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JBaldwin · #9 (**permalink**) 05-06-2008, 08:25 PM

Quote:

I guess the reason I haven't felt overly pressed to begin a consistent daily unassisted bible reading if I'm reading from trustworthy men writing about the bible is that I read something in Hodge's systematic theology book 1 about mysticism in scriptural interpretation and he seems to say that the revealed word of God is objectively knowable to the mind and understanding of the scripture must come through reason or from a rational understanding and seems to be against the idea that the truth of scripture comes from the HS communicating to you on a non rational level.

Quote:

According to [mysticism], God, or the Spirit of God, holds direct communion with the soul; and by the excitement of its religious feelings gives it intuitions of truth, and enables it to attain a kind, a degree, and an extent of knowledge, unattainable in any other way... The mystical method, in its supernatural form, assumes that God by his immediate intercourse with the soul, reveals through the Feelings and by means, or in the way of intuitions, divine truth independently of the outward teaching of his Word; and that it is this inward light, and not the Scriptures, which we are to follow.

Although he does not deny that the HS must apply that objective knowledge to the believers soul so that, as Vos might say, that objective information is not simply known in the Hellenistic sense but also in the Shemetic sense.

Hopefully this doesn't come across argumentatively, but do you think that the only way/best way/primary way that "God speaks to you" in personal private searching is through direct unassisted reading of the scriptures rather than through commentaries, sermons, theology books etc. I really did post this because I would like to change the manner in which I seek God if it is deficient.

So, should I read the naked Psalms rather than reading Treasury of David. Should I read I Corinthians 13 unassisted rather than reading "Charity and Its Fruits by Edwards"

Thanks for the replies.

I do not think for a moment that we should ignore the good words of godly men. I spend a lot of my time reading good works, discussing theology with folks on the PB in addition to Bible reading. However, I do believe that God gave us the Holy Spirit for a guide, and I am often astounded and delighted when I read the Word, find a truth and then discover that Bunyan, Calvin or Hodge saw the same thing in God's Word. It confirms to me God's work in my life.