Tuesday 16 August 2011

Parables Test the Heart

Through the Joints And Marrow

Parabolic teaching is the test of men.  Whether men understand or do not undersand the teaching veiled in the parable is the revelation of their state of mind and heart, or, as it is fashionable nowadays to call it, of their receptivity.  Parabolic teaching then comes into the world as a rock of decision; those who are open to the truth understand, those not open to the truth do not understand. . . . [In fact,] All teaching as to the divine and heavenly things is, in a measure, parabolic; we can reach above the world and ourselves only by symbols.  All such teaching comes to us, then, as a test, and the proximate account of its varied reception may be found in the condition of the ears that hear it.  Have we ears to hear this music?  Or does it beat a vain jangling discord only on our ears?  The philosophy of the progress of the Kingdom in the world rests on the one fact--the condition of the hearer.  He that has ears to hear, hears; he that has no ears to hear this music, remains unmoved.
B. B. Warfield, "Light and Shining," Faith and Life, (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, [1916] 1974), p.62f.

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