Brent Thompson

Brent Thompson

Brent Thompson serves as superintendent of the Ohio Conference. Previous ministry experiences include three decades in youth ministry, overseer for the Honduras mission district where he formerly lived, and serving as co-lead pastor for  Harvest Chapel Free Methodist Church in Fredonia, New York, with his wife, Alma Thompson, who now serves as the director of ICCM.

By Brent Thompson

My friends keep coming up with understandings of Scripture that are very different from mine. This growing friendship with new believers is highlighting a question for me: “What might Jesus say about the importance of a right heart and right doctrine?”

Even though my friends keep coming up with what I think are misunderstandings of Scripture, they live with a constant delight to obey all that they believe God is asking of them. They are to me an encouraging picture of the unstoppable love of God. They study the Bible. They face and heal old traumas. They accept challenges with grace.

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“I may think I know how to read, understand and apply the Bible correctly. But I have much to learn…”

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I may have more years in what I consider a balanced church tradition. I may have more book learning. I may think I know how to read, understand and apply the Bible correctly. But I have much to learn, and my friends expand my understanding of holiness. Our Free Methodist understanding of life-giving holiness teaches that we can miraculously live in glad obedience, empowered to love. We can receive right hearts. It doesn’t promise that we will have all knowledge. God never said we get to be know-it-alls. For some of us, that is a true disappointment.

Whenever I come down with know-it-all aspirations, they collapse under the crushing, wonderful weight of new learning. It is dangerous to keep learning. Avoid expansions of understanding. They are sure to cause intellectual dizziness. But, perchance you like feeling dizzy, I’ll risk sharing some examples that spun me about.

The younger me knew that Scripture presented all honest readers with plain objections to women in leadership and ministry. But I wobbled trying to hold that opinion after I saw God call several women. This happened in apparent disregard for my understanding of what the Bible said. Can you believe that God didn’t ask me what I thought first? So I looked more carefully at what the Bible says as a whole. There is a better, fuller picture of what God intends for all people. I am sometimes sad and sometimes embarrassed at how long it took me to notice.

Allegiance to the Lord

By way of another example, we hold to an especially important doctrine that salvation is by faith (pistis) alone. There is no possible way that for years I missed the point of this key doctrine. But our Lord is never limited by the impossible, and I have been awakened to the fuller meaning of pistis in the first century context.

Once again, the Holy Spirit ran ahead without my input and moved Matthew W. Bates to clarify that the biblical point of salvation by pistis is about allegiance and loyalty (pistis) to Jesus as the Lord of all Lords. This is why first century believers declared “Jesus is Lord!” Allegiance (pistis) to Jesus saves. This explains being “in Christ” more fully for me. This fits the first century context of Roman emperors demanding loyalty from subjects in word and actions. This clears up a supposed doctrinal tension between James and Paul.

Revelation and Earthly Empires

For a further example of my collapsing know-it-all aspirations, what about the end times? You see, I have met some who seem way too certain of their personal speculations about obscure symbols. I wondered if the Holy Spirit had sent unintelligible visions to a saint in a trance. The best we can do is ignore most of it and stubbornly focus only on the parts that make sense. Jeepers, only fools try to decipher the meaning of 666 (Revelation 13:18). Clearly John seemed to be playing a practical joke on us all. But God regularly decides there is little need for my opinions, and wouldn’t you know it? Revelation now reads differently to me.

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“Much of the message is about the interaction of earthly empires with God’s plan and rule.”

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I no longer think of being raptured off a decaying, dying and doomed planet. N.T. Wright and others have convinced me that there is a better understanding of the Bible message. Revelation reads differently to me now because I finally noticed that the beasts in the vision refer to earthly empires. The earthly empires carry both a visible earthly component and an invisible spiritual component. Much of the message is about the interaction of earthly empires with God’s plan and rule. I think I am starting to understand Revelation. Just please don’t test me on the meaning of 666. I will surely fail.

Hell: Dark or Fiery?

There is limited room left in this limited brain of mine, so now I will share a final example: hell! Sometimes the Bible talks about hell as outer darkness, and other times as a lake of fire. But lakes of fire are obviously not utterly dark. Each description is a metaphor.

Have you ever noticed that nearly every mention of hell in the Bible is metaphorical? Metaphorical doesn’t mean there is no accompanying reality. It usually means that a literal approach is not the best way to talk about that reality. Gehenna is a literal valley with a history of child sacrifice, bloody battles and defilement that eventually became a city dump. It is the most common New Testament word translated hell, indicating something about God’s judgment. Gehenna only has this meaning because it metaphorically references all of that valley’s history.

Hades, another New Testament word for hell, is a reference to a Greek myth about the place of the dead and the god — brother of Zeus and Poseidon — who supposedly ruled that place. Jesus descended to the place of the dead. Of, course He did. That is what one does when one dies. And Jesus, while He was there, decided it would be silly to waste the trip and went ahead and conquered the god of the dead. Way to go, Jesus! Jesus is the best.

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“I figure there is no reason why Jesus can’t be both a myth-masher and a god-conqueror.”

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But now for a little intellectual wobble. Do we think that Hades is an actual being, and a mythical idea? I ask because, by golly, I think even I might be able to conquer a mythical idea. I figure there is no reason why Jesus can’t be both a myth-masher and a god-conqueror (lower case god). Jesus is the best. There is a great question drawn from this metaphor, which I picked up from Bradley Jersak. Since Jesus now holds the keys to death and Hades, what do we expect Him to do with those keys?

As I look back at my previous understandings, it seems very good to me and to the Spirit that God doesn’t make a habit of asking me for my opinions. I have sometimes read, believed, applied and even taught what I now understand to be some measure different from what is actually intended for us from Scripture. It was my best understanding at the time. It was all I had to work from. It has always been this way for God’s people. I am sometimes sad and sometimes embarrassed at how long it took me to notice.

A Prayer for Humility

Please, God, give me a right heart to walk humbly in my understanding of Your Word. I want to be careful about my words about Your words. In the future, I may have to eat them. In Jesus’ name, amen.+

Brent Thompson

Brent Thompson

Brent Thompson serves as superintendent of the Ohio Conference. Previous ministry experiences include three decades in youth ministry, overseer for the Honduras mission district where he formerly lived, and serving as co-lead pastor for  Harvest Chapel Free Methodist Church in Fredonia, New York, with his wife, Alma Thompson, who now serves as the director of ICCM.