i was having a conversation with a friend the other day, and in the midst of my speaking of a particularly confusing episode of a particular group stranded on a moving island that travels through time and space (hint: not giligan’s island), this person made a sweeping statement: “i hate tv!”
later the week, i was having a conversation with another friend, and he said, “i just don’t like watching tv.”
someone else said, “i just think tv is such a waste of time!”
bible college students hate tv.
all of them. it’s true, i talked to three of them. three out of three people asked about tv, said they hate it. (granted, they did say they hated it before i included them in the survey. but nevertheless, their opinion matters!)
so i thought i needed to comment… not necessarily on the bible college students’ war on tv, but on making sweeping general statements about a particular issue.
this attitude seems to arise often in the college atmosphere. the problem is, people come to bible college with what we call in the business: “presuppositions.” it’s a fancy word for already having made up their mind about an issue.
one of my goals from the get go of this whole thing was to not let my preexisting theologies dictate what i learned about God, instead, i would read through the bible, and let that dictate my theology. having that in the forefront of my mind, i have been extra aware when others are not following suit.
the particular case that was the last straw on the camels hump before i wrote this was a recent class discussion on the topic of “tongues.”
my personal disclaimer: i don’t know everything, and i am ok with not knowing everything. some people aren’t. i am. i truly believe some issues will never be solved this side of heaven. that said, let’s continue…
so we we’re reading from 1 corinthians 14 and our professor just had this look in his eyes like he knew we would not be moving on to anything else for the rest of the class. boy was he right. before he was even done sharing what the text said, and what his thoughts on the passage we’re, about three hundred and fifty hands shot up (disclaimer: there are only about 30 students in our class… you do the math) and there went the ball game. before people even had a moment to think about what we had just read, they had answers ready. which simply says to me, they already had made their minds up. now there were some who had genuine questions about the subject or thought out answers rather than preemptive answers, but not nearly enough.
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. matt. 7:5
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. prov. 16:18
you can use your imagination about what happened next, but just know we all came out loving each other more than ever and were ok disagreeing on the subject.
presuppositions are dangerous. excuse the reference, but we need to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves. it is so common that we are ready to find the fault in others, that we completely ignore our own shortcomings.
we all bring baggage to the table, not that we have to toss them out before loading on the plane, just make sure you know what’s in them before boarding…
I have noticed the same themes as well. In regards to your first comment on sweeping statement’s however, I would just like to add that i truly believe the real issue stems from a constant pendulum swinging that happens naturally in times of immense growth and learning.
This time in our lives, of intense study and paradigm shifting, is a time of change; not necessarily good change, but never the less; change. If we would but discover this about ourselves and understand our constant swinging from legalism to licentiousness we could combat this issue in ourselves and in those we walk alongside. This is a great time for us but its also a time in which boys become men. Boys are constantly thinking, changing, reacting, moving, shifting, sliding back, moving forward (any number of words that denote change)… but MEN are constant, steady, they stick to their convictions and don’t waver or try to find some little loop hole that makes it so they can become untangled by their previous words. Men are a strong hold of honor and do not shift with every new idea because they have thought through what their words and convictions mean in the real world. But boys do not take their own words seriously and then therefore do not think about the logical out-workings of their convictions; so when a boy is faced with the real world he must change his convictions. This leads (in a HUGE way) to the bold statements a pride behind every corner. It truly is rampant among ALL of us (myself even more than others; no, that was not false humility). We need to understand this issue and take it to our brothers, so that all might be humbled in the knowledge and fear of God; this is the only resolve!
good stuff guys.