Augustine & The Garden: Is Flipping Open the Bible a Legitimate Method to Find God’s Will?
For most, the immediate answer is unequivocally no. Flipping open the Holy Scriptures and reading the first verse one comes to is not – in any way – a legitimate method in discovering God’s will. Most of us have been exposed to the corny pastoral joke of the young man who in flipping open the bible to hear from God lands upon the verse, “[Judas] went away and hung himself.” In thinking that verse must be an accident, he tries again and lands upon the verse, “Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” Yet, before we dismiss this method – that we all know people have tried – we must acknowledge the one of the greatest saints in history implemented this method: Saint Augustine.
