Disclaimer: Sola Scriptura in this dialogue does not refer to the classical Reformation understanding of the term, but it refers to the modern Protestant way of thinking of “me and my Bible alone.”

If you did not read Part I, click here to do so.  It is necessary before you read this part.

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MODERN CHRISTIAN: Don’t forget that Judas also knew, learned from, and was appointed by Jesus.  Look where he ended up.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: How dare you compare Judas to the Apostolic Fathers.  Judas acted against everything our Lord Jesus Christ taught.  He thought of himself before everyone else including our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  He was a thief.  He betrayed our Lord, and his betrayal resulted in the murder of the Lord of Glory.  And to make matters worse, instead of repenting, he committed suicide, still taking things into his own hands and not letting God work at all in his life.

The Apostolic Fathers on the other hand thought of our Lord Jesus before themselves.  Read the Epistles of Ignatius, for example, and see how he is always thinking of our Lord Jesus Christ and always understanding his life in the light of Christ and His teachings.  They gave all that they had including their lives.  They lived a faithful life to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.  They were selfless; they chose to suffer violence than to commit violence, and they gave their lives for our Lord Jesus Christ.  They were full of the Holy Spirit, and Judas did not have the Holy Spirit.  You just committed a false analogy, which is another logical fallacy.  Your offense is much greater than that.  In your arrogance to defend Sola Scriptura, which is not even taught in the Bible, you totally ignored the work of the Holy Spirit in these just and faithful men who followed our Lord Jesus Christ.  You are elevating the doctrine of Sola Scriptura above the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ (effectively saying that our Lord Jesus did not keep His promises) and the work of the Holy Spirit.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: No I am not!

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Absolutely you are!  You earlier agreed that the Holy Spirit lived in, filled, and worked in the Apostolic Fathers, and they cooperated with Him and lived a life in the Way of Christ.  Now, you have the brass to compare them to Judas because you are holding to a doctrine that is nowhere preached in the Bible. Judas, a man totally devoid of the Holy Spirit, and the first anti-Christ!  A betrayer, thief, and one who caused the murder of our Lord Jesus Christ, and all for the price of a slave!  How dare you?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: I am sorry.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I did not ask for an apology.  You need to ask God for forgiveness for making such a claim, and for ignoring His work in these just and faithful men.

If you understand the Bible differently, you have a different interpretation separated from the context in which the Bible was written.  You do not speak the language of the New Testament, you do not live in the same culture and are not exposed to the same ideas that were around when the Bible was written.  All these provide context for understanding the Scriptures.  All these affect the interpretation of the Bible.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: How do they affect the interpretation of the Bible?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Because an interpretation is an inference from a specific point of view.  If you interpret a chapter in Acts 2:44-45 as supporting communism or socialism, you are greatly mistaken and far off in your interpretation of the Scriptures.  You are believing that you have found justification for a modern political/economic system in a text that was written in a time period that had very different systems.  You are also removing all context: the fact that this community was a spiritual, and not secular political/economic community. You are taking your modern point of view in a 21^st century globalized world, then making an inference about a text (which is incorrect), and the result is a wrong interpretation.

We must first have our minds transformed to the framework of Christ, the Apostles, and the Early Church before we can begin to interpret the Bible correctly.  Then we must understand the historical, linguistic, and cultural context in which the Bible was written.  Why do you think people study Koine Greek in seminaries?  Why are there books on Jewish history and customs in the time of Christ?  It is because they help us understand the Scriptures correctly.

If we believe that we can ignore all the history, culture, ideas, and language in which the Scriptures were written, then, then… I don’t even know how to answer such ignorance.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: So, how do these four contexts (history, cultural, ideas, and language) relate to the three bishops we are talking about?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: The point is, these three bishops and actually many other Church Fathers, were not separated from these contexts.  They lived in the same historical, linguistic, intellectual, and cultural contexts as the Apostles.  They lived in the Roman Empire like the Apostles.  They spoke Greek like the Apostles.  They were familiar with the Jewish, philosophical, and pagan ideas that the Apostles were also familiar with, and they knew the same culture of the Apostles.

Then, let me give you examples of how becoming separated from these four contexts can affect your understanding of the Scriptures.  For example, you say that we should not repeat ourselves in prayer, right?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: That is right.  God hears you the first time.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: That is not what our Lord Jesus taught, and let me show you why it is the case because of linguistic context.

In Matthew 7:7, our Lord said, “Ask and it will be given to you.”  At first glance, it looks like He is telling us to ask, and one time is enough.  However, His command actually carries the idea of continuity.  In Greek, there is something that is called the aspect of the verb.  Think of it as something similar, but not quite the same, as tense.  There are three aspects in Greek: continuous, aorist, and perfect.  The continuous aspect means an action is performed continually.  This command, in Greek, is in the continuous aspect which really means, “To continually ask,” or “to keep asking.”

If we stuck to English only, and ignored the context of the original language in which the Scriptures were written, we might think only to ask once.  However, the Greek makes it clear that we should ask continually.

Notice, the interpretation will affect our prayer lives and how we live.  The simple English reader will ask once, but the one who reads or hears in Greek, will ask continually.  What’s more is that the one who reads in English may go so far as to say that asking more than once is not correct, and give spiritual advice to Christians that they should not ask more than once.

This is just one example of how contextual background information affects how we understand the Bible, and in turn that affects our worship, and this is a fairly light example.  If such meaning is unnoticed in translation, what else may be?

The Fathers, like these three bishops, did not read the Bible in translation, but they read it in the original Greek, and Greek was their actual language and was not learned in a seminary.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Whoa….

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: That is only one example.  Don’t be too shocked.  Let me give you an example of how historical context affects our understanding of the Scriptures.

If you remember our conversation on Salvation, you originally held to the view that “once saved, you are always saved, unless you fall away, then you were never really saved.”  You quoted a verse for support from John 2:19, which read “They went out from us, but they were not of us.”

The point is the Epistle of John was direct against Gnosticism.  He was not simply talking about apostates from the faith, but he was talking about heretical teachers.  By simply understanding context, it can change how you interpret the Scriptures: you understand the verse correctly, and all of a sudden you find yourself with one less support for the view that once saved, you are always saved.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: I remember that.  Historical context does affect our understanding of the Scriptures.

Click here to read the conclusion.

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