The Bible and...: Part 9b: Philosophy

The Bible and...: Part 9b: Philosophy
Saturday, July 20, 2024 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Does philosophy impact how we read and interpret Scripture? In particular, does the philosophy of postmodernism and its offshoots influence us? If so, how?

Colossians 2:8 (NAU): See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

Scripture warns us to not be taken captive, to not be deceived. As mentioned through much of the Middle Ages, philosophy was often linked with theology, based on the existence of God. But that has long since changed.

Postmondern beliefs are all around us. If there is one thing a text cannot mean it is what it directly states. Anything but that. I remember some years ago, one of the supposed “Christian” postmodern philosophers, Peter Rollins, did a typical play on words, claiming that when someone in church said, “God is now here,” what it really meant was, “God is no where,” Despite claims to the contrary, God was absent.

Colossians 2:8 links philosophy with empty deception and traditions of men. Some Christians run with that to such an extent that they denigrate thinking. I’ve even heard it said that anything of the mind is contrary to the Spirit. The best thing, according to some, is when entering church, check your mind at the door. Doing so not only opens one up to being easily manipulated, but it is highly unbiblical. Jesus did say that we are to love God with all our mind. We can’t do that if we’ve discarded it at the church door.

In any case, philosophy is often deceptive. If we accept postmodernism’s tenets, if we look for the meaning of a biblical text in the “white spaces” between the words, if we deconstruct the text so that it means something other than what it says, that quickly gets us into deep trouble, doesn’t it?

If we hold that truth, per se, doesn’t exist, we end up reading the Bible however we wish, accepting or ignoring the text based on our momentary feelings, Marxist leanings, DEI ideals, or whatever other belief system holds us captive. Ultimately, Satan doesn’t care what we believe, as long as we believe something other than the truth. If we can be dissuaded from “truth” it becomes much easier for him to keep us away from Jesus Christ, and the Biblical reality that we do need a Savior.

The current front-and-center example is gender. If there’s no truth, there’s no truth about gender. One can identify however one wants to—interestingly, so long as one doesn’t want to identify as either male or female. Anything else is fine. But that “freedom” doesn’t change the underlying reality, does it? The biblical reality remains that God created humans as male and female.

We can claim truth doesn’t exist all we want. Our culture affirms that so often that it is now the “truth.” But even so, that lie remains a lie. All that happens is that we deceive ourselves. That brings us right back to Colossians 3:8.

May God grant that we, as Christians, remain rooted in Scripture, the Scripture as God gave it, unchanging Truth. May God keep us from being deceived by philosophical beliefs that run counter to Scripture.

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