Tithing Hermeneutics No. 2
In our second stab at the question of whether the Bible encourages Christians to tithe, we drilled a little deeper in our 14th principle from Polishing Our Hermeneutical Glasses:HP #14: Build doctrine by Beginning With An Explicit TextWe clarified that the lack of an explicit text, for example, the lack of a text that explicitly tells us that Jesus will return for the Church before the tribulation, does not ipso facto disprove the proposition. To think that way would be to commit the logical fallacy of argumentum ad ignorantiam (see previous post, Logical Fallacies). What the lack of an explicit text does tell us is that the proposition is not emphasized, and therefore probably not of great importance to the particular writer or writers in view.
This is why we do not base our perspective on tithing solely on the OT. The lack of explicit teaching on tithing in the NT is an important omission. It does not rescind the practice of tithing; it only tells us that there were matters of greater importance that Jesus and the apostles intended us to focus upon.
But let's consider what an explicit text can and can't do for us. Mat 1.3 tells us explicitly that "Hezron was the father of Ram." Does the explicit nature of this statement mean that it is a truth we should major upon in our preaching and teaching? Should we include it in our church's doctrinal statement? No. We must take two more steps to establish true biblical emphasis. First, we must try to understand a statement's purpose. The genealogical data of Mat 1.3 is clearly provided for verification of Christ's Davidic heritage to a Judaic audience; it is not in itself a strategic proposition for the wider church. Once we have an (a) explicit statement in scripture that appears to have (b) wide application, then we must take the second step of (c) checking for corroboration by other explicit or implicit passages, historical examples, typology, etc. It's the truths with wide and enduring application that the Bible repeats to the saints in both OT and NT, emphasizing them in multiple ways -- including explicit statements -- that are the truths we should normally major on in our public speaking.
posted by Roderick of TMin @ 4:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home