illumination and the cooperation of our minds with absolute truth

When we talk about absolute truth in the postmodern church, one of the questions that's been coming up is:

Even if we have absolute truth and it's communicated in the Bible, how can we have certainty in our understanding of that truth? After all, humans are finite to begin with and depraved since the fall. So how could we be presumptuous enough to believe that with our corrupt minds, we've truly got a grasp on much (if any) of what God is saying in the Bible?

I was thinking about this in the shower today. And into my head popped the name of a doctrine I haven't even really thought about in years: illumination.

Of course, as the evangelical dictionary of theology points out, the word illumination has been used to refer to several different concepts in the history of Christian thought. And apparently, wikipedia considers it a synonym for enlightenment. But I'm talking about the idea I learned as a child that when a follower of Christ reads the Bible, God in the person of the Holy Spirit (okay, no more wikipedia today) may interact with our minds so that we can correctly understand the passage we're reading. The existence and extent of that interaction would be dependent on the believer's being "in fellowship with God," as sin in a believer's life hinders the work of the Spirit. According to Ryrie's article in the EDC, the doctrine is supported by John 16:13 and helped by 1 Cor. 2:9-10. To me, these verses don't specifically teach the doctrine as I've stated it, but they certainly would allow for it. And perhaps this is one answer to the question of how we can trust our understanding of absolute truth.

When our finite minds which corrupted by the fall look at scripture, if we are walking in an intimate relationship with God, then the Holy Spirit will open our minds to properly understand God's absolute truth.

This is obviously going to be a pretty subjective idea -- after all, if the Holy Spirit illuminates the minds of believers to understand scripture, then why don't all mature Christians interpret scripture the same way? But maybe it's a start for understanding how our minds truly can interact with God's truth in a valid way. We should also consider the idea of the present fulfillment of our status as "new creations" and how that affects our interaction with truth.

Hi. My name is Jared, and I'm a recovering professional listener.

I was listening to Alistair Begg on the radio yesterday. They're running a series of his sessions from his church's pastors conference on his daily radio broadcast. Speaking to pastors, he said that no one is above needing the work of God in their life. He said that this is a challenge for pastors, because they are used to being professional listeners -- so used to critiquing the style, the delivery, the presentation, the theology and interpretation that they can't hear the truth being spoken from God's word.

This is so me. It also describes most of my friends, especially those of us who have had the privilege of a somewhat advanced biblical and theological education.

I've had to learn to turn this off. And I've come a long way. After all, we used to heckle every brilliant (and not-so-brilliant) famous pastor/speaker we had the chance to hear at LU. The turning point for me was when I started dating my wife, and she responded to our heckling with a dirty look and the comment, "There may be someone here who needs to hear this!" So I eventually stopped doing it out loud, mostly because I like her and I didn't want her to break up with me because I couldn't hold my arrogant tongue. And gradually, I figured out that she was right. I also discovered that the more I shut up and listened, the more I gained from each speaker. Almost every one of them had something to say that I needed to hear. This was an amazing discovery, as I had previously been convinced that they had all been preselected exclusively for their butchering of the english language, christian theology, and biblical interpretation.

I want to encourage all professional listeners: I have climbed the mountain, and I have seen the other side! And it is good!

Love and peace,
Jared