Preunderstandings of Scripture Should Be Based in Revelation

Preunderstandings that a person has toward scripture can be very detail oriented, but can be caused by large cultural distinctions or even a person's background. An example of a preunderstanding would be to think that, "when Jesus wept he was not feeling anything at all." Such a preunderstanding would perhaps come from someone that has little to no emotions that cannot understand even what emotions are as a result of their upbringing.

A good question to ask about the scripture is if it has an emotional truth. What is the emotion that is being conveyed by the scripture, and do our preunderstandings cause us not to see it. I watched the move A.D. that is a six hour mini serious covering the book of Acts, and from it I was able to get emotional revelation regarding Pentecost that the text itself could not deliver to me. When looking back into the text, I could see that emotional revelation was really lacking in my reading.

Eventually I discovered that just as we are infants with little emotion and we develop into adults full of developed emotion that is mature, organized, and much more accurate and greater in extent, so too the scripture begins with the simplicity of emotion being communicated and then builds to something fully grown and developed. The point is that if a person misses the concept of love between Adam and Eve or the love between God and Adam, then they will not be able to understand the love between Christ and the Church when the lamb marries the New Jerusalem. Overall, if we only reason through our salvation and do not also interact with God emotionally in what he is showing us in his Word, then we only understand with our minds but not also with our hearts as well.

I have been sort of lead to theorize that love in its indwelling is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, but many people are deceived to believe that they experience love when really they never do. Such a thing as lust exists, and this is sort of like fallen love (we use this to characterize demons). The problem is that people can have lust for a lot of different things such as food, a new car, the neighbor's house, or anything else in this world. What Pentecost teaches us is that God reversed the curse of the tower of Babble when men tried to became like Gods (they chased after their lusts), and when this reversal happened then the love of God came down and transformed the hearts of the people (the believers). Notice in the text that not everyone spoke in tongues, that God did the baptizing of whomever he chose, and that not everyone had this experience because some thought that the people speaking in tongues had been drunk. Notice that everyone baptized by God with the Holy Ghost would have also been baptized in water, and this shows that God initiated their salvation (See Acts 2). Regardless of this fact however Peter still had to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the reason why so many converted is because their hearts would have been open to the divine revelation of the cross.

I am thus beginning to think that the correct preunderstandings that a person has when reading the scripture should come from God as revelation, and this whole received truth has emotional implications along with other types as well.