What's the meaning: The Word of God with Authority

This isn't strictly just about the Old Testament, but I think the OT comes off worse in the Sunday School kind of Bible Teaching... John Walton on Hermeneutics and Childrens Curriculum, ht: Milton Stanley.

Walton observes five disturbing traits:

  1. Promotion of the Trivial
  2. Illegitimate extrapolation
  3. Reading Between the Lines
  4. Missing important nuance
  5. Focus on people rather than God
And concludes: If we are negligent of sound hermeneutics when we teach Bible to children, should it be any wonder that when they get into youth groups, Bible studies and become adults in the church, that they do not know how to derive the authoritative teaching from the text?Teaching the Old Testament seems to be tricky but surely the key is to let the text contrain us. We're only at liberty to teach what it says, in it's context, within the boundaries and rules that it sets out for us. Then, and only then, will we hear God speak with authority. An authority that will be unavoidable, piercing to the heart and leading to genuine transformation to Christlikeness, or to hardening of our hearts as we're confronted by God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who has all authority.

Stop Speaking About Jesus!

Its incredibly tempting in a pluralist society to bow to the same demands that were made of Peter and John. To be quiet about the things that disturb the authorities and merely deliver what is socially acceptable. The episode in Acts ends with God being praised for the miracle of healing. If we provide the social goodies and neglect to proclaim that it is done in the name of Jesus, that is what will be missing. Peter and John did good, proclaimed Jesus, and were held to be bad members of society as a result. In contrast, we can be tempted to want to be seen as good members of society but not to proclaim anything explicitly Christian to our society, to the praise of God.
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