Peter McKenzie

I don’t mean to be a dog with a bone here, but it has occurred to me that our conversation has confirmed something that I have recently come to realize more and more – that being the failure of Christians to properly read passages in their context. It is often the case that there is an over-eagerness to derive doctrine from passages – and that is done at the expense at not taking the careful time necessary to determine what is actually happening in the narrative. Any haste that is exercised at the expense of doing proper observation only leads to a misreading of the passage – and ends up with a wrong interpretation. Most of my time here has been spent trying to get you to read the passage with me. You have accused me of not using scripture – which I find to be an odd thing to say given that I am actually just reading the scriptures in question. In this case, it seems that you have overlooked a few things: – Jesus is involved in ongoing ministry where his teaching leads to Jewish people placing their belief in him as He travels around the area – in an ongoing sense. This is seen in John 10:42. As such, this fact harmonizes with 6:39 and locates his words there as being specific to his earthly ministry – and is not harmed by the fact that the present tense is used there. – When he says that those that come to him He will not drive away, the most natural reading is to conclude that He means He will not drive them away as they come. Within the setting of people coming by way of wrong motivation, He is simply saying that if they come with right motivation He will accept them. There is no reason to read this and determine that He is referring to a time in the future. Doing that serves to introduce a concept that is foreign to the text. In the context, it can be easily understood and accepted that if someone comes to Him they are either coming with good motivation or with bad motivation. He is simply saying that if they come with good motivation (i.e.. they truly believe) He will accept them – AT THE TIME THEY COME. One last thing: you have pointed out several times that you are loyal to the inspired words of the text. I don’t want to wrongly assume what you mean there, but I merely wanted to point out that there is no magical nature of the words of the Bible – as it relates to individual words themselves. The only authority and only inspiration that is present, is within the realm of the intended meaning of the author. That is where the importance of the hermeneutical spiral comes in. The whole is determined by the parts and the parts are weighed against the whole. This process must be entered into without bias. Only when it is determined what the author is actually saying to the original audience can we then attempt to make application for our own lives. I am not sure if you have left the conversation, but either way I have enjoyed the chat and hope that I have made a small amount of inroad to your understanding and hope that you will consider the things I have said.