The Silence of Scriptures
For centuries people of God have
questioned when Christians do and do not have authority. Are we to refrain only from
things that God specifically commands against? Or, should we only do those things that God has
commanded us to do?
Initially, these questions may seem to have the same meaning. But
upon reflection, they are very different. The first says, show me a “thou
shall not” and I won’t do it.
Otherwise, I can do anything I choose. The second says, what does God want me to do and I
won’t do anything else. Which
is correct?
Common sense from every day life should be
sufficient to answer this important question. If your child comes to you and says, “may I have a
snack?” You respond, “You
may have 2 cookies”. Later,
you discover that your child has eaten some cake as well as cookies. If you confront the child and he
says, “You didn’t say do not eat the cake”, do you have the right to be angry? Did he disobey you even if you
didn’t say don’t eat cake?
Of course he did, because you specified something else. A frequently used illustration
from the Bible concerns Noah building the ark. God told Noah to build the ark of gopher wood. Suppose Noah thought it would be
wise to add some other wood, perhaps some oak to give it strength. Would that be disobedient? Yes, the law of silence says that
when God specifies one type of something, all other things of equal type
are excluded.
But just because this makes common sense, is it
Biblical? Multiple examples
could be sited to demonstrate that this is the correct Biblical
view. In Hebrews 7:14 we
read, “For it is evident that our Lord arose from
Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the
priesthood”. In this case
the writer is arguing that while Jesus is our High Priest, it is not
according to the Old Law. He
says this is because the Old Law did not allow a priest from Jesus’
tribe, the tribe of Judah.
Now you can look the Old Testament over from beginning to end and
never see a statement, “thou shall not have a priest from the tribe of
Judah”. But the inspired
Hebrew writer says it is there because he didn’t say you could. A tribe was specified, Levi. All other tribes were therefore
excluded. That is the law of silence.
Some will say,
there are many things that we do that are not in the Bible such as church
buildings, songbooks, radio preaching, traveling by airplane, etc. Are these things excluded? No, the law of silence has to do
with things that are specific.
Returning to the illustration of Noah, God said to build the ark
of gopher wood. What was
specific in that statement?
What to build; an ark.
What wood to use; gopher.
But when he said build, he didn’t specify tools. As to tools, build was a generic
command so Noah could use any tool that supported that command to build
so long as it didn’t contradict a specific. Noah could use a saw, hammer, nails or any other tool
that supported the command to build.
Christians who
desire to please God will look for both specific and generic positive
commands for everything they should do. ”And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
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