Think Wink.

In recent weeks I have had an interesting time blogging at Theology for the Masses.  We had a rather heated discussion on original sin.  I hold to the position and one of the members wanted to refuted.  The discussion got heated when the question of using the Bible was brought up.  Some wanted to argue this from the Bible, myself included; others did not for their own reasons.  During that heated debate, I was accused of what is called prooftexting.  The post that brought this accusation was one in which I made a case from the Bible, citing several verses from both the Old and New Testaments to show that original sin is a biblical doctrine that we have to accept.

This past weekend, I endeavored to exegete Ephesians 5:25.  In the results of my study, I found that Christ’s love for the church is completely different from that of the world.  Indeed Psalms 5:5 and 11:5 both say that all who do wickedness and evil and violence are hated by God.  So it seems that God loving the church is not the same as God loving the world, and I could make a case that he doesn’t.  But in my treatment of Eph. 5:25, I kept the context, both immediate and the larger context, in view.  I kept the original language in view and even checked my reading of the Greek against other verses.  Yet again I am prooftexting to reach my conclusions.

My question is, how many verses must I cited to avoid prooftexting?  Obviously a large number didn’t work, nor did a careful treatment of one text work either.  Should I just not use the Bible and just go with what makes sense to me?  I don’t know.  It gets very aggitating to be accused of prooftexting when you are doing everything to avoid misinterpreting the text.  May be I should have not posted what I see the text saying and just post what will make everyone happy and agree with me.  Concerning my post from this weekend, if I had posted about husbands and their love for their wives no one would have questioned my use of only Ephesians 5:25.  However, since I focused on the second half of the verse, which is the basis for how husbands are to love, I am proof texting.

So I apologize for making proof texts and when I can figure out how not to do it, I will come back and make some posts.

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