Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 1
The speaker says the “best honor” we can show the Church Fathers is to keep them “beneath the Lordship of Jesus” and beneath “the written witness…particularly the New Testament”; what practices (in teaching, quoting, or building doctrines) would actually demonstrate that posture rather than just claiming it?
Another way to ask: What would it look like in real life to keep the Church Fathers under Jesus and under the Bible (especially the New Testament) when we teach, quote them, or build doctrines?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Practically, the posture looks like treating the fathers as respected witnesses who can inspire and inform us, while letting Jesus and the New Testament set the final boundaries for doctrine and practice. It also means refusing to use the fathers as trump cards or as replacements for Scripture.
- The speaker says not to “elevate them up…over…Jesus Christ” and not to elevate them “over the written witness…particularly the New Testament.”
- He calls “proof texting” a common misuse: finding a quote to “trot…out” to support a conclusion you already reached.
- He urges reading “as much of it as you can,” not just isolated lines, and paying attention to “historical context” and “literary context.”
- He says honoring a father rightly means “keep them in their place beneath the Lordship of Jesus” and “find inspiration from them” rather than building a system on them.
- He warns against using them to be “dogmatic…preoccupied with our own need to be right while actually silencing them.”