The Hebraic Mindset & the Proper Understanding of the Gospels
The Hebraic Mindset & the Proper Understanding of the Gospels
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Below are excerpts from:
Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements, Brazos Press; 2nd edition, Sep. 20, 2016
These excerpts discuss the crucial matter of the difference in believing something (propositional belief) versus believing in somebody as one’s Lord (trusting and obeying) by showing that attempting to understand the Scriptures using the common Western viewpoint distorts a message that ought to be understood using a Hebraic mindset.
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Essentially, on the one hand, a Hellenistic view of knowledge is concerned with concepts, ideas, the nature of being, types and forms the Hebraic view, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with issues of concrete existence, obedience, life-oriented wisdom, and the interrelationship of all things under God. It is quite clear that, as Jews, Jesus and the early church operated primarily out of a Hebraic understanding rather than a Hellenistic one. . . .
The assumption in Hellenistic thinking is that if people get the right ideas, they will simply change their behavior. the Hellenistic approach, therefore, can be characterized as an attempt to try to think our way into a new way of acting. Both experience and history show the fallacy of such thinking. And it certainly does not make disciples. All we do with this approach is change the way a person thinks; his or her behaviors remain largely unaffected. This can be a very frustrating exercise for that person to deal with the situation from which he or she came.
The diagram “Action-Learning (Discipleship) vs. the Academy” illustrates the distinction. If our starting point is old thinking and old behavior in a person or church, and our task is to change that situation, taking the Hellenistic approach will mean that we will provide information through books and classrooms to try to bring the person/church toa new way of thinking and, hopefully, from there to a new way of acting. The problem is that by merely addressing intellectual aspects of the person, we fail to change behavior.
The assumption in Hellenic thinking is that if people get the right ideas, they will simply change their behavior. The Hellenistic approach, therefore, can be characterized as an attempt to try to think our way into a new way of acting. Both experience and history show the fallacy of such thinking. And it certainly does not make disciples. All we do with this approach is change the way a person thinks; his or her behaviors remain largely unaffected. This can be a very frustrating exercise because once a person is in any new paradigm of thinking, it is very hard for that person is in any new paradigm of thinking, it is very hard for that person to deal with the situation from which he or she came.
Many church leaders experience this situation on a regular basis: it starts with recognition of some sort of problem in the local church together with a desire to address it. Laboring as they are under a system influenced by Hellenistic views of knowledge, they go to a conference or a seminary to access a lot of new ideas about church renewal, leadership and mission. The problem is that all they get is new thinking. They still have to deal with an unchanged. It is genuinely hard to change one’s behaviors by merely getting new ideas, as behaviors are deeply entrenched in us via our ingrained habits, upbringing cultural norms, erroneous thinking, and such. Even though gaining knowledge is essential to transformation, we soon discover that it’s going to take a whole lot more than new thinking to transform us. Anyone who has struggled with an addiction knows this.
I have belabored this point because this type of approach is so deeply entrenched in the Western forms of Christianity that we need to see it for what it is before we can find a better way. What is that better way? You will not be surprised to find out that it is found in the ancient art of disciple making. Disciple making operates best with the Hebrew understanding of knowledge in mind. In other words, we need to take a whole person into account in seeking to transform that person. We also need to understand that we must educate these whole people in the context of life and for life. The way we do this, indeed the way Jesus did it, is to act our way into a new way of thinking. This is clearly how Jesus formed his disciples. They not only lived with him and observed him in every possible circumstance but also ministered with him, all in the context of everyday life. And once again, these practices are found in all phenomenal movements of God.
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