skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The Quotable Gerstner: Spoof-Texting
Here's one of my favorite quotes from John Gerstner's Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth (pp. 93-94):
I mention, finally, another of the Dispensationalists’ devices (though they have no monopoly) which I call “spoof-texting.” It is simply the cumulative effect of massive citation. The reader is so busy reading or listening to the volume of citations (each text carrying the solemn dignity of being the inerrant Word of God) that he has no time to ponder the meaning. He tends to assume they do teach what the dispensationalist says that they teach. John Nelson Darby himself may have been the pioneer: “I prefer quoting many passages than enlarging upon them.”
Bear has noticed this spoof-texting. Dispensationalists, he observes, are content to reiterate the catch-phrases which set forth their distinctive principles, supporting them by reference to Bible passages of which they do not stop to show the validity. They usually do not attempt in their books to follow out their principles to their logical conclusions, and one often wonders if many who call themselves “Dispensationalist” have ever actually faced the conclusion which must flow from the principles which they so confidently teach.
Sandeen, on the other hand, throws out the baby with the wash. He simply indicts dispensationalists for holding the classic orthodox view of inerrancy from which he himself has departed. Dispensationalism, he argues, has “a frozen biblical text in which every word was supported by the same weight of divine authority.” Luther, too, had an inerrant Bible, one word of which would “slay” the devil. We should praise the dispensationalists for their virtues and censure them only for their faults.
The vice of “spoof-texting” is not to be confused, as Sandeen and others do, with the virtue of proper proof-texting. Luther is right that one little word (rightly interpreted) will destroy the devil, but a hundred words used only for cumulative effect have no effect on any argument. At the same time, however, those who would interpret God’s Word have the duty to use it responsibly and not to trade casually on the authority of Scripture as a means of endowing dubious arguments with divine sanction.
Posts
2 comments:
James Swan articulates: "Luther, too, had an inerrant Bible, one word of which would “slay” the devil."
Christ never commanded Luther to make such forked-tongue claims alongside declaring a portion of the bible an "epistle of straw"! Luther can be seen failing to deny self, worshipping a false christ who approves of, or is undiscerning of, such doubletalk, which is the idolatry that Luther is commanded to flee. Perhaps he is taking his own advice to "sin boldly". But Jesus never commanded Luther to sin boldly. Luther traded some Roman Catholic idolatry for his own brand of idolatry.
Over and over, the book of James slays the devil found in the self-ish teachings and works found in Roman Catholicism. Just offhand, ballpark numbers, I bet there are at least 50 different ways James lets the air out of Catholic tires. That's around three 18-wheeler semi-trucks all with flat tires! They are going nowhere. Too bad Luther never saw book of James as the huge, sharp, useful sword that it is. That would have shown fruits of true reformation.
In any case, book of James suggests that those who claim to have faith, but their spiritual works are rotten and self-promoting really have a dead faith. Exhibit #1 might be Roman Catholics whose failure to deny self assumes the form of Mary mytholgy/tradition. No good spiritual works indicates dead faith. Christ never commanded Rome to teach all that unscriptural Mary junk, nor did Jesus teach it. They worship the "jesus" that endorses all their fables, hence they are idolators. That "jesus" is incapable of saving anyone and never atoned for sins.
Same principle goes for Dispensationalists. They worship a "jesus" who adds a 2000 span into Daniel 9:24-27, and who thinks He will come two more times instead of the one time as mentioned in John 14 (not to mention their sin of arminianism evident by failure to deny the willful, sin-drenched, "free-will" self in matters of salvation doctrine and other exposition). More idolatry, plus they failed to reject John Darby as a false prophet as commanded in Matt 7:15-23. Notice the disaster at the end. No forgiveness mentioned. All because they fail to deny their evil, "smart", "free-will" selves! They say Lord, Lord all day long, but do not what Jesus says, Luke 6:46-49. Ends in catastrophe. Not too smart.
Mormons, Darbyists, Chistian Science, Jehovah Witnesses, Islam and Seventh-day Adventists are another gaggle of people who fail miserably at rejecting false prophets! They wholesale violate Matt 7:15-23 along with being deceived, both of which are also rebellion to Jesus commands and accounted to them as witchcraft, if 1 Samuel 15:23 is factored in. They are very stubborn about their false beliefs, which is idolatry, same Samuel verse.
I have an aquintance who finally, finally rejected his Mormon church, but not for Christological reasons. He merely swapped out one flavor of idolatry for another flavor (his own fallacious, very unscriptural opinions). I have seen SDA's totally debunk Adventism using scripture, and then gladly join the Roman Catholic church. Art and Theresa Beam (or Beem) are proud examples with their own website even, telling the whole story. Exchanging idolatrous systems is still not following Jesus! Their is a former Mormon man in my town that got suckered by the Darbyist teachers/mini-prophets at the very arminian Calvary Chapel emporium of disobedience and rebellion (its "pastor" switched from Church of Christ to Calvary Chapel -- big whooop, a lateral move!). In each instance God does not owe them correction. Many are called, few are chosen.
The reason all these instances portray people out in the back-alley, eating tin cans with the devil's billy goats, is none other than failure to deny self. Calling book of James an epistle of straw is not exactly denying self. Mark 7 has Jesus identifying such as defiling themselves by what comes out of their mouths.
James Swan articulates: "Luther, too, had an inerrant Bible, one word of which would “slay” the devil."
I appreciate your interest in this blog, but you are citing the late John Gerstner, not James Swan.
Post a Comment