Ah-HA!

I had a mental “Ah-HA!” moment today. It was surprising that God should bless me with an insight today of all days, in which I’m sick with a cold, congested, groggy, and hopped up on Dayquil. But God is mysterious sometimes, and He reveals things at weird moments. I was having lunch with a good friend who has way more years of experience in the ministry than I do. He’s been around the block a few times, and, though we don’t always agree, I really value and respect his ideas and opinions on things. One thing I’ve noticed and admire about him is his commitment to scripture, which is an ideal that I strive for as well- the idea that above all else we will be faithful and obedient to scripture. It was during the course of our conversation that God gave me some understanding regarding the generation that has come before, and helped me to understand their writing and thinking a little more clearly.

As a theologian, there’s a lot of reading and writing involved. Every professor, instructor, and teacher constantly wants you to research everyone else who has ever written anything on any particular subject of scripture that you might be studying. This is all for the sake of making you a master in your field so as to earn that coveted “Master” degree. As you read these papers and articles and journals, you come across certain key words that always tend to give you pause. At least, they always give me pause. I come from Texas which, if you’re familiar with liberal theology and the controversy of the conservative resurgence that has occurred in Baptist circles in recent years, is a battleground state regarding the conservative and liberal theologians. Having lived and studied in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for over four years I was constantly assailed by critics and scholars from both sides of the debate, and I learned the vernacular and nomenclature of both sides. The conservative side, which I fall into this group, uses the word: biblical. The conservative theologians and pastors try to do things that are biblically correct. The liberal group prefers to use the word, “spiritual.” The reason for this shift is because the liberal group does not necessarily want to be tied to the Bible. They tend to want to allow for way more freedom and diversity in a wide number of areas which are clearly contrary to the Scripture. So they shy away from words like “biblical” when they describe themselves. Yet, they do consider themselves intensely religious, and so they describe themselves as “spiritual.” And though their practices of faith and religion are not exactly biblical, they are, as far as the liberal theologians are concerned, spiritual.

So I always do a lot of reading of different theologians both modern present day theologians, and theologians from the past century. One thing that has always confused me is that some very amazing and conservative theologians that have done some outstanding work over the past hundred years tended to use the word, “spiritual.” I would always pause when I read that word, and ponder whether or not these awesome Bible scholars were perhaps a little more open to things beneath the surface. 

For me, the issue was one of absolute loyalty to the bedrock of scripture. I wondered if they may have had an unfortunate open-mindedness that might compromise their ultimate conclusions. I believe in having humility and approaching things with an open mind. But open-mindedness should not be a static position. It should be a temporary posture that allows the man of God to discern God’s truth, and it should ultimately give way to conviction. Open-mindedness is an appropriate exercise of humility if it is employed for the purpose of better understanding God, but if it never draws near to the throne of God, then the wanderer is left forever lost -because he insists on staying lost. And so, as I read these wonderful scholars, I always worried over their use of the word, “spiritual.” Were they being incessantly open minded? Had they really just tentatively arrived at some of their insights into scripture, but left one toe dangling in the pool of uncertainty? Did they not trust scripture? Was it a false humility? Or were they really trying to leave the door open for the current generation of false teachers? I always hesitated over some of the good things that were said, not because I suspected that their conclusions were wrong, but because I tended to struggle with their use of the word “spiritual,” as opposed to a more firm adjective like “biblical.”  

But I was having lunch with a friend today, and this gentleman is twice my age, and he’s been in ministry for many years now. During the course of our conversation today he also tended to use the word “spiritual.” But he would always follow this word with a quotation of scripture. I was befuddled. So I finally just decided to ask him about it. And this is what he told me. For his generation there is no distinction. To be spiritual is to be biblical. To be biblical is to be spiritual. To claim to be spiritual without being biblical is an oxymoron as far as he is concerned. 

And so it was through this encounter that many wonderful conservative Bible scholars from the past one hundred years that I have read and studied and loved, but always regarded with just a touch of suspicion because of their use of that word, were instantly set free from my silly suspicions. And I find great joy in this concept: to be biblical is to be spiritual. They are one and the same. It was, for me, an “Ah-HA!” moment of clarity.