Put it on the shelf
Since my earliest days in the message, I heard message preachers tell the people listening to them that, if they had something they didn't understand in the Bible - a place where the Bible and the message "seemed" to disagree - they should simply believe William Branham. They were encouraged to place their understanding of the scripture "on the shelf" until such time as God revealed to them the proper understanding of the scripture (which was always in agreement with William Branham's teaching).
Is this the correct way of approaching scripture?
What the Bible teaches
A consultant, a teacher, is somebody who … You ask for their advice and they give you a report and then you can do what you want with it. You can put it on the shelf or you can follow it or you can put part of it on the shelf and follow part of it. I began to realize, like Judas, that Jesus didn’t want to just be a consultant and wouldn’t stay in the role of consultant, but he wanted to be my CEO.
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
Christianity is not a supplement. Christianity is not some new information you add. It’s a complete reorientation. It’s a complete change. Look! When a person becomes a Christian, they don’t just get some new information they add to things. They don’t just put a new file in the drawer. They don’t just put a new book on the shelf.
Instead, when the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to the truth, when you’re born again, religious people, to their shock, realize all of their lives their religion was really a way of keeping Jesus away. Religious people, when they’re born again, realize all of their lives their religion and their morality and their religious activities were just strategies to keep from having to really trust Jesus as Savior. It was a strategy to be their own savior.
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
Five ways we can treat a passage in the Bible
There are 5 ways different ways that we can deal with a specific passage in scripture:
- Respect it - we simply obey it. We read
- Reinterpret it - we may come to understand that our view of scripture was incorrect and we reinterpret it. We then respect it in light of our new understanding.
- Relinquish it - we place a particular passage of scripture "on the shelf" until such time (which might never come) that we can get it to fit into our understanding or theological framework. This is the most dangerous approach to scripture that a sincere Christian can take.
- Reposition it - this is the approach commonly taken by liberal Christians or those who compromise Biblical teaching with other beliefs they hold. They reposition the meaning of a passage based on the various voices or other views that are held by themselves or others. In effect, they consider it but it is only one view among many others.
- Reject it - A decision is made to simply believe that the passage is untrue or has no application to us.