I never set out to study on or write about the writings of men. It all came about because of multiple encounters with others that kind of just kept pushing at my thoughts and heart.
My husband fueled it because several of the issues that came up were things that he couldn't get off his mind so he shared them with me which meant I couldn't get them off my mind.
I do not know how far this writings of men study will go. It really doesn't matter. The Lord will let it go as far as he wants it to go and no further. In the meantime I study what I am led to study and I sometimes write on it.
My latest post received a comment that I am choosing to turn part of my reply into a blog post because some readers do not read comments and this is a subject that has come up repeatedly in my accidental study on the writings of men.
You can find the post I am referring to here, https://journeyingtochrist.blogspot.com/2018/06/why-writings-of-menpart-three.html?showComment=1530015982070#c1866660888018418092, if you would like to read the original comment.
Here is my response to the original comment:
Darrel,
I am going to try hard to keep my response here short but the verses you brought up and the topic at hand are hard to keep short.
I appreciate you giving the verses to me and questioning me on them. As always, I appreciate the use of Scripture when one differs with me on something and I welcome the different opinion so that I might learn something new.
The verses you gave have been under great study in my home the last month or so. We have studied them so in depth as to have nearly picked them apart under a microscope.
They may possibly be the subject of a post in the not too distant future. But to give what I hope will be a brief coverage of our, my husbands and mine, take on them here...
We cannot look only at the verses you gave. To do so would be to pick the verses we want to use for our purposes and not to look at the entire context. We must, and my husband and I did so, even after reading your comment, get the entire context. We backed up and began to read at Ephesians 2.
Just a quick summary here, Paul is speaking to a group of people at a specific time. During that time there were still apostles, men appointed straight from God, a few prophets, also appointed by God, men that saw Christ alive, and the men that Paul and the other apostles were directly teaching.
The crowds to which Paul spoke were a mixed lot, made up of born again believers and unregenerate alike. They were also groups that were new to this 'calling', being the calling to regeneration and were new to the faith. It was a whole new idea to them and they had nothing with which to compare it. They also had no Bible, no Scripture, to turn to in order to learn anything about Christ or how a born again believer should act.
Paul tells them, "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[a] and teachers,[b] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,[c] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
There was a certain task assigned to the 'apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers' and that task was 'to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ'.
This was a time when the body of Christ was a brand new thing. It was something the likes of which it had never been before. Christ had come and basically turned the world upside down.
Who would know what to do?
Apostles were appointed by Christ's own hand. He called them to the ministry of spreading his Gospel in a way that no one has been called since then. He equipped them for the job he assigned them, delegating them tasks. They were getting direct insight from the Lord. All the others were appointed to their tasks but not in the same way.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 says:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
This speaks of all called out, born again, regenerate believers. We are all given gifts but they are not the kinds of gifts that Paul and the other Apostles or prophets had. We are not getting divine revelations or powers to carry out our gifts.
1 Corinthians 13:8-10 says:
As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
The only gift that did not pass away is love (per the rest of 1 Corinthians 13). All the divinely appointed gifts are no more. They were here when Christ's kingdom was new and people, including us today, needed guidance and leading. Those gifts were shared far and wide by "the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[a] and teachers".
These were the men appointed by God, appointed by Christ, and appointed by the prophets and apostles that had been appointed directly by the Lord. Scripture is not referring to other men through other times. It points us always to Scripture. Christ did not ask if people had read the writings of men, He asked if they had read the Scriptures. He said, 'it is written' and 'have you not read', referring to the Scriptures, or the Old Testament.
Paul did not speak of books written by Scribes or others. He referred to Scripture and to what he had been divinely taught.
Yes, believers in Paul's day needed the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[a] and teachers just as we need them today but those apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers are the men of Scripture not fallen men that came at any other time in all of history.
You mentioned Hebrews 5:12-14:
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Our understanding of this verse is that it refers first Scripture. The best teacher of all comes straight from God's own word and Paul is still a teacher even today. We truly need no teacher beyond those in the words of the Lord. However, our fallen minds and hearts often do better when told, 'look here' and 'see this', especially when we are new in the faith.
That is where those mature in the faith come in, not as leaders over others, not as preachers in 'Churches', but as brothers in Christ, much like an older brother teaches a younger brother. These older brothers in Christ can lead their younger brothers, or older sisters in Christ can lead younger sisters in Christ, to 'look here' and 'see this'.
When we are first born again the majority of us do not understand what is happening and it is an immense help if someone else takes us by the hand and leads us, not with their own words but to the pages of Scripture. 'Read here' and 'study this' are of untold value when one is newly regenerate.
Is Pink such a 'teacher'? I would have to say yes. I would have benefited greatly from having his writings in my hands when I was first born again. I was blessed enough to have an 'older brother' take me by the hand and lead me to Scripture and to certain writings of Pink in my early days of regeneration.
Can other men's writings be just as effective...maybe. I'd say it depends on the man and on what he's writing about. But the best teacher of all is Scripture and sooner or later a truly born again believer should no longer need 'training wheels' to be able to ride on their own. Sooner or later, if they are truly born again, they should be able to leave the teachings of men behind and depend only on Scripture and not on what other men, through writing or conversation
]\\, dead or alive, are teaching them.
And above all else they should learn to align themselves with Christ and only Christ.
Paul said it best...
I have decided to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.
I hope this helps clarify my thoughts on these verses and on the writings of men. I never set out to study on this matter. I hadn't even given it much thought but as with so many things, the Lord brought it to my attention, time and again. And it became the focus of much Scripture study in my home and in my head and heart.
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