Some Thoughts on “Restudying the Issue”
Every so often, word will spread that a congregation has made a massive change. Maybe the congregation has decided to appoint female elders or deacons. Maybe the congregation has decided to allow mechanical instruments of music in worship.
These and other similar issues are often made with a big statement by the elders (or by the preacher) along with words such as “after restudying the issue…”. Very often, the leaders will speak of how they have been studying this for some time, usually about a year.
Immediately, many push back on that phrase, “restudying the issue.” The reason, it seems to me, is that it is almost exclusively used at times when a congregation makes a decision that moves away from God’s revealed word.
However, I want us to rethink our thinking. We do not need to be upset with people “restudying” an issue. In fact, we should always be restudying! If we are going to pride ourselves on being people of the book, we should always be willing to think, study, and re-study issues, even ones that are clear.
After all, if it were not for “re-studying issues,” we could argue that the American Restoration Movement would never have occurred! Men who believed things for a long time restudied them and came to conclusions that were in line with Scripture. For their “re-study,” we should be tremendously grateful.
That said, what should give us pause is when leaders re-study an issue with a conclusion already in mind. That is the problem with so many leaders today, it would seem. They begin with the idea, for example, that the culture wants female leadership in the church, so we are going to restudy the issue in order to be able to accommodate that. To state the matter clearly, that’s a false way to handle God’s Word and it is also, frankly, dishonest. The very people who often say that we shouldn’t “prooftext” go into a study of the Scriptures looking for “texts” to “prove” a point they have already made up in their mind!
So, never stop studying. Never stop re-studying. But always study with a mind that is open to what God’s Word actually says, not what we might be looking for it to say. It is God’s will that matters; not my preconceived ideas.
AUTHOR: Adam Faughn