Questioning

Pastor John is really good at getting me fired up. And I'm not talking in an evangelical, go out and share Jesus with the world, smiley face kind of way. I'm talking about a piss me off, make me question Christianity kind of way.

Things like predestination. I still can't wrap my mind around that discussion.

Sometimes what he says makes me cry, but more importantly it makes me question. He lets me ask questions, and he points me to The Word for answers. And that's what I like about my pastor.

This Sunday he spoke on a passage in Daniel 9. At one point he's doing the seven sevens math & saying it's okay that the math is off a little bit because God wasn't trying to tell them exactly when this jubilee was going to happen, rather He was trying to point them in the right direction. Just a few minutes later John is saying, but look further down and this math comes out perfectly! Isn't this exciting that it's so precise?!

Huh?

I mean, I know what he is saying. And I even understand the point, and can agree with it. But what stirs me up is this idea that we can look at the text and decide, okay this part we take literally but then this part we'll take figuratively and then this part means this... and so on. Give me a break! How is anyone supposed to understand all of this? And how were people supposed to understand at the time what God meant? Before the books, before the scholars, when it was actually taking place?