Read from Different Viewpoints - 10 & 11
Becoming Well-Rounded
It is also important that you hear from authors who hold differing views. I know of an Anabaptist fellow who felt he should walk out on a sermon I preached because I quoted from John Calvin. If this man refused to even hear a comment from Calvin, I can only imagine the blinders he’s had fastened to his mind.
There is a fear of congenital abnormalities (aka. birth defects) when a population is filled with those who marry their first cousins. In the same way, we can become blinded to Scripture’s nuisances when we only read from author’s who we think will agree with us. You will remain healthy if you hear from varying points of view. It is good to hear and read opposing arguments. As Proverbs 18:17 says, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” Make no mistake. It is likely that your theological commitments will shift and settle differently as you mature.
Also, I warn you that you should not become absorbed in only one subject. Spread around your interest so that you tackle all of life. God desires his office bearers to be well-rounded. We should be able to comment on all of life. This means you should not commit decades to the study of baptism, or heaven, or Sabbath-keeping, or the role of government, or the role relationship of males and females, etc.
I remember sitting under a pastor who felt that “the end times” was his expertise. He considered himself thoroughly studied on it. And it was sewn through the fabric of every sermon. This was unhelpful for the congregation because he was unable to feed us from all of God’s counsel. You cannot be healthy eating only candy! What’s more, I believed his Eschatology was messed up. It did not even amount to a good Snicker’s bar.
In another instance, I knew a young man, who showed promise as a student, who became so tangled up with aspects to do with the regulative principle of worship,1 that his studies led him away from every church because of their current worship practices. In other words, he removed himself and his wife from worshiping because “no one was doing it as the Lord required.” The couples’ infrequency, to even non-attendance, of worship cut them off from the local church. They soon found themselves on an island and she eventually sought a divorce.
1 The regulative principle of worship held by some Calvinists and Anabaptists that argues God has commanded churches to conduct public worship services using certain distinct elements affirmatively found in scripture, while prohibiting all other elements. For eg. Some oppose the use of musical instruments and/or songs that are non-Psalmody.