"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
While these verses have been etched into my brain since before I could read, I was surprised to discover that the version I remember is a hybrid of the NIV and RSV versions. I remember the verse as above, but with 'acknowledge' (RSV) in it rather than 'submit' (NIV). But anyway...
This verse presupposes that there is only one Lord, you already trust this Lord and that this Lord is able to control what happens in your life.
Where this verse falls down is for the person who has doubts. Or for the person who is presented with multiple 'Lords' to choose between. Or for the person who is not sure if there are any 'Lords' who are trustworthy, or can control what happens in life.
You see, that person, needs to use their own understanding to weigh the evidence and decide whether or not there is a Lord and whether or not that Lord is worthy of trust in all things. They can't not lean on their own understanding!
Well, I guess they could, but then it would be a 'gut instinct' type decision, and they are rarely trustworthy...
This verse keeps committed Christians committed to Christianity, because it requires them to surrender their intellect to something they may never have considered in an intellectual manner anyway. This verse prevents the Christian from asking (legitimate?) questions, and actually seeking the truth. It assumes you already have the truth, so there is no need to go looking.
Somewhere along the way I started leaning on my own understanding. I'm not quite sure when that happened. Christians will say that's where I went wrong. Skeptics will say I did the right thing. I think that my own understanding is reasonably trustworthy, but Christians will tell me that its not, that its part of my fallen nature, and my human reason should not be trusted. Blindly trusting in the claims of an ancient book is much better, of course.
Curiously, Christian apologists appeal to the reason and understanding of their skeptical audience. Human understanding is a good thing when its used to bring you towards God, but an untrustworthy thing when it takes you away from Him. Or, in many cases, leads you to question whether there even is a Him. I'm not sure you can have that both ways.
Where this verse falls down is for the person who has doubts. Or for the person who is presented with multiple 'Lords' to choose between. Or for the person who is not sure if there are any 'Lords' who are trustworthy, or can control what happens in life.
You see, that person, needs to use their own understanding to weigh the evidence and decide whether or not there is a Lord and whether or not that Lord is worthy of trust in all things. They can't not lean on their own understanding!
Well, I guess they could, but then it would be a 'gut instinct' type decision, and they are rarely trustworthy...
This verse keeps committed Christians committed to Christianity, because it requires them to surrender their intellect to something they may never have considered in an intellectual manner anyway. This verse prevents the Christian from asking (legitimate?) questions, and actually seeking the truth. It assumes you already have the truth, so there is no need to go looking.
Somewhere along the way I started leaning on my own understanding. I'm not quite sure when that happened. Christians will say that's where I went wrong. Skeptics will say I did the right thing. I think that my own understanding is reasonably trustworthy, but Christians will tell me that its not, that its part of my fallen nature, and my human reason should not be trusted. Blindly trusting in the claims of an ancient book is much better, of course.
Curiously, Christian apologists appeal to the reason and understanding of their skeptical audience. Human understanding is a good thing when its used to bring you towards God, but an untrustworthy thing when it takes you away from Him. Or, in many cases, leads you to question whether there even is a Him. I'm not sure you can have that both ways.
1 comment:
Could possibly be that the NIV changed the word between NIV 1984 and NIV 2011, but I'm too lazy to look that up.
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