{"id":24249,"date":"2014-06-05T08:12:41","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T12:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=24249"},"modified":"2014-06-05T08:12:41","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T12:12:41","slug":"swordplay-as-substitute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/06\/swordplay-as-substitute.html","title":{"rendered":"Swordplay as Substitute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

The quote above comes from a post Morgan Guyton wrote<\/a>, with the title \u201cWhen \u201cthe Bible is perfectly clear\u201d becomes the reason it can\u2019t teach us anything.\u201d<\/a> Here is a longer excerpt to provide more context:\n<\/p>\n

I have a hunch that the \u201cperfect clarity\u201d many Christians talk about with regard to the Bible happens in a very different context than listening for God speak into your discipleship journey. For me, the Bible is always \u201cperfectly clear\u201d when I\u2019m pulling together scriptural proof-texts in order to argue about something on the internet. And I get flabbergasted when I make an exhaustive exegetical case for something and my ideological opponent refuses to submit to my teaching and obey it. The Bible is always \u201cclear\u201d when you need to submit to and obey me<\/em> about something I\u2019ve found in the Bible, and usually the \u201cclearer\u201d something in the Bible is for me, the less it has to do with me personally. The Bible is \u201cperfectly clear\u201d for example in its opposition to capitalism. I\u2019ve got plenty of proof-texts about it. And a lot of other ideological causes I\u2019ve strung together Biblical arguments to support. And I get really suspicious of myself in this regard because it seems like \u201cclarity\u201d becomes an actual strategy<\/em> for making the Bible impersonal.<\/p>\n

In our social media age, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a greater temptation than to substitute online ideological swordplay for lived personal discipleship. There are so many Christians today whose Bible is so \u201cclear\u201d about so many things that they quote on their Facebook walls, but I wonder if they ever savor the mysteries like the fruits of the spirit whose depth is so much richer than a passage you can just slap on your wall to say see, this proves I\u2019m right<\/em>. What about the heart of Christ? Is there a deeper mystery than that? That\u2019s what we\u2019re supposed to be searching for throughout scripture. When we read it without any interest in its mystery, we\u2019re ensuring that we\u2019re not going to see the person amidst the words.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The quote above comes from a post Morgan Guyton wrote, with the title \u201cWhen \u201cthe Bible is perfectly clear\u201d becomes the reason it can\u2019t teach us anything.\u201d Here is a longer excerpt to provide more context: I have a hunch that the \u201cperfect clarity\u201d many Christians talk about with regard to the Bible happens in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":24250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[771,1140,2528,2529,2708,4965,11498],"class_list":["post-24249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity-religion","tag-arguments","tag-bible","tag-debates","tag-debating","tag-discipleship","tag-ideology","tag-social-media"],"yoast_head":"\nSwordplay as Substitute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The quote above comes from a post Morgan Guyton wrote, with the title "When \u201cthe Bible is perfectly clear\u201d becomes the reason it can\u2019t teach us anything."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/06\/swordplay-as-substitute.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swordplay as Substitute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The quote above comes from a post Morgan Guyton wrote, with the title "When \u201cthe Bible is perfectly clear\u201d becomes the reason it can\u2019t teach us anything."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/06\/swordplay-as-substitute.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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