On Theology and Scripture

Of old they learned the things of God by the hands of men, but now by the Only-begotten Son of God, and by the Holy Ghost (St. John Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of St. John).

 

Recently, I came across a Scripture passage from the Book of Ezekiel (18:21-28) that triggered a powerful flashback to my Sophomore year in high school.  We were not taught Scripture in Catholic school in those days, but theology.  So what is the difference?  Theology derives from, and follows upon, Scripture, but it is one step removed from the exact words of Scripture.  Theology is man's explanation of what Scripture says. 

 

When I read this passage from Ezekiel, my immediate reaction was, "Why didn't they just have us read this passage from the Bible instead of trying to 'explain' it to us?"  On this particular day, the teacher was trying to explain that if someone lived his entire life as a good person, but then committed a 'mortal sin' just before he died, he would go to hell.  On the other hand, if someone lived his whole life as a 'bad person,' but repented before death, he would go to heaven.  Okay, just imagine now how that went over in a class full of argumentative sophomore girls:  "What?  That's not fair!  Just one mistake in a lifetime of good, and he goes to hell?  I'm not buying that!"  Actually, instead of making us afraid of committing a mortal sin -- the intention of the lesson, I presume---I think it made us think that maybe we could get away with doing whatever we wanted and then converting at the end of life.

 

The problem with theological explanations is twofold:  first, the theologian has understood Scripture through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, hopefully.  However, if his teaching is not also thereby anointed, or even it is, but particularly if his listeners/ readers have not also been anointed by the Holy Spirit, he is then speaking spiritual truths to human (stopped-up and deaf) ears and minds.  Furthermore, since the Spirit and the flesh (human nature) are in conflict with one another (Galatians 5), the human nature always resists the things of God.  The truth is that we want the things of God to be "our way," the way we want them to be.  We want God to conform to our image and our understanding, not the other way around. 

 

Here is the Word of the Lord, given through Ezekiel:

 

Thus says the Lord God:  If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live; he shall not die.  None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced.  Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked? says the Lord God.  Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live?

 

And if the virtuous man turns from the path of virtue to do evil, the same kind of abominable things that the wicked man does, can he do this and still live?  None of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered, because he has broken faith and committed sin; because of this, he shall die.  You say, "The Lord's way is not fair!" hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?   When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.  But if the wicked, turning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

 

Sophomore girls (not so familiar with boys) want to rebel against something or anything.  They want to argue that their elders don't know what they are talking about; it's all part of becoming independent and 'adult.'  But I wonder if, instead of trying to 'explain' God's ways in human terms, we allowed God Himself to teach our children, if they would not have a different experience altogether.  Only the Holy Spirit knows at any given time what we need to hear, what will touch our hearts and minds.  And my guess is that all of us have experienced being taught of God, as the Scripture tells us:  They shall all be taught of God" (Is. 54:13).

 

What if we would all open our Bibles, pray for the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and then read together the words of Scripture, allowing each one to enter into and comprehend what the Spirit is speaking, and then sharing our understanding with one another?  That, to me, is the meaning of "church."  None of this is meant to discredit mystics and theologians --- they are the ones who have dedicated themselves to understanding the words of God, and they are the ones who thereby grasp the deeper things of the Spirit.  They can illuminate the minds of those who are just beginning to be taught of God, and I am eternally grateful for the light they have shed on my own understanding. 

 

Jesus Himself groaned under the burden of minds and hearts dull of understanding.  Before His Resurrection, He spoke spiritual truths to men who could not grasp them.  Afterwards, however, "He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures."  And this brings up another spiritual truth 'explained' to us in human words.  As a child, I was taught that before Jesus, 'the gates of heaven' were closed to mankind.  But Jesus death 'opened the gates of heaven' to man.  And I understand that when Jesus died, the temple curtain was split from top to bottom, indicating that all men, not just the high priest, now had access to the Holy of Holies, the throne of God Himself.

 

What I did not grasp as a child, though, was why the gates of heaven were closed to man.  Was God mad at us?  Were we all 'too evil' to enter into a holy place?  On some level, I did understand; on another level, I did not.  Jesus told the disciples that He had much more to say to them, but they could not bear it now.  When the Advocate came, He told them, He would reveal all truth to them.

 

Why is this not better taught and understood:  that until the Holy Spirit comes (to each one of us), we cannot understand and grasp the things of God.  It is very clearly laid out in I Cor. 2:

 

No eye has seen,

No ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him,

but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

 

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ... The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned....But we have the mind of Christ.

 

Okay, so theology can explain things to us, but it cannot understand those things for us.  What we need to understand as children, or as men with darkened minds, is that we cannot understand the things of God without the aid of the Holy Spirit.  Then, instead of rebelling against what we do not understand, we can learn to submit our hearts and minds to the Spirit of God, humbly asking for enlightenment and understanding. This is the "gate of heaven" that has been opened to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This is why "no man comes to the Father but by Me."  If we do not understand His teaching, it is only because we are walking in human nature, in human understanding, and because "the gates of heaven' are still closed to us. 

 

But it pleases the Father not only to swing those gates wide open, but to run to meet us as we enter them through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who reveals all that belongs to Jesus to us, his brothers and sisters, as He was pleased to call us after the Resurrection from the dead.  When He rose, He raised us also to a new way of life, of understanding, and of relationship to God. Amen!