Is Logos 4 theologically biased?
Comments
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Luther Locklin said:
I finally just decided not to understand foreknowledge and election and move on.
I think that's an excellent approach. We sometimes get stuck in our study because we think we need to understand everything in the order that we encounter it. Sometimes we just need to accept that not everything is clear yet ("for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face") and move on to something else we can try to understand. Sometimes things we delve into later will shed light on something we had to leave a bit fuzzy when we first encountered it. There's a book called The Hermeneutical Spiral which describes this concept of how our understanding develops like a spiral as we go back over and over the same texts and concepts again, furnished with knew understanding that we've gained from the hermeneutical process (interpretation) on other parts of Scripture.
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Luther Locklin said:
I wish I knew which results were conservative and which were liberal. I'm so new at this that when I don't understand something in the bible ... I have trouble figuring out which commentary will give me a biblical, even handed, understandable explanation. I finally just decided not to understand foreknowledge and election and move on.
I truly sympathize with you. I remember trying to separate the wheat from the chaff and desperately wishing for fair, even-handed, and irenic sources that would just lay it all out for me - and then let me prayerfully sort through it. Instead, I kept running into writers and speakers who always seemed to have an agenda that they wanted to push on me. It can be difficult, but one thing I came to realize and am thankful for is that my true teacher is not flesh and blood but the Spirit ... and He will lead you into all truth.
As to "foreknowledge and election" I wrestled with it for three solid years (and even dropped out of seminary during that time) until I came to understand it. Interestingly enough, I was just listening to some old sermons of a man who had a large impact on my theology and he just happened to mention that he wrestled with it for 15 years! I never knew that - I always assumed he was born with Calvin's Institutes in his hands. [;)]
So, don't be dismayed (or give up) if you don't absorb it all at first ... just put it on the backburner and let it simmer.
Instead of Artificial Intelligence, I prefer to continue to rely on Divine Intelligence instructing my Natural Dullness (Ps 32:8, John 16:13a)
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JRS said:
I wish I knew which results were conservative and which were liberal.
I just thought that I would mention, that even within groups of people who we may call conservative, there are differing doctrines. So the liberal/conservative is not always a good indicator, as to which way a given denomination will go.
One distinction I heard, which seems to work more accurately, is revisionist vs traditionalist. There are several places, which offer you a contrast of those two words. Here are a couple. You can also just search on the word "revisionist" in your Logos search.
http://www.logos.com/product/5417/new-international-encyclopedia-of-bible-difficulties
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Dan Sheppard said:
I just thought that I would mention, that even within groups of people who we may call conservative, there are differing doctrines.
This is an important point, also who we label conservative or liberal is determined by where we are on a continuum.
God Bless
Graham
Pastor - NTCOG Basingstoke
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One of my seminary professors (Jim Rosscup) has written a marvelous book that will guide you in selecting the right commentaries for your selected portion of scripture. This book is called 'Commentaries for Biblical Expositors' and is available through Logos.
http://www.logos.com/product/6259/commentaries-for-biblical-expositors
I have found this book to be very fair in the way he categorizes the exegetical, expositional and devotional flavor of each commentary. I strongly recommend it.
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Picked it up last July ['Commentaries for Biblical Expositors']
There are some 300 plus commentaries in my Logos Library and (fortunately) they do not all show up in every search. But every one of them claims to be “a biblical, even handed, understandable explanation.” and as being “fair, [and] even-handed” [as requested by two prior posters]
If I am working on a study for church (or church friends) I stick with the commentaries that would be "approved" by my church leaders. [If you do not understand just repeat what one was taught and name sources [in paster Sam's sermon on the 15th he said (...) or quote a church authority or say nothing]]
If I am working on a study for me I use them all (it takes a month or three to do the study) And when I get ‘stuck’ (as our friends above) I often find the ones most opposed to the ones that back what I was taught to be the most helpful. If I cannot accept or cannot follow the logic of the ones that I am ‘supposed’ to agree with then I try following the logic of those others. Have I been taught wrong and are these others correct? Or can I see the "holes" and "errors" in their logic even if I cannot see the "light" in the logic of my teachers?
And if both paths are blocked then fall back to the method expounded by Rosie Perera and her suggestion as found in the ”concept of how our understanding develops like a spiral” [about 5 posts back] Maybe I am not ready. I only think I need to know everything now.
[Is Logos 4 theologically biased? My answer would be that it is as biased as its customer base – what sells gets added to the list of recourses. But I think that has already been covered]
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David Ames said:
If I am working on a study for me I use them all (it takes a month or three to do the study) And when I get ‘stuck’ (as our friends above) I often find the ones most opposed to the ones that back what I was taught to be the most helpful. If I cannot accept or cannot follow the logic of the ones that I am ‘supposed’ to agree with then I try following the logic of those others. Have I been taught wrong and are these others correct? Or can I see the "holes" and "errors" in their logic even if I cannot see the "light" in the logic of my teachers?
I like your perspective on this, David.
I like Apples. Especially Honeycrisp.
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Obviously, Logos is biased toward the Wesleyan perspective. Every time I study the Bible in Logos, my study points to a Wesleyan truth.
Of course, I am a Methodist preacher. Maybe that is why I like Logos so much. [:D]
"In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church," John Wesley0
