Good Words From a Brother
From time to time, I post here things I especially wish to process intentionally. Doing so in this place insures that I can find the processed information again when I need it (I love the search feature of this blog). Such is the case in this post.
In our Wednesday evening service a week and a half ago, my brother Myron spoke on "The Anabaptist View of Scripture." Throughout the presentation, I was so busy with uttering satisfied, silent ahhhhhs that I didn't get very much written down. I hope to listen to the presentation again as soon as it's posted on centeramishmennonite.org. (Later: It's there now.) I'll attempt to reiterate here some of what I heard and remember.
My brother-in-law, Marvin M., give a thorough introduction to the speaker of the evening, which reminded me of some of the things I had forgotten about Myron's preparation for speaking on such a topic. I knew, of course, that he had graduated from Westmont College in California and acquired a master's degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). I knew that he had taught at both Rosedale (now Rosedale Bible College) and Sharon (SMBI) in his single days (he got married at 40), but I had forgotten that he taught for eight years at Rosedale, and either forgot or never knew that he was asked to be their academic dean after he had acquired a wife and three children. He declined. I had also forgotten exactly what he majored in in college. History and English literature as an undergraduate, and Medieval (and something else?) history in graduate school, with an emphasis on Christian History.
As I recall, a Mennonite man occupied a position as professor in the graduate program Myron completed at UCSB. That was surprising and probably encouraging. Before that, he studied at Westmont , which was known informally among evangelicals as the Wheaton of the West (with its attendant highly respected academic program coupled with robust Christian loyalties). Marvin did not mention it, but Myron also spent a semester studying in Jerusalem.
At Westmont, Myron had some rude awakenings about the nature of evangelicalism. These insights highlighted a basic tenet of Anabaptism: how one lives matters, and, by contrast, the popular evangelical mindset didn't look good in the way that it allowed for putting aside plain Bible truth when honoring it became too inconvenient or unpleasant. He mentioned several instances of flagrant dishonesty among students, with no apparent remorse or sense of guilt. These people were Christian evangelicals. A minister who prayed during the Gulf War under Bush the elder implored the Lord to bless Americans in the war and thanked God that the kingdom of light (America) would prevail over the kingdom of darkness (the enemy).
For a long time I've been troubled by what seems to me to be a decided shift among people in churches similar to mine that lets people who take up political positions feel that they are being righteous in doing so. I believe this would have shocked and horrified our ancestors in the faith. I'm not talking about taking up a specific political persuasion, but the fact that political "force" is engaged in at all. By contrast, the early Anabaptists believed that the Rule of Christ as outlined in Matthew 18 is the proper alternative to wielding political power. This wasn't a major point in Myron's presentation, but it was alluded to.
Myron listed five main features of the Anabaptist View of Scripture:
They believed--
1. That the New Testament transcends the Old Testament, and informs the understanding of it.
2. That the plain meaning of Scripture is the best meaning.
3. That the key to understanding Scripture is to be obedient to that which is already understood.
4. That truth is discovered when Spirit-guided communities come together to discuss and discern.
5. That the Bible is the template through which all is viewed.
In a bit of elaboration on the above points, Myron expressed some wistfulness about the present practice of discovering truth as a community effort, believing that too often the "truth" that is discovered coincides remarkably closely with what "powerful" people wanted to discover before meeting with others.
In our Wednesday evening service a week and a half ago, my brother Myron spoke on "The Anabaptist View of Scripture." Throughout the presentation, I was so busy with uttering satisfied, silent ahhhhhs that I didn't get very much written down. I hope to listen to the presentation again as soon as it's posted on centeramishmennonite.org. (Later: It's there now.) I'll attempt to reiterate here some of what I heard and remember.
My brother-in-law, Marvin M., give a thorough introduction to the speaker of the evening, which reminded me of some of the things I had forgotten about Myron's preparation for speaking on such a topic. I knew, of course, that he had graduated from Westmont College in California and acquired a master's degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). I knew that he had taught at both Rosedale (now Rosedale Bible College) and Sharon (SMBI) in his single days (he got married at 40), but I had forgotten that he taught for eight years at Rosedale, and either forgot or never knew that he was asked to be their academic dean after he had acquired a wife and three children. He declined. I had also forgotten exactly what he majored in in college. History and English literature as an undergraduate, and Medieval (and something else?) history in graduate school, with an emphasis on Christian History.
As I recall, a Mennonite man occupied a position as professor in the graduate program Myron completed at UCSB. That was surprising and probably encouraging. Before that, he studied at Westmont , which was known informally among evangelicals as the Wheaton of the West (with its attendant highly respected academic program coupled with robust Christian loyalties). Marvin did not mention it, but Myron also spent a semester studying in Jerusalem.
At Westmont, Myron had some rude awakenings about the nature of evangelicalism. These insights highlighted a basic tenet of Anabaptism: how one lives matters, and, by contrast, the popular evangelical mindset didn't look good in the way that it allowed for putting aside plain Bible truth when honoring it became too inconvenient or unpleasant. He mentioned several instances of flagrant dishonesty among students, with no apparent remorse or sense of guilt. These people were Christian evangelicals. A minister who prayed during the Gulf War under Bush the elder implored the Lord to bless Americans in the war and thanked God that the kingdom of light (America) would prevail over the kingdom of darkness (the enemy).
For a long time I've been troubled by what seems to me to be a decided shift among people in churches similar to mine that lets people who take up political positions feel that they are being righteous in doing so. I believe this would have shocked and horrified our ancestors in the faith. I'm not talking about taking up a specific political persuasion, but the fact that political "force" is engaged in at all. By contrast, the early Anabaptists believed that the Rule of Christ as outlined in Matthew 18 is the proper alternative to wielding political power. This wasn't a major point in Myron's presentation, but it was alluded to.
Myron listed five main features of the Anabaptist View of Scripture:
They believed--
1. That the New Testament transcends the Old Testament, and informs the understanding of it.
2. That the plain meaning of Scripture is the best meaning.
3. That the key to understanding Scripture is to be obedient to that which is already understood.
4. That truth is discovered when Spirit-guided communities come together to discuss and discern.
5. That the Bible is the template through which all is viewed.
In a bit of elaboration on the above points, Myron expressed some wistfulness about the present practice of discovering truth as a community effort, believing that too often the "truth" that is discovered coincides remarkably closely with what "powerful" people wanted to discover before meeting with others.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
8:02 PM
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