An Exchange

Go to the Gospels. Choose a short passage. Study it. Think about it. Imagine it - the sights, the sounds, the colors, the confusion....Sure, I will do that. Anybody who loves a good story does that anyway. That is inevitable, part of the fun...Now put yourself inside the story. You are in that crowd...Well, for the sake of enhancing the perspective of a spectator I will do that. Again, in a good story, as you live it with the author, you do that anyway...Now, see what Jesus has to say to you....What?...He will turn to you. See what He has to say to you?...What?....No, that is illegitimate. Jesus doesn't have anything to say to me he hasn't already said in the Bible. ...You are so cut and dried with your western, Greek-based rationalism. Don't you know the Jewish mind was much more fluid and indefinite than ours?. Is there no room for the mystery of God in your understanding of Him?...It depends what you mean by mysterious. Of course, we don't know God exhaustively. Every attribute He has, He has in a greater measure than we can plumb. It is certainly "mysterious" as to how the Holy Spirit takes Biblical truth and works it into our hearts so personally and appropriately - first in regeneration, then in sanctification. His providence can certainly be baffling. I will go further and say a couple of times in a lifetime God may give you "supernatural" experiences when you are not expecting them. On the other hand, there is nothing mysterious about the character of God, the way he has reconciled Himself to men, or His expectations of men. That is clearly laid out, once and for all, in Scripture. ...You are a rigid TR, a danger to this church. (unsaid) If you want to talk with me about anything doctrinal, it must be with elders present. (said). You are the kind of person who will cause theological divisions. (unsaid)...Oh. Commitment to the Reformational understanding of the absolute truth of inerrant, completed Scripture -forever objectively true, sufficient for life and doctrine - is undermining? In this church? Well! Blow me down!