Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 7
Efrem says the counselors were “very vague on the new birth, on cross-bearing,” and later the Amish ministers seemed to discourage Scripture seriousness (“someone can get out of the scriptures whatever he wants”); how does this expose competing views of what God intends Scripture to do in a believer, and where are Christians today tempted to soften Scripture’s authority in similarly “reasonable” ways?
Another way to ask: Efrem felt some counselors were unclear about the new birth and cross-bearing, and later Amish leaders seemed to downplay serious Bible reading. What different ideas about Scripture show up here, and how do Christians today sometimes weaken the Bible’s authority in ways that sound “reasonable”?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Efrem’s account shows two competing postures: Scripture as clear, authoritative truth that gives real answers and calls for new birth, versus Scripture as flexible enough to support almost anything—making it safer, but spiritually emptying.
- About counseling help: they encouraged “personal Bible reading and prayer,” yet were “very vague on the new birth, on cross-bearing.”
- Efrem later encounters ministers who resist his Scripture-sharing: after he quotes Matthew 11:28-30, he senses they “didn’t really appreciate” it.
- He reports the key discouraging statement: “someone can get out of the scriptures whatever he wants,” which he understood as “don’t take the scriptures too seriously.”
- He says this was a “real disappointment” because he expected leaders to be glad he was taking Scripture seriously.
- In contrast, the printed-sermon ministry attracted him because they treated God’s Word as having “the answers to life… receive it and believe it and walk in it.”