Just as the seedling finds a place to grow between the large rocks, so we should be growing!
Post #1: Fixed vrs Growth Mindset
In this first post of three, we will examine various quotes posted on blog posts originally found at https://www.restorativefaith.org/. We will consider how mindset impacts our faith with scriptural and historical examples.
Alexander Lang examines the issues of fixed vrs growth mindsets. All images created using Canva Pro and Night Cafe Studio. Scriptural passages are from Berean Standard Bible free for digital use available at https://biblehub.com/bsb/
Having a Fixed Mindset: Faith
The Light shines through the stone wall. Are the walls of our minds too high to let the Light of His Presence guide us?
The Fixed Mindset Issue (Emphasis mine)
“Most Christians don’t want their thinking challenged. They come to church to reinforce what they’ve believed their entire lives. From their perspective, the job of the pastor is not to push them to grow, but to reassure them that they are already on the right track. Any learning should support the party line and comfort them that their investment of resources in the church will result in a payoff somewhere down the line, particularly once they reach the afterlife.”
Source: https://www.restorativefaith.org/post/departure-why-i-left-the-church
Alexander Lang explains his views as a former Presbyterian Church (USA) pastor. The fixed mindset emerges in several ways. First, a person or group will “decide” a proper manner of operation without discussion or consideration among the congregation. The “my way or the highway” process of decision making emerges. Past memories, issues, and personal preferences inform current decisions more than truth or a desire to move forward in appropriate ways.
Core Issue
The issue is the refusal of people to consider or align personal beliefs with scriptural truths. Experience and personal “thoughts” or opinions become personal truths valued above God’s Word. Personal preferences become “hard” rules or guidelines others must adhere. Result: this pattern discourages active listening, prayerful discernment, and truth seeking.
This pattern of behavior and thinking is the major sin of the Pharisees, scribes, and other religious leaders of Jesus’ time period. They added to God’s Law with many rules, regulations for the purpose of ensuring personal righteousness or holiness before God. When Jesus confronts them with truth and grace they plot to kill Him. They value tradition over truth, law over grace.
The flower flourishes in the warm sunlight, with adequate water and soil nutrients! Grace, truth, hope nurture those who seek to grow in faith and spiritual maturity.
Careful Evaluation of Belief(s)
What if what we believe isn’t correct or maturing? Who or what is the standard by which we discern truth? Most Protestants will answer: God’s Word. However, are we interpreting and applying God’s Word correctly? Do we use proper methods of Bible study, interpretation, and application? Do we “read” things into scripture that aren’t there because it’s a cultural issue of contemporary society?
One carefully considers the truth that God’s Word is a collection of various types of literature. Important questions to consider when studying a verse or passage:
How did the original audience understand the teaching or statement of Jesus?
How did the first century churches understand John, Peter, Paul’s letters?
What issues were present then and how does this apply to us today?
A good example of this process is when Jesus teaches about being the Bread of Life in John chapter six.
John 6
47Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”
52At this, the Jews began to argue among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”
53So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink.
56Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your fathers, who ate the manna and died, the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
The original audience was greatly offended by this teaching as later in v 66 John reports
“66From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.”
Enduring word commentary explains: https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/john-6/
d. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever:
Jesus spoke in a figure of speech. The metaphor of eating and drinking was common in Jesus’ day, and pointed to a taking within one’s innermost being. . .
Jesus plainly explained what He meant by bread in this context. That bread was His flesh, given for the life of the world. It was His soon-coming work on the cross when He gave His life as a sacrifice pleasing to God the Father and as a substitute for guilty sinners.
Context, culture of 1st century beliefs, and the witness of the Gospels work together to properly understand this passage. Jesus isn’t promoting cannibalism or instituting a mystical rite dispensing grace–He’s explaining how that He is the Source of Life just as daily bread is a source of sustenance. The original audience took Jesus’ words to be literal and so they walked away disgusted. The Catholic Church interprets this passage literally–hence the Mass, focus on Eucharist, the Eucharistic Prayer(s), Eucharistic adoration, etc. Interpretation and application impact our doctrinal beliefs!
Do we come to God’s Word with a closed mindset that seeks to find evidence of our preexisting beliefs as opposed to letting His Word inform our beliefs? Jesus is revealing God’s Plan of Redemption through His atonement. The Jews were looking for a military/political messiah. The tragedy is that many missed God’s Messiah because of their expectations and misunderstanding of God’s concept of Messiah.
Two terms for you to consider in understanding the Bible: eisegesis and exegesis.
https://www.gotquestions.org/exegesis-eisegesis.html
Bible on pulpit.
Tools
This author utilizes the Enduring Word Commentary and other resources to help understand the context, meaning, and proper application of scriptural passages/doctrines. Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine by Gregg R. Allison can be read with Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. Systematic theology helps to properly interpret scriptural doctrine as a whole. This enables the reader to understand how scriptures speak truth and been historically interpreted and applied to daily life.
If someone reads a passage or verse and devises an application or “doctrine” that is significantly different from how others have understood or applied then it would be wise to reconsider this “new” understanding or application.
The various catechisms are helpful. A good example is the London Baptist Catechism of 1689. The link below has “clickable” links to the particular subjects. A catechism or statement of faith are shorter versions of a systematic theology instructive in essential doctrines.
https://www.chapellibrary.org/pdf/books/lbcw.pdf
However, once needs to consider a catechism within the framework of history–the issues the believers were facing in their culture and how they are incorporating scripture into their belief system as a response to issues of that particular historical period.
Historical Example: Anabaptist
Baptism of Infants in Church of England and other mainline churches in 16th century
For centuries, infants were baptized as an introduction into the church or faith. Baptizing or pouring water over infants was a cultural practice for most people in European society.
The Anabaptists
The Anabaptists disagreed with this practice and faced violent persecution. Who were the Anabaptists? Why did they emerge in the 16th century?
Chapters 28 and 29 of The London Baptist Confession explain the Baptist view on baptism using scriptures. In a similar manner, Chapter 30 explains the ordinance of Lord’s Supper. Notice that this chapter specifically mentions the “sacrifice of the mass” and “worshiping the elements, the lifting them up,or carrying them about for adoration, and reserving them for any pretended religious use . . .). The authors are addressing the cultural practice of Eucharistic Adoration. This is an example of how a group of believers uses scripture to inform faith in contradiction to contemporary cultural practices they find to be non-scriptural.
The seedlings thrive in the light of truth!
Post two in this series will explore Peter’s growth in his mindset regarding Christ.
Words of Grace & Hope 