I allowed my thoughts to wonder and they settled upon this; our interpretation of Scripture is greater seeded in our own character than God’s. I think our discrepancies and biblical debates say more about the debaters than the content of contention. How we analyze God’s actions are understood through our logic. Since anyone who casts an opinion obviously feels they are correct, most likely based on their logic. We feel God must be logical and that His actions and thoughts must match our own. Therefore on issues like OSAS, a more forgiving person, quarrels with those who identify themselves by their accomplishments, embracing a works based salvation. Both potentially ignoring the scripture to the contrary; clearly stating that you can’t be saved without faith, and that He saved us, to do His work.
1. "...our interpretation of Scripture is greater seeded in our own character than God’s."
I think this is a given in scriptural study, and it's a good starting place.
It is a given that man is fallen, and his natural understanding is fallen.
It is a given that our fallen nature moves us toward lies, rather than truth.
So to help us, God points out, in scripture, a number of things we need to better interpret scripture.
2. Scripture shows we need several things before we can understand the Bible:
a. God's spirit
(This shows we are saved, and are his children.)
b. right living/actions before God
(This shows we are submitted to him in daily life.)
c. proper hermeneutics
(This shows we are using basic principles of language and logic, as well as certain spiritual principles.)
If we ignore any of these things needed for interpretation, we are ignoring God himself, as well as ignoring the means he provided for us.
The above points all come directly from scripture, either explicitly, or implicitly through examples and logical inferences.
3. "We feel God must be logical..."
Well, it's more than a feeling, it's logically necessary that God must be logical.
The creator of all things, including logic, must be logically consistent - logic is rooted in "being."
(In a nutshell, God simply cannot contradict himself etc. At a deeper level, the very fabric of existence depends upon this.)
However, that doesn't mean that humans LIKE the logical clarity that flows from God.
Humans are fallen, and in our natural struggle AGAINST God, we will try to imagine things WRONG with what he says.
This is why the atheists' logical arguments against the existence of God are not actually logical.
Their arguments can be beaten with logic because their arguments have to introduce logical errors in order to make their own creator, the creator of logic, disappear.
So to recap, there aren't two types of logic: "man's logic" and "God's logic."
There is just logic - that which is true.
Man doesn't like that which is true... so he introduces lies, logical errors, to get rid of truth.
4. Finally, we shouldn't say people ONLY disagree on Biblical issues because of character flaws.
A. People certainly CAN disagree, or dissent, because of their character flaws.
B. However, we should recognize there can be other reasons.
C. Some of these reasons could include: their training, their theological traditions, their theological frameworks, various well-intended presuppositions, differences in hermeneutics perhaps based in different epistemic views, or even just pure and unintentional ignorance.
People CAN disagree on scripture because of character flaws preventing them from the truth.
But there are many other reasons as well.
It IS possible for brothers and sisters in Christ, with good moral character, to disagree.
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