His ways are higher than the critics

Here is a brief write-up I did for my seminary class. You might sense a critique of higher criticism of the Bible, which is its intention. Higher criticism, a movement popularized in the mid-20th Century and later repackaged by the postmoderns, asks the reader to find personal meaning in everything they receive, rather than understanding the original meaning intended by the author. It would be like reading fairytale of the 3 little pigs and detailing the psychological and emotional trauma caused by the houses of the first two being blown down. While you might laugh it is actually a very popular movement. I think it is because we pride ourselves in our own abilities, the depth of our own thinking, and do not want to submit or obey. Do you do everything that the Bible so clearly says? Ha! We are so stubborn. Let us be quick to listen, slow to speak, and swift to follow the way of God that He revealed to us in such loving detail. Oh let us stop being stubborn. Let us be changed and transformed. His words are true and His way is lovely. He desires to lead us to mountains of spice (Song of Solomon 8:14)!

Here is the small article:
I spoke to a pair of Mormon missionaries today for two hours. As the points stacked up against them and the evidence of history and the fact of Christ love bore down like an avalanche on their weak shelter they made one final plea, "don't you understand: it is the feeling of the Spirit that testifies within me that this is truth." There is revealed often in our best efforts a mistaken helplessness. In our modern culture we are asked to applaud people who admittedly do not having a grasp on life. You hear the praise begin, "at least they are being honest." I believe that to build relationships, to take people seriously, and to rejoice in truth we must understand what the author intends to say to us. This point is illustrated well on the comedy Dumb and Dumber when the protagonist is told that there is 1-in-a-1,000,000 chance that he will hook up with the girl, to which he responds, "so you're saying there's a chance." Point taken: there is certainly the ability to misinterpret and severely eschew the truth of a matter if the precise information intended by the speaker is not understood by the listener. It should also be pointed out that even the author who wishes their work to be ambiguous still has a certain intention that must be carried out for the piece to be successful--one must understand it to be meaningless, which further reveals then the intention, character, and worldview of the author. There is an old saying, "if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all," which could be extended to " and if you don't have anything meaningful to say, then don't bother speaking at all." If we are not communicating information we abide alone. We learn and understand people and situations by the communication of meaningful information; words are more than symbols, they are precise and descriptive with the purpose of transferring information that we have found useful enough to exert nerves and muscles to think and to speak. Likewise, there is a reason for horns in cars (i.e. "get out of the way or I will run you over."), and a proper understanding their use will save us from a world of hurt. Ultimately we find truth by receiving the meaning that is communicated to us. "The word became flesh and made its dwelling with me." The Bible talks in great detail of receiving the word. We must be hearers before we can be partakers, and partaker before we can be sharers. The Bible become joy to the person who is sliced and divided by the two-edged sword, which cuts away our preconceived notion of how things ought to be, revealing deeper parts of us than we even knew existed. We must be changed by the author--the Holy Spirit--if we are ever to understand the life-changing truth contained in the Bible.