BS!

Those two letters tend to be associated with a word that does not tend to be used in polite company. But when you hear someone like Josh Robinson or Andrew Mackenzie use it, it actually stands for something else. Alas, it is not bull shit, but it is biblical speculation.

But I present the following idea: there is no difference between the two.

Before going further, I would like to define biblical speculation for those of you that do not know what that means. Have you ever been in a situation where you were trying to think of a particular reference, or something that Jesus said, or some verse that backs up a particular spiritual concept that you are explaining, but you can not remember for the life of you where that refernce is. So you say something like "I think it says in Ephesians that...." Or "You know, those fruits of the Spirit in one of Paul's letters." Few are innocent of this particular crime.

And yes, I call it a crime. BS is a crime because it weakens our witness as Christians; after all, this is the book by which we are supposed to be living our life. But fundamentally, BS, one might argue, was a part of the first act of disobedience in the creation of this world. The following idea was inspired by a sermon that my pastor, Chang Cho, gave yesterday.

In Genesis 3, Satan first presents the question, "Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden." Eve responds, "We may eat from any tree in the garden, but God did say we must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. (Emphasis added). This is the first recorded instance of biblical speculation, and Adam and Eve got smoked by it as Satan plied on their lack of full understanding of God's commands. They gave into the temptation to be as wise as God, and here we are today.

Contrast that to when Jesus was in the desert for forty days and forty nights, as recounted in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, and being tempted by Satan. What did Jesus do? He responded to all the temptations of the devil by quoting exact passages of Scripture. No wishy washy, "I think the Bible says this, or maybe God said that..." but a clear Scripture verse to respond to the temptation that Satan was dangling in his face.

I therefore recant of the position that I was starting to hold that quoting Scripture is not enough to fight temptation. I revise that, however, to say that one needs to know the right Scripture to be relevant in the battle. One hardly goes to war with a dull sword (or to modernize the example, takes a gun to battle without ammunition). In the same way, I have come to the conviction that Bible memorization is a key part of that mind transformation mentioned in Romans 12:2.

Matthew Hughes and myself are currently in a race to see who can memorize Romans first. If anyone would like to join us, you are more than glad to. I know that Lydia Low is already well on the way. It's a great book, if you want to give it a shot, but if you feel less confident of that, try just memorizing favourite verses instead. Once you've got the hang of that, memorizing whole chapters is just one step away.

It's an ambitious goal, but I want to try and memorize the whole New Testament by the end of my life. If the priests, and teachers of the law could memorize all of the Mosaic law, surely I can memorize the good news of God.