Saturday, August 22, 2026

What Would Happen If We Read the Bible Experientially?

 

                                                                            (Jerusalem)

Craig Keener asks this question in his wonderful book Spirit Hermeneutics: Reading Scripture in Light of Pentecost.

    "What would happen if we read 1 Corinthians 14 sympathetically, 

as not merely a corrective for first-century Corinthian Christians 

but also as Paul’s counterappeal that depicted an ideal way of doing church 

(14:5–6, 13–19, 24–33, 39–40) to which we can also aspire? 

I believe that such an approach would challenge 

the practical cessationism of most of our churches 

regarding public exercise of most spiritual gifts (except that of pastor-teacher)."

P. 275