22 August 2007

A Codicil?

How do I keep finding all of these weird tv shows? Well, this morning I was flippin' around and came upon the Benny Hinn Show, a show in which the Holy Spirit is not allowed to have his own schedule but must conform to Hinn's. Mr. Hinn's special guest this morning was Pastor John Hagee, who said something that I had never heard spoken before. I'm interested in things like that, new ideas and whatnot. Here's what he said:

Romans 9-11 is a codicil that was added to Romans. Codicils are freestanding documents that are inserted into other documents. Hagee even clarified his interpretation by saying that Romans 9-11 has absolutely nothing to do with chapters 1-8 and chapters 12-16. You can therefore read chapters 9-11 by themselves without any context and still understand them completely.

I don't know about that. It sounds like that hermeneutic was pulled out of a hat for the sake of convenience. He presented little, if any, evidence to support his claim. He just said it and we're expected to believe it.

I find that chapter 9 flows very nicely from Paul's sentiments in chapter 8. At the end of chapter 8 Paul says that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. At the beginning of chapter 9 Paul wishes that he could be cut off from Christ (meaning 'separated') for the sake of his own people, his own race, Israel. He isn't cut off (8:37-39), but he wishes he was if it would mean salvation for unbelieving Jews(9:3). Makes sense to me! I really don't see the necessity of lopping out three chapters of Romans so they stand alone.

One thing Hagee said in support of his interpretation was that one could read to the end of chapter 8, then skip to the beginning of chapter 12, and not miss a beat. Eh, maybe. But I'm afraid that amounts to a non sequitur.

Look out for these TV preacher creatures. They have political agendas and they'll twist and contort Scripture to make it look like God has the same agenda. Always question when they make blanket statements about portions of the Bible!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! Thanks so much for your comment. It helps to be in solidarity with folks! Would clarify though that the person to whom I was referring is the former minister...I might not have said that too clearly. I'm the sr. and have been there for almost 6 years!!!! So, little different situation!!!! But I appreciate your thoughts...as well. Gonna link your blog to mine though so we can keep in touch!!!

Don Hendricks said...

John Hagges prophetic certainties scare me. If those who ascribe to that set of beliefs had the power, they would do anything to create something that looks like an armageddon. It is such poor theology and yet so popular it frighten me.

Don

Doug Hoag said...

Jill,
My mistake! Thanks for commenting back. You're blog is refreshing and I enjoyed reading it!

Don,
If I'm not mistaken, Hagee is very pro-Israel and believes the Israelis have a divine carte blanche to the Holy Land. Yeah, I would say he really doesn't understand the Biblical narrative very well. People engage in destructive activity when that happens.