One of the biggest problems with creating a list of proof-texts to establish your favorite theological doctrine is what doesn’t make the list.<\/p>\n\n\n
And what doesn’t make the list is every verse that could be interpreted in a way that disproves your doctrine.<\/p>\n\n\n
There is no way for your intended audience to know if there are zero such verses or if that alternate list would be ten times as long as yours.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Those opposing verses are simply invisible. (Unless your audience “does their own research”.)<\/p>\n\n\n
So as you build your total depravity proof list, for instance, you include Psalm 14:2-3 (Referenced by Paul in Romans 3:11) to establish that human beings are incapable of seeking God:<\/p>\n\n\n
\u00a02 The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. *<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
But there are a few verses you have to hide – to leave off your list. Like Isaiah 55:6-7:<\/p>\n\n\n
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
7 Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
And this from Paul’s preaching to the Athenians in Acts 17:<\/p>\n\n\n
27 God intended that they (humans) would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
Proof-texting is a playground for confirmation bias. You will see only evidence which confirms your prior belief. Everything else will remain hidden.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
* Of course, you do not acknowledge that right there in verse 3 it makes clear these are people who have become<\/b><\/i> corrupt – which would preclude the possibility that they were born corrupt. OR the fact that the psalmist is speaking of fools who deny God’s existence – none of these fools\u00a0<\/b><\/i>seek Him – and contrast them against God’s own people later in the psalm.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the biggest problems with creating a list of proof-texts to establish your favorite theological doctrine is what doesn’t make the list. And what doesn’t make the list is every verse that could be interpreted in a way that disproves your doctrine. There is no way for your intended audience to know if there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3171,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions\/3171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}