The Pillar and Ground of the Truth
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14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:
15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
4 Rules of Hermeneutics
1. We base our practice on what the NT says, not on what the NT doesn’t say.
1. We base our practice on what the NT says, not on what the NT doesn’t say.
We can come up with all kinds of wonderful purpose statements for why the church exists. But it really is not up to us. The church already has a Head, Who is it? It is Jesus Christ. So if we want to know what the church is for- we have to get our answer from our head, from Jesus Christ. Where do we find that information? In the NT.
What is the church for? Who can be a member? What does a pastor do? How many ordinances?
2. Teaching (doctrinal or didactic) passages should interpret historical passages.
2. Teaching (doctrinal or didactic) passages should interpret historical passages.
Historical passages tell us what happened, but by themselves they do not tell us what ought to happen. On the other hand, teaching passages are designed to instruct us in what to do.
Examples:
44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Practiced a form of communism
There are things that the early church did that are recorded for us in the book of Acts, that are not intended for us to copy. They are historical only. How do we know what practices we are obligated to follow today? The answer is we look for teaching type passages, doctrinal based passages, that tell us specifically what the church is obligated to do.
I don’t know Pastor Jon, I think we should just copy the NT church exactly as recorded in Scripture. Well the early NT church exclusively used the Greek text in all of their worship services. There were no versions, all of them used the original Greek language. Does that mean that we should all bring Greek NT to church next week?
Guys, guess what the men used to wear in the early NT church? Dresses! You might call them robes, but I don’t know. I am glad that I don’t have to wear one to church. But that is what they did in the early NT church.
Healing miracles, Speaking in tongues- are these requirements for all churches everywhere or are they simply a record of what happened in the early church. The book of Acts is a transitional period. At the beginning of Acts no church existed. Acts 2, Pentecost, you have the birth of the church. Then there is this transitional period where God sets aside Israel and turns his attention toward the church (leads his sheep out of the fold), during that transitional period there are things that happen in the church that verify or ratify that the church is God’s new program, but by the end of the book of Acts you have a completed transition and the church fully formed and much of what went on in the transition is done away with.
How do we know what is what? Answer, we give priority to teaching passages in Scripture to interpret our understanding of historical passages.
3. Deliberate passages should interpret incidental passages
3. Deliberate passages should interpret incidental passages
What I mean is that passages of Scripture that specifically aim to answer the question we are asking are more valuable than a whole list of passages that touch on our question incidentally.
Can women be pastors in a NT local church?
You can go to passages like I Cor 11 that make mention of women praying and prophesying. But that is all it does, it is not aiming to answer our questions, it is talking about head coverings (whole different issue).
Or you could go to a passage like I Tim 2 that aims to answer the question.
15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
I Timothy 2.1-8 Paul tells men what they should do and how they should behave when the church assembles. One of the things men should do when the church assembles is participate in public corporate prayer.
Then beginning in v. 9 of chapter 2 Paul addresses women. And he is specifically answering the question, “how should women behave themselves in the house of God?”
9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
Created order
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Calling
15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
This clear passage that aims to answer our question should be given more weight that a list of passages that only mention the topic incidentally.
4. Clear passages should interpret obscure passages
4. Clear passages should interpret obscure passages
A passage that can only mean one thing should be used to interpret a passage that could possibly mean several things.
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;