Experience Interprets or Explains Scripture
I was having a conversation with a Christian who was adamant that salvation came before repentance. I was as adamant that repentance came before salvation. Initially, I was rather surprised that he took the position that he did as I had not heard that before. That will be another one of my personal studies that I will blog but in the meantime, I got to thinking about how we read the scriptures as we’re all reading the same Word of God. The different translations do not lead to such a wide variety of interpretation; we do that on our own.
Our experiences certainly affect our view of our world, what we read, how we interpret the world around us. A particular scent or aroma might evoke a pleasant response in me based on a previous experience but that same scent may not evoke that response in another person. Perhaps the rude checker at the supermarket market might evoke compassion in one person while evoking annoyance or anger in another. The one that had feelings of compassion might have a personal experience where he or she was rude in response to a personal crisis.
This is also the approach in which many interpret or understand scripture. Unfortunately, this is an incorrect way of interpreting scripture, and it is something that I am fairly confident or comfortable in saying that many of us have applied or employed this technique in interpreting or understanding scripture. To be fair, I cannot speak for all Christians but certainly can speak for myself. In my younger years as a Christian, I can recall instances in which I employed just such a method. In other words, I had an experience and therefore my experience explained the meaning or purpose of the scripture. This method was an incorrect method of interpretation or understanding God’s word.
Our experiences are not the means to understanding scripture. To the contrary, scripture is the means in which we understand our experiences as it relates to God’s word.
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I had never really questioned if a person repented before or after accepting salvation. But yesterday during my bible time in John 5; Jesus healed the man at the pool. The man did not know Jesus but Jesus healed him. Then later Jesus told him who He was. I know this interaction doesn’t say that the man accepted Him as Christ because it was obvious that he didn’t know the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him.
In my own time of accepting Jesus I was in so much misery that I called to God at a time when I just didn’t even want to spend another day on this earth. All I said was, “God, help me.” I had no idea the impact of those few words. I really didn’t even think of God as real. A few days later I had a peace, and happiness that I had never recognized before. At night I would dream about Jesus and His power to save me as I was doing stupid things like jumping off bridges, daring cars to run over me.
Finally I went to a pastor at a particular church in town and told him my story. I also told him that I felt like I had a friend following me everywhere. For lack of how to describe it, I felt like I could see out of the corner of my eye someone sitting on my shoulder always so full of life. Sounds kind of like John in the book of Revelation trying to explain things.
The pastor was very understanding. He explained what could be happening was God calling me to Him and that He had sent the Holy Spirit to tell me about Jesus. So that day I understood that Jesus was the answer and accepted Him as my Christ.
I don’t really think it is set in stone how we reach salvation or whether we repent before or after salvation. Jesus has power to save us no matter what it takes. What is important is that we recognize Jesus as the Son of God sent to teach us what we need to have eternal life.
This comment is not set in stone either. It is just my thoughts about it.
I understand for I had a similar experience before coming to Christ. As to how we reach salvation regarding repentance before or after salvation, always in scripture repentance is used before the salvation part. I looked up the word repent in my bible program and all the occurrences and it always is used before the salvation or action part.
In my case and it appears in your case as well, while either one of us realized what was happening at the time, we were being drawn. Changes were already taking place in our heart and this was before salvation.
Anyway, God bless and I am enjoying having these discussions with you.
Yes, I can see it like that. I was repenting but at the first i just didn’t quite understand what it was. I appreciate all the study you do and posting it so clear and precise.
Me too. As you experienced, I was repenting but didn’t understand it. Not only that, but while going through the process, I was very ANTI-Christian (you have no idea)about anything Christian. Yet, I kept going back to hear more. Go figure, LOL. That lasted a whole year. After I came to Christ, I thought I repented after because I felt sorry for the way I was towards Christianity.
But in reading the scriptures, I realize that it happened before but I became more aware of how I was after I was saved because of the new nature that we have.
You’re welcome on my studies. I’ve been doing this a long time but not posting on the internet but only sharing them with a few close Christian friends. The way I learn best is to write out what I am studying, that’s what I did in school as well. Someone suggested that I put them on the internet instead of keeping them to myself. It took me quite a while to agree to do that because I was a bit embarrassed at first because I certainly am not a theologian or a bible teacher. However, since I’ve started doing it, it keeps me focused and I tend to spend more time on a subject because others may be reading it. I also figured that where I’m wrong, I certainly can learn from someone else that is not in my immediate physical world. I’ve opened myself up to having more Christian input than I would if I were not online. And I can learn from someone by a comment, such as another way of approaching something or they may bring something up that I had not thought of. As it has turned out, this is exactly what has happened.
God bless,
Great site…keep up the good work.