Illumination/Understanding of the Bible

This is an issue that I have tried to address before because it has come up in discussion with people in my church and other Christian friends. I have a huge desire to study God’s Word, and more specifically theology and doctrine. I have been asked probably 6 times, “What do you need to take all those classes for, you have the Holy Spirit to tell you what the Bible means, right?” This question frustrated me for some time. Of course you cannot say that the Holy Spirit cannot reveal the meaning of the Scriptures to you, but then again you want to press the point that the person has a role to study the Bible as well. I think that most times people interpret their feelings on the text as the "guidance" of the Holy Spirit. Just as in Chapter 11 of our text book, they showed how people looked for the “super spiritual” meaning of the text. They do not use the head knowledge and common sense that God has given them to try and see what the author originally intended.
What are the prerequisites to receiving illumination? I think in order for a person to receive illumination from the Holy Spirit, the first requirement would be to actually have the Holy Spirit. Salvation, repentance and faith in Christ, is the deciding factor on whether or not a person receives the Holy Spirit. I also believe that a person must be diligent to be in the Word of God on a constant basis. How much is that? I don’t know, but I believe that it must be some amount. Whether a person spends 20 minutes or two hours ad ay, how will you ever receive illumination if you do not hear from God (read His word)?
What does illumination really look (or feel) like? I don’t like the idea of a person relying on their feelings too much. I think that is how we get so much of our confusion and misinformation and bad doctrine that are out in our churches today. On the other hand, could the Holy Spirit speak to a Christian through feelings, yes, as long as it matches what Scripture tells us? I think that illumination is the understanding that you get when you learn something new. Just as my son finally understands that 2 + 2 = 4, I think that is the illumination (feeling) that I get when I understand what the author of the text was trying to say. This includes a lot of head knowledge, but all this head knowledge also needs the Holy Spirit to arrange that knowledge in such a way to show us what the author was originally intending to say.
What is the Scriptural basis for illumination? I think that Scripture itself is the standard that we use for illumination. If some goofball thinks that Moses was using a tent peg to represent Jesus, then we as a church need to address that. I think that developing a correct Hermeneutic is vital to correctly interpreting Scripture.
Can you provide testimony of having received illumination?
Illumination for me mostly comes through study. I listen to a lot of Biblical preaching throughout the day (podcast MacArthur, Piper, Begg), and I get a lot of illumination from listening to those preachers open up the Scripture. I will often take notes and go back over the passages or bring them up in discussion with other Christian’s. I recently finished a class on Romans through Liberty. Studying, memorizing, and going over the book verse by verse really opened my mind to the message that Paul was trying to get across to the church/churches in Rome.
How does illumination relate to academics, education, hard work and the study of the Bible?

You may already know how I feel about this question by now, but if not, I think that academics, education, hard work, and the study of the Bible have everything to do with illumination. I believe that the more a person puts into their study of the Bible, the more that they memorize, the more they learn about how to interpret it correctly, the more illumination they will have.

I believe that God speaks to His children through His word, and the more time the child spends listening to the Father the better that child will know Him. I do think that there needs to be some guidance in interpretation as well. My son needed to learn addition before he figure out that 2 + 2 = 4.

There are a lot of people who have some goofy interpretations. Brian McLaren and the Emergent Church are a good example of this. It almost seems like they have taken a post-modern approach to the Bible in which nobody can really know what the author was originally trying to say, and all interpretation's are correct…….as long as you don’t disagree with them on too many areas. The Jehovah’s witnesses and Unitarian Universalist read the same Bible (somewhat), but they have misinterpreted it in such a way that they have come up with some really crazy doctrines. I’ll give a good example from a Jehovah’s Witness that I was witnessing to at one of their conferences. He took 2 Peter 3:8 “but do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day,” and with this passage he tried to explain that the 6 days of creation, and the one day of rest, were actually 7000 years. He then explained that because of Genesis 2:17 “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” He said that Adam died the same day that he sinned. Adam lived 930 years, which is aparently less than one Jehovah’s Witness day, 1000 years. My question to him was when did that time interval change, or am I really 29000 years old? My point is that if you do not study how to properly interpret Scripture, then you can really get off on some goofy interpretations that God never intended.
I believe 100% that it is a complete work of the Holy Spirit through Liberty University and this class that I am learning how to better understand and interpret the Bible. What the Holy Spirit has revealed to me about how to read and study the Bible through this class is another testimony to illumination.
Brian Davis
Me and my family thank you for your prayers during the birth of my son Cohen.

almost there......just.....one.....more......test

I am almost done with my class on Romans. What a good class. I completed all of the work except for the final exam. It is going to be a bugger, but then I get one whole week off before I start the next hard class. Bible 350 is an inductive look at the Bible, and it is a 10 on the 1-10 hardness scale. Oh Boy, just what I needed. :-)
God is very good though, and he will provide the knowledge and time that I need to accomplish everything.
Praise God, I got a 96 on my paper. I was really surprised how well it turned out. This is the first big research/exegetical paper that I have had to do. I guess that is really good since I have another one coming up in this class. From what I've heard, I better get used to them.

Interpretation……who’s right

Dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus

I have really enjoyed my class on Romans this semester, BIBL 425. It has been going very quick, just like most of these 8 week classes do, so it almost seems like I'm not getting much of what we are covering. I know that after it is all said and done, I will have learned a lot.
One of the things that I have learned is that there sure is a lot of controversy over how to interpret Paul. Everywhere you look there are 4 or 5 different views on how to read or understand him. So I guess my question is, "Who is right?" This is a question that my buddy Mike and I have been going back and forth over for a couple of days now. Specifically we have been focusing on chapter 7 verses 13-25.

There are 3 different ways of approaching these verses according to one of my textbooks, Encountering the Book of Romans by Douglas J. Moo.
The first is Paul talking about himself as an unconverted Jew under the law.
Second, Paul is talking about his experience shortly after his conversion as he sought sanctification through the law.
Third Paul is describing his experience as a mature Christian.
Douglas J. Moo Encountering the book of Romans. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002 pg 125
Moo goes on to explain that he believes that this cannot be options two or three because……….
In a summarization, Moo basically states that the first option must be correct because the other two options of reading Chapter 7 in that way contradicts what Paul clearly says in Chapters 6 and 8.
If you are a Christian you are
"free from the law of sin and death." 8:2
6:6 "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin"
6:11 "count yourselves dead to sin"
6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.....v22 we "have become slaves to God."
Chapter 7 clearly says that the person he is talking about is
"I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin." v14
"but it is sin living in me" v17
"in my sinful nature" v18
"making me a prisoner of the law of sin" v23
This person cannot be a Christian according to the standards that Paul clearly laid out in the previous and following chapters (chapters 6 and 8).

That is how I came to my understanding and conclusion of how to read chapter 7. I agree with Moo and Schreiner (my other text book leans this way as well). But what about Michael, and a whole lot of others (Matthew Henry, Calvin, The Holmen Commentary, even John MacArthur……probably tons more) that say that Paul was talking about his present condition, as a mature Christian of 25 years, who was just struggling with sin?

Sorry that it's been so long

I know that all of you die hard Brian Davis blog fans have just been chomping at the bit to see what I'll post next. Sorry that is has been so long.

School has been pretty crazy. The summers usually are. I just finished up Theology 313, the life and work of Jesus Christ. That was an awesome class. We covered everything from Jesus before time, the incarnation, His life, His death, His resurrection, the Atonement, what He is currently doing in Heaven, and at the end we talked about the future work that He will accomplish.

While starting my new class on the book of Romans, and finishing up Theology 313, Breanna and I celebrated out 9th anniversary. We took a trip up to Images of Life in Montgomery, AL. For $150 they spent almost an hour showing us our little baby boy. We got a bunch of good pictures and a DVD of the whole session.

We went out to eat at Bonefish for a nice dinner. Overall it was a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary.

Only 2 more semesters, 4 classes, until I can get my Bachelors degree. YEEEAAAAHHHH!!