Bible Filtration Systems (Part 1)

The Jolly Blogger (David Wayne) had a good post this week on how we all read the Bible through filters at Just Reading the Bible, eh?, quoting from Michael Spencer at Internet Monk. The IMonk said:

If I ever tell you that all I do is just read the Bible, then believe and do what it says, you have permission to laugh at me. Pay a small fee and you can smack me and say “What’s the matter with you?”

I’m an iceberg, an onion, a mystery. I’m complex and rarely insightful into myself. Thousands of experiences co-exist in me at the same time. I’m a library of presuppositions and passively accepted versions of the truth. When I write a post, preach a sermon, respond in a conversation or give advice to a student, I am anything but simple. I’m complex and only partially aware of that complexity.

This doesn’t mean I can’t understand the simple statements of the Bible or believe and act on them with integrity. It does mean that I need to stop talking about myself as if I am a blank slate, and begin accepting myself as a human being.

David the Jolly Blogger lists reasons why our brains filter Scripture as we read it.

1. The noetic effects of sin..... This means that sin affects our minds, thus our ability to comprehend truth is marred by sin.
2. The finiteness of man
3. The blur (1 Corinthians 13:12)
4. Perspectivalism

He concludes :

So if the process of writing scripture is influenced by the personal experience of the author, why should it surprise us if we insist that the understanding of Scripture is influenced by the experience of the reader?

This doesn't negate the truthfulness or trustworthiness of the Scripture in any way, but it does negate the pride of the "Scripture reader" who thinks he comes to the Scriptures with a blank slate and is thus more "pure" than the rest of us.

See Part 2 tomorrow for my further thoughts.