2024-04-11 18:30:04
Reaction to Pastor Ed René Kivitz’s most recent statements about “updating the Bible” remains intense. One of his speech points at the “The Bible Speaks Today” event was a criticism of fundamentalist hermeneutics, and pastor Pedro Pamplona countered the interpretation of the leader of the Água Branca Baptist Church.
In the excerpt from the lecture in question, Ed René Kivitz states that the interpretation of the Bible demands that “in addition to the question ‘what does this mean today?’, the question ‘is this still valid today, is it valid, is it valid?’” needs to be asked. “Because if you don’t ask that question, you’re frozen in time. What time? The time in which the text was written”, he insists.
Then he presents a text from 1 Timothy: “Want a simple example? The apostle Paul recommends that priests should be husbands of one wife, suggesting that anyone who does not postulate the priestly role can have more than one wife. Is this still valid today? I can arrive at IBAB and say ‘brothers, here anyone who wants to be a priest has to be the husband of one wife’. He raises a joke and says ‘pastor, but I don’t want to be a priest’. Then I say ‘brother, so…’ Is it okay?”
Dishonesty
Pastor and writer Pedro Pamplona, from the Philadelphia Baptist Church in Fortaleza (CE), used his Instagram account to refute Kivitz’s thesis, and stated that he considers his speech to be intellectually dishonest.
Citing the text of Hebrews 10 as an indication of practices that have become obsolete and no longer in force in the worship of God, Pamplona says that the fundamentalist interpretation of the Scriptures understands “that what is no longer in force is what the Bible says is not more current.”
“Look what Kivitz is doing! First, his interpretation that Paul is defending that a man who is not an elder can have more than one wife is absurd, as if Paul was a defender of polygamy in New Testament times. If you look for several theologians, interpreters, pastors, I challenge you to find one who has this interpretation. This is not part of the mainstream historical interpretation. You can go to fundamentalists, conservatives, less conservatives, even among progressives (the majority of them) you won’t find this type of interpretation”, he protested.
For Pamplona, “Kivitz is creating a problem that does not exist” and then presents himself as having the solution: “This interpretation is flawed – and I would say dishonest. He knows that this is not the interpretation that fundamentalists defend, that this is not the interpretation that 99.9% of all theologians defend. It is an interpretation that, if it exists, is in the flat-earth niche of biblical interpretation.”
“It presents itself as a solution, as a response to fundamentalism, and the answer is that this text ‘is outdated’, that this text ‘is no longer in force’, that this text of ‘Paul’s polygamy’ is no longer valid today . But fundamentalists and believers never defended this”, emphasized Pamplona.
The Bible interprets itself
The pastor from Ceará suggested that the IBAB leader should back down on his argument: “One question I ask Kivitz is: where does the Bible say that this text is no longer in force? What criteria does he use to say that a text is no longer in force? This is a text that talks about leadership, the character of the elder, the pastor of the church. Is it no longer in force today? Why? The Church is over, is it? Is there no more presbytery, no more shepherding? No, it’s not over. Is there any theological inference, an implication of interpretation that says that this text is no longer in force? There is not. This comes from Kivitz’s head.”
“That’s the problem with you saying the Bible needs to be updated. That’s the problem with you not looking at what the Bible says about itself, but looking at what criticism says, or what Kivitz says about the Bible. He has no standard. The standard becomes himself, he is a mind above the mind of God, who inspired the Scriptures”, said the pastor ironically.
“Unfortunately, Ed René Kivitz and these people and ideas around him, who support and propagate his ideas, should not be followed by us, unless they regret it. And that is my prayer. It is sad to see that, for many believers, it is easier to see errors in the Bible than to see errors in their favorite preacher, it is easier to want the Bible to be updated than to want their preacher to be updated”, finished Pedro Pamplona.
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