I wanna share the name of a leading Christian scholar whom you’ve probably never heard of.
His name is Otto Thenius.
He was a German Lutheran theologian active in the mid-1800’s.
Back then, Germany was a big deal when it came to Biblical studies and theological development.
So here’s what Thenius had to say about King Saul (I pulled this quote directly from Tom Bradford’s Torah class site):
“Saul would have been a moral monster, which he evidently was not, if he had pursued David with quiet deliberation, and through the medium of the same persons, and had sought his life again, after his own life had been so magnanimously spared by (David)….”
Did you catch the gist of that?
Let’s have ChatGtp rewrite this at the 5th-grade level so we can more easily comprehend what this homie is getting at.
Here’s a much easier-to-understand version:
“Saul would have been a really bad person, which he clearly wasn’t if he had tried to kill David on purpose after David had spared his life.”
Now why am I bringing this up?
I’m bringing this up because Thenius represents a common and WRONG approach to studying and interpreting Scripture that’s been in existence since the late 17th century.
This is the same time another ridiculous method of Scriptural interpretation known as the “Allegorical Method” arose.
These ridiculous approaches to Scripture are very popular in churches today.
Look, here’s what it comes down to.
If some high falutin’, pontificating from on high Biblical scholars with a string of degrees under their belts decide certain passages of the Bible aren’t to be trusted, then we have to bow down to what they have to say.
When it comes to Saul, their thinking is that this first king of Israel couldn’t possibly have been all that bad.
Why?
Because no one would be so cruel and depraved as to try to kill someone who had just saved their life.
Do you see the fleshly human assumption being projected onto the Scriptural text here?
These pontificating scholars tell us these particular passages must be wrong and that we should see Saul more kindly and David as less favored by God than what’s written in Scripture.
They tell us we should view Saul and David more equally.
Again, this way of thinking has been foisted on the masses of gentile churchgoers over the last 200 years.
So here’s the truth.
There is ZERO, ZILCH evidence to support such an idea.
It’s all about scholars arrogantly pushing their subjective interpretations of Scripture onto the unsuspecting masses.
They have discredited the trustworthiness of the Holy Bible.
They have done violence to Scripture itself.
Look, if we’re going to use our own human logic and fleshly emotions as the yardstick to decide what parts of Scripture to trust or not, how can we trust any of it?
Ya feel me?
We might as well throw the whole thing in the trash.
This is pretty much what the gentile church has done when they concocted the doctrine that “Jesus did away with the Law.”
Are you feeeeeeeeeeling me here?
So here’s your takeaway for today.
Stop BLINDLY trusting your pastors, preachers, teachers, and all those pontificating scholars who think they’re the bees’ knees because they’ve got a bunch of degrees under their belts from Yale or Fuller Seminary or wherever they were educated.
I’m not saying to disrespect or immediately discredit them.
I’m saying read the Bible for yourself, use your God-given brain (one of the most incredible creations on the planet), and in cooperation with the Holy Spirit interpret the Scripture for yourself…
Instead of blindly bowing down at the altar of higher academic learning and their doctrines.
Again, I ain’t against scholarly learning.
I’ve done a great deal of it myself.
But understand at the end of the day, scholars are just men who’ve read a few more books than you have.
The truth be told, a good majority of them don’t do any original thinking themselves.
They just blindly accept the doctrines they’ve been forcefed by their professors who were forcefed by their professors and so on and on.
There’s also this ridiculous tendency among the masses to assume that just because some doctrine (like the Trinity) is old and was established centuries ago, it should be immediately respected and accepted as some sacred cow that can never be slaughtered.
I say screw that.
I’ve been slaughtering sacred gentile church doctrinal cows ever since I started this blog ten years ago.
Remember, the Torah was given EQUALLY to all at Sinai IRRESPECTIVE of age, ethnicity (the mixed multitude), and gender.
Remember, all (or most) of Yeshua’s disciples were uneducated and common fishermen.
Yeshua chose them for their sincerity, NOT their academic credentials.
And they went on to change the world.
Only Paul was a highly educated Jew.
And even he said…
“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Messiah Yeshua my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Messiah”-Philippians 3:8.
Done.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“And so it was with me, brothers and sisters.
When I came to you, I did not come with
eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed
to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while
I was with you except Messiah Yeshua
and him crucified.”
–1 Corinthians 2:1-2
“See to it that no one takes you
captive through hollow and
deceptive philosophy,
which depends on human
tradition and the elemental
spiritual forces of this world
rather than on Messiah.”
–Colossians 2:8
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