When we ask what "The Spirit taught me," do we ask how the Spirit taught "In the Word?" Not that all learning is head knowledge. Indeed, if all we learn stays in the head and never makes it to the heart and hands, it was not really learned. Yet, I do think we should ask if the experiential conforms to the Word. An interesting section in Calvin I came across in my thesis research:
"If Scripture is quoted against the Pope, he maintains that we ought not to confine ourselves to it, because the Spirit is come, and has carried us above Scripture by many additions. Mahomet asserts that, without his Alcoran, men always re-main children. Thus, by a false pretense of the Spirit, the world was bewitched to depart from the simple purity of Christ; for, as soon as the Spirit is separated from the word of Christ, the door is open to all kinds of delusions and impostures."
-John Calvin on John 16:14
Is the bird the Spirit?
ReplyDeleteUh Oh. Did I violate the Second commandment by using the first image that popped up in Yahoo image search? Let's say it represents the action of the Spirit without representing the Holy Spirit, just as a cross can represent the work of Christ without representing Christ.
ReplyDeleteWhat action of the Spirit does the bird represent?
ReplyDeleteIllumination
ReplyDeleteHow does a bird represent illumination? Wouldn't light be a better representation?
ReplyDeleteWell Scripture uses the dove as a symbol for the work of the Spirit so no.
ReplyDelete