them out of the poems of
Homer, so that the ignorant imagine that Homer actually
composed the verses bearing upon THAT
HYPOTHESIS,
which has, in fact, been but newly constructed; and many
others are led so far by the regularly-formed sequence
of the verses, as to doubt whether Homer may not have
composed them. Of this kind 128 is the following passage,
where one, describing Hercules as having been sent by
Eurystheus to the dog in the infernal regions, does so
by means of these Homeric verses,-for there can be no
objection to our citing these by way of illustration,
since the same sort of attempt appears in both:-
hupotithēmi
set before one, offer, suggest, propose
to oneself as a task, make up one's mind, adopt
as a policy, propose to oneself as a subject of
discussion or argument, assume as a
preliminary, establish as a preliminary, premise
after
deciding in your own minds,
Irenaeus Against Heresies Book
I 2.
Thus it is that, wresting from the truth every one
of the expressions which have been cited, and
taking a bad advantage of the names, they have
transferred them to their own system; so that,
according to them, in all these terms John makes
no mention of the Lord Jesus Christ. For if he has
named the Father, and Charis, and Monogenes, and
Aletheia,
and Logos, and
Zoe, and
Anthropos, and Ecclesia, according to THEIR HYPOTHESIS
, he has, by thus speaking, referred to the
primary Ogdoad,
in which there was as yet no Jesus, and no
Christ, the teacher of John.
But that the
apostle did not speak concerning their conjunctions,
but concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he also
acknowledges as the Word of God, he himself has made
evident. For, summing up his statements respecting
the Word previously mentioned by him, he further
declares, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us." But, according to THEIR
HYPOTHESIS,
the Word did not become flesh at all, inasmuch as He
never went outside of the Pleroma, but that Saviour
[became flesh] who was formed by a special
dispensation [out of all the Aeons], and was of
later date than the Word.
Received through
catechism, baptism, and liturgy, the church wears the Regula
Fidei
as a set of glasses
through which Scripture is read,
and with this lens
even the illiterate
are able to
discern between the illegitimacy of the Gnostic hypothesis
and the truth of the received
narrative
http://www.pineycom.com/Irenaeus.Demonstration.of.Apostolic.Preaching.html
3. Now, that we may not suffer
ought of this kind, we must needs hold the rule of the faith without
deviation,7
and do the
commandments of God,
believing in God
and fearing Him as Lord and loving Him as Father.
Now this doing is produced
|72 by
faith: for Isaiah says:
If ye believe
not, neither shall ye understand.
10 Is. 7:9
And the head of Ephraim is
Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.
If ye will not
believe, surely ye shall not be established.
And faith is
produced by the truth; for faith rests on things
that truly are.
For in things that are, as they are, we
believe; and believing in things that are, as they
ever are,
we keep firm our
confidence in them.
Since then faith is the perpetuation
of our salvation, w
w e must needs bestow
much pains on the maintenance thereof,
in order
that we may have a true comprehension of the
things that are.
Now faith
occasions this for us; even as the Elders, the disciples
of the Apostles, have handed down to us.
First of all it bids us bear in
mind that we have received baptism for
the remission of sins,
in the name of
God the Father,
and in the name
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
who was
incarnate and died and rose again,
and in the Holy Spirit of God. And that this
baptism
is the seal
of eternal life, and is the new birth
unto God,
that we should
no longer be the sons of mortal men,
but of the eternal
and perpetual God;
and that what is
everlasting and continuing is made God;11
and is over all things that are made,
and all things
are put under Him; |73
and all the things that are put under Him are made His
own;
for God is not
ruler and Lord over the things of another,
but over His
own;12
and all things are God's;
and
therefore God is Almighty, and all things are of God.
4. For it is necessary that
things that are made should have the beginning of
their making from some great cause;
and the
beginning of all things is God.
For He Himself was not made by any, and by Him all
things were made.
And therefore it is right first of all to believe that
there is One God, the Father,
who made
and fashioned all things, and made what was not that
it should be,
and who,
containing all things, alone is uncontained.13
Now among all things is this world of ours, and in the
world is man: so then this world also was formed by
God.
Heb. 11:6 But without faith it is
impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.
Mark 4:24 And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear:
with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you:
and unto you that hear shall more be given.
Luke 8:18 Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever
hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not,
from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to
have.
man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
1Tim. 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless
genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly
edifying which is in faith: so do.
1Tim. 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the
latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
Titus 1:14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and
commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
Heb. 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest
heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time
we should let them slip.
5. Thus then there is
shown forth One God, the Father, not made, invisible,
creator of all things; above whom there is no other
God, and after whom there is no other God.
And, since God
is RATIONAL,
therefore
by (the) Word
[not the Man Jesus] He created the things that were
made; and
God is Spirit, and by (the) Spirit He adorned
all things: as also the prophet says:
By the word
of the Lord were the heavens established, and by
his spirit all their power. Since then the
Word establishes, that is to say, gives body and
grants the reality of being, and the Spirit gives
order and form to the diversity of the powers;
rightly and fittingly is the Word called
the Son, and the Spirit the Wisdom of God.
Well also does Paul His apostle say:
One God, the
Father, who is over all and through all and in
us all. For over all is the Father;
and through all is the Son, for through
Him all things were made by the Father; and in
us all is the Spirit, who cries Abba
Father, and fashions man into the likeness
of God.4
Now the Spirit shows forth the
Word,
and
therefore the prophets announced the Son
of God;
and the Word utters the Spirit,
and therefore is Himself
the announcer of the prophets,
and leads and draws man to the Father.
6. This then is the order of the rule of our faith,
and the foundation of the building, and the |75 stability
of our conversation:
God, the Father, not
made, not material, invisible; one God,
the creator of
all things: this is the first point21
of our faith.
The second point
is: The WORD of God, Son of God, Christ
Jesus our Lord,
who was manifested to the prophets
according to the form of their prophesying
and according to the method of the dispensation
of the Father:22
through whom all things
were made; who also at the end of the times,
to
complete and gather up23
all things, was made man among men, visible and
tangible,24
in order to
abolish death and show forth life and
produce a community
of
union between God and man.
One God And One Mediator
And the third point
is:
The Holy Spirit, through whom
the prophets prophesied,
and the FATHERS learned
the things of God,
and the righteous were led
forth into the way of righteousness;
and who in the end of the times was POURED
out in a new way upon mankind in all the earth,
renewing man unto God.
7. And for this reason the
baptism of our |76regeneration
proceeds through these three points:
God the Father bestowing
on us regeneration through His Son by
the Holy Spirit.
For as many as carry (in them) the Spirit of
God are led to the WORD, that is to
the Son;
and the Son brings them to the Father;
and the Father causes them to possess incorruption.
Without the Spirit it is not possible
to behold the Word of God,
nor without the Son can any draw near to the Father:
for the knowledge of the
Father is the Son,
and the knowledge of the Son of God
is through the Holy Spirit;
and, according to the good
pleasure of the Father, the Son ministers and dispenses
the Spirit to whomsoever the Father wills and as
He wills.
Although Mathison claims the apostolic fathers believed
the church not the individual, is the
interpreter of scripture, he provides no proof:
"Like Irenaeus, Clement recognizes the necessity of regula fidei (creeds) as the
interpretive context of Scripture and the church as the
interpreter of scripture, and he explains this
relationship further in [book 7] chapter 17; but
throughout this chapter it is the Scripture itself that
is considered the criterion of truth." (Keith A.
Mathison, The shape of Sola Scriptura, 2001, p24) Here
is what Clement of Alexandria said that Mathison refers
to. It is obvious that although a reference is clearly
made to apostolic tradition, no where is the novelty
that the church is the interpreter of scripture as
Mathison so desperately imagines:
Third,
I cannot fail to comment on Alexander Campbell, who
takes up four pages in Stanglin’s narrative
(169-172). I think Keith is fundamentally
correct.
Campbell
embraced nuda scriptura,
which seems to
undermine the Irenaean function of the Regula
Fidei.
LOGOS
And, since God is rational,
therefore by (the) Word He created the things
that were made;16
and God IS Spirit,
and by (the) Spirit He adorned all things: as also the
prophet says:
By the word of the Lord were
the heavens established, and by his spirit all
their power.17
Since then the Word establishes, that is to say,
gives body 18
and grants the reality of being, and the Spirit
gives order and form to the diversity of the powers;
rightly and fittingly
is the Word called the Son,
and the Spirit
the Wisdom of God. Well also does
Paul His apostle say:
One God, the Father, who is
OVER all and through all and in us all.19
For over all is the Father; and THROUGH
all is the Son, for through Him all things
were made by the Father; and in us all is
the Spirit, who cries Abba Father,20
and fashions man into the likeness
of God.4
Eph. 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above
all, and through all, and in you all.
Eph. 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of
Christ
Now the Spirit shows forth the Word, and
therefore the prophets announced the Son of
God;
and the Word utters the Spirit, and
therefore is Himself the announcer of the prophets,
and leads and draws man to the Father.
Campbell does not have a regulated
reading in the sense of a Rule of Faith
external
to the text of Scripture,
but he does read
Scripture with a hermeneutic
regulated by
an inductive sense of God’s narrative
which Campbell
thought was helpfully summarized in the Apostles Creed.
FALSE AGAIN!
Christian
Union.--No. III. by Christian Union, pp.
189-192.
Alexander.Campbell.Christian.Baptist.Union.and.Creeds.html
I promised, in my last
number, to give a short account of the origin of
creeds as distinguished from the word of God in the
gospel. This I do, the more effectually, to evince the
deception that is practised upon the world and the
delusion under which it labors on this subject.
The first creed of
which we are informed, as distinguished from "the
faith which was once delivered to the saints," is
presented to us under the imposing but false title of
"The Apostles Creed,"
which is so
often repeated by the Roman Catholics and the
Episcopalians as of divine origin.
John.Mark.Hicks.Resourcing.Alexander.Campbell’s.Trinitarian.Christian_System
.One.html
Christian Union.--No. III. by Christian Union,
pp.
189-192.
Christian union can result from nothing short of the
destruction of creeds and confessions of faith, as
human creeds and confessions have destroyed
christian union. When ever the setting aside of
creeds and confessions shall be attempted,
christians will give to the world, and to angels and
to themselves, proof that they do believe in the
word of God.
NOTHING can reconcile the different sects in religion
to relinquish their sectarian names and creeds
for the name of christian and the word of God,
but a clear
proof that their names and creeds
are not only
unscriptural,
but are
subversive of the christian character,
and in their
consequences prevent the world believing in Jesus
Christ.
In my two former
numbers I have shown, in some degree, the truth of
these things, and feel sure that every tender-hearted
christian cannot fail to feel much affected by the
considerations there exhibited.
I
promised, in my last number, to give a short account
of the origin of creeds as distinguished from
the word of God in the gospel. This I do, the more
effectually, to evince the deception that is practised
upon the world and the delusion under which it labors
on this subject.
All sects may have
something good among them;
but that good is
common property,
and ought not to
be limited by sectarian barriers or conditions.
God makes it the duty of every Christian to oppose
every sectarian name and creed,
and they have a
divine right to do so;
but none have a
right to oppose the name of Christ or his oracles.
He makes it the duty of all who are built upon the
Lord Jesus Christ by faith in him,
for his
name's sake to exercise tenderness and forbearance
towards
each other in
points of conscientious differences,
but never to
divide or form new SECTS or CREEDS.
I shall say something
about the origin, and growth, and effects of creeds
hereafter, in promoting orthodoxy, &c., beginning
with what has been falsely called "the Apostles'
Creed." I will then address the clergy
particularly on their duty in these United States
The first creed of which we are informed, as
distinguished from "the faith which was once delivered
to the saints," is presented to us under the imposing
but false title of "The Apostles Creed," which
is so often repeated by the Roman Catholics and the
Episcopalians as of divine origin.
Dupin, in his Ecclesiastical History of the first
century, than whom a more correct and impartial
historian has not lived, though of Catholic
profession, makes it abundantly evident that this
creed was not composed by the apostles. Saint Jerome
says that the faith of the creed was an apostolic
tradition, and was not written on paper by the
apostles. "The fathers of the three first ages,"
Dupin observes,
"disputing with heretics,
do not pretend
to say that the creed was composed by the apostles,
but that
the doctrine comprised in the creed is that of the
apostles."
"We find," he farther
remarks, "in the second and third ages of the church
as many creeds as authors, and the same author sets
the creed down after a different manner in several
places of his works, which plainly shows that there
was not then any creed that was reputed to be the
apostles, nor even any reputed or established form of
faith except that which was written in the word of
God. St. Jerome exhibits two different creeds, and
Tertullian made use of three different creeds in three
several places; all of which creeds are different from
the Vulgate." So much for the origin of the first
creed, which is rung upon all the changes so often
every Sabbath by Catholics and Episcopalians as
apostolic.
Restoring God's House: Ecclesiology in Churches
of Christ
Alexander Campbell, Millennial Harbinger, 4th ser., 6
Henry
Greww
http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol8/iss3/8
Leaven, Vol. 8
[2000], Iss. 3, Art. 8
For Campbell, the
rule of faith is the internal dynamic of the narrative
itself. This inscripturated narrative functions as
a canon within the canon and renders the Rule of Faith
as an external summary unnecessary, though it might be
helpful as a rehearsal of facts. In this sense, we
might say, he read Scripture through his own
inductively inferred rule of faith.
Tom
Olbricht: Campbell commenced the address by
declaring the need to "take all our measures directly
and immediately from the Divine standard." (Note 1)
To be avoided,
however, is a human
interpretation of that standard.
He therefore immediately implied the desirability of
setting out guidelines which avoided human
construals.
Note 1: Thomas Campbell, Declaration and
Address, in Historical Documents Advocating
Christian Union, ed. Charles Alexander Young, ed.
(Chicago: The Christian Century Company, 1904) 71.
Also,
Scripture, according to Campbell, is subject to “all
the rules of interpretation which we apply to other
books” (Millennial Harbinger, 1832, 111).
2 Pet 1:18 And this voice which came
from heaven
WE heard, when
WE were with him in the holy
mount.
2 Pet 1:19 WE have also a more
sure word of prophecy;
whereunto YE do well that ye take heed,
This hermeneutical
commitment, along with his linguistic and hermeneutical
optimism, grounded his pursuit of the restoration of the
ancient order towards the goal of ecclesial unity.
2Cor.
1:13 For we write none other things unto you,
than
what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall
acknowledge even to the end;
2Cor. 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts,
known and read of all men:
2Cor. 1:13 For we write none other things unto you,
than what ye
read or acknowledge;
nd I trust ye
shall acknowledge even to the end;
2Cor. 3:14 But their minds were blinded:
for until this
day remaineth the same vail untaken away
in the reading
of the old testament; which vail is done away in
Christ.
2Cor. 3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is
read,
the vail is
upon their heart.
Eph. 3:4 Whereby, when ye READ, ye may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
Col. 4:16 And when this epistle is read among you,
cause that it be read also in the church of the
Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle
from Laodicea.
1Th. 5:27 I charge you by the Lord that this epistle
be read unto all the holy brethren.
1Tim. 4:13 Till I come, give attendance to reading,
to exhortation, to doctrine.
While Scripture’s proper
meaning is singular, it is sometimes “literal” and
sometimes “figurative” (parabolic, allegorical,
typological).
Campbell is willing to
name this “figurative” meaning as “spiritual,”
but he fears the
word carried the baggage of “Origen”
where “every word”
in the Bible had “a spiritual sense.”
https://etimasthe.com/2017/09/20/the-three-levels-of-interpretation-of-scripture/
Perhaps the most well-known of the early ‘systems of
interpretation’ was Origen’s three levels of
interpretation of Scripture. Origen (c.
185—254 A.D.) was probably the most impressive
Christian theologian of the third century A.D. However, in
later periods his views came to be seen as dangerously
unorthodox, and he
was eventually (and posthumously) condemned by the
Second Council of Constantinople in A.D. 553.
Stanglin grounds the
legitimacy of theological hermeneutics
in the historic
practice of the church that has lived
under the Rule of Faith
(analogia
fidei) for almost two thousand years,
the unity of
Scripture (analogia scripturae),
and the primacy of
the literal sense to which any spiritual sense is tied.
Keith also rejects
several significant modern presuppositions, including
(1) the neutrality
of reader and
(2) the single
sense of the text limited to the intent of the HUMAN
AUTHOR
For example, Stanglin
suggests the spiritual sense of Scripture
is not merely an
application of the text
but “in some sense
meant to be found in the text”
http://www.pineycom.com/Isaiah.55.Word.Spirit.html
Spirit is never and can never be a
god: SPIRIT is figurative or a parable to show how god
always puts His WORDS into the MOUTH of A Moses and
lastly Jesus. God did the same for the prophets
but not FACE TO FACE.
John
Calvin speaking for all known pre-Charismatic history
and for Paul who made sure that we knew that the
SPIRIT was the Spirit OF God or the Spirit OF Christ
and not a third "god."
John Calvin Continuing Revelation
1. The temper and error of the Libertines,
who take to themselves the name of spiritual, briefly
described. Their refutation.
(a). The Apostles and all true
Christians have embraced
the written Word. This
confirmed by a passage in Isaiah; also by the example
and words of Paul.
(b). The Spirit OF
CHRIST
[Christ's OWN Spirit] seals the doctrine of the written
Word on the minds of the godly.
(2) Refutation continued.
a) The impositions of Satan cannot be detected
without the aid of the written
Word. First Objection.
The Answer to it.
3. Second Objection from the words of
Paul as to the letter and spirit. The Answer, with an
explanation of Paul's meaning. How the Spirit and the
written Word are indissolubly connected.
1.The
fanatics wrongly appeal to the Holy Spirit
Those who, rejecting Scripture,
imagine that they have some peculiar way of penetrating to God, are to be deemed not so much under the
influence of error as madness. For certain giddy men have lately appeared, who, while they
make a great display of the superiority of the Spirit,
reject all reading of the
Scriptures themselves,
and deride the simplicity of those who only delight in
what they call the dead and deadly
letter. But I wish they would tell me
what spirit it is whose inspiration raises them to
such a sublime height that they dare despise the doctrine of Scripture as mean and childish.
If they answer that it is the Spirit of Christ, their confidence is exceedingly
ridiculous;
since they will, I presume,
admit that the apostles and other believers in the
primitive Church were not illuminated by any other Spirit. None of these
thereby learned to despise
the word of God, but
every one was imbued with greater
reverence for it, as
their writings most clearly testify.
And, indeed, it had been so foretold
by the mouth of Isaiah. For when he says,
"My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words
which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor
out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of
thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and
for ever,"
he does not tie down the ancient
Church to external doctrine, as he were a mere teacher
of elements; he rather shows that,
under the reign of Christ, the true
and full felicity of the new Church will consist in
their being ruled not
less by the Word than by the Spirit of God.
Hence we infer that these miscreants
are guilty of fearful
sacrilege in tearing asunder what the prophet joins in indissoluble union.
Add to this, that Paul, though carried up even to the third heaven, ceased not to profit by the doctrine of the law and the prophets, while, in like manner, he exhorts
Timothy, a teacher of singular excellence, to give attention to reading, (1 Tim. 4: 13.)
This is Paul's
unique word for worship in Spirit and in Truth: give
attention or give heed. This is the same word in
Hebrew used by David when he "worshiped" and sang
songs upon his bed and meditated in his heart.
And the eulogium which he pronounces on
Scripture well
deserves to be remembered, viz., that
"it is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, and for instruction
in righteousness, that the man of God may be
perfect," (2 Tim. 3: 16.)
What an infatuation of the devil, therefore, to fancy that Scripture,
which conducts the sons of God to the final goal, is
of transient and
temporary use?
(217) and, at the same
time, it is an interpretation or “appropriation”
(217). I PRESUME
this meaning is intended
by the divine
author and discerned by the human reader.
When SPIRIT is poured, falls etc. the
result is WORDS.
"Since being filled with the
Spirit and letting the Word of Christ
dwell within both produce the same results, a
spirit-filled Christian is one in whom the Word
of Christ dwells. A Spirit-filled Christian is
a Christ-conscious Christian. A
Spirit-filled Christian is consumed with
learning everything he or she can about Jesus
and obeying everything that Jesus said. That is what
it means to 'let the word of Christ richly dwell
within you.' To be filled with the Spirit is to be
totally and richly involved in all there is to know
about Jesus Christ." (MacArthur, John,
Charismatic Chaos, p. 259, Zondervan).
GREEK SPIRIT
4151.
pneuma,
pnyoo´-mah; from 4154;
CURRENT
OF AIR
i.e. BREATH
(blast) or a breeze;
by ANALOGY
or FIGURATIVELY, a spirit, i.e. (human) the
rational soul,
(by IMPLICATION)
vital principle, mental
disposition, etc.,
or (superhuman)
an angel, demon, or (divine) God, Christ’s spirit, the
Holy Spirit: —
ghost, life,
spirit(-ual, -ually), mind. Compare 5590.
Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy SPIRIT,
and began to SPEAK
with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave
them utterance.
Eph. 6:19 And for me, that UTTERANCE
may be given unto me,
that I may
open my MOUTH boldly, to make known the mystery of the
gospel,
The
READER is not passive but is the means by
which God opens up NEW meaning
so that a kind
of “this is that” appears “when ’that’ is
something new
and
apparently far removed from the original ‘this’”
(217).
The Inspired Prophets Wrote: Jesus was a
Prophet when He made these prophecies "concerning me"
more certain. We "prophesy" when we READ the text. After
Israel fell into Instrumental-Trinitarian-Perverted
Idolatry, Moses prophesies of Jesus:
