A God of Patterns

When people deny that there are patterns in Scripture connected to God’s will, they will invariably, in their attempt to provide another path to interpreting the Bible, provide another pattern or method by which we should understand God’s will. They might reject patternistic authority (or whatever we want to call it) but will give another pattern in their method of interpretation. It’s inescapable, really, unless we believe that God’s will is to be found in the realm of the disorderly and chaotic. Anyone interpreting Scripture is trying to understand the order and pattern of God’s will. Denying that is self-defeating.

I see the same problem in the denial of inference. I’ve read works that deny the binding of inference but then turn right around and make a case for something based entirely on inference. In essence, the idea is that we shouldn’t put so much stock in inferences, so here is another set of layered inferences to understand what we should do.

Now, we might argue and disagree over particulars of what the patterns of Scripture indicate, but at the end of the day, we will all be trying to understand God’s will utilizing patterns, inferences, and whatever else God has told and shown us.

I see a good bit said about what may be called a “theological hermeneutic” or trajectory hermeneutics. This does not conflict with looking at the particulars of what God has told us and shown us. After all, you can’t know any trajectory in Scripture without gathering that information. But great caution must be emphasized here, for we can quickly turn Scripture into a trajectory of self-willed desires. That also can become a proof-texting method by which we choose the passages we think highlight our view and ignore the ones that offer some counter ideas. I believe, for example, that there is a trajectory of the concept of respecting God’s silence (as passages expressing God’s will on it can be found in every major section of Scripture). That doesn’t mean there aren’t difficulties and questions, but anyone reading Scripture should see that God has something important to say about His own silence or going beyond what Scripture teaches.

Every method of interpretation relies on what God says, what God shows, and the implications and inferences that grow out of these. And every method can be abused. Pointing out abuses in one’s approach to Scripture does not in itself disprove the method. However, it can show inconsistencies that we need to address. Some would read this and think, “Yeah, but there is this or that abuse.” We are aware of this, and every method has its issues. The caution here is simply this:

Be careful about which bandwagon you jump on.