Otis Q. Sellers 1901-1992, in his Los Angeles office and studio, probably early 1980s.

“If a student advances, changes, corrects, or clarifies his position as the result of the truth he finds, it will leave a trail of discarded ideas and abandoned positions. But this is a price that must be paid if we would “buy the truth” (Proverbs 23:23); a price that is all the more difficult to pay when one has thousands of books or pamphlets in print; a price that cannot be paid by anyone who has pledged eternal fidelity to a static system of theology. . . . If the reader of these lines is seeking an authority who speaks infallibly and never needs to change, I am not that man. If he desires fellowship with a student whose life is devoted to perpetual and progressive Bible study, then come along with me. I may probably be of some help to you. You probably can be of some help to me.”—Otis Q. Sellers, 1951

In “Yielding to Scripture outwardly and inwardly” I recalled receiving from a friend an email containing a picture of Pope Benedict XVI on which was inscribed this exhortation:

I urge you to become familiar with the Bible, and to have it at hand so that it can become your compass pointing out the road to follow.

To my surprise and delight, my friend has more recently expressed respect and even admiration for the dedication to and submission before Scripture that Otis Q. Sellers exemplified, responses based on what I told him about how Sellers resisted the urge to deny the truth he was unearthing, even at the cost of leaving a pastorate in the middle of the Great Depression. (He had been ordained as a Baptist minister, but could no longer teach what that denomination believed about “baptism.” He moved into his parents’ attic with his wife and young daughter.)

Surprise, I say, because my friend is a traditional Catholic. His confessional commitment is essentially Benedict’s. Delight, because it means Sellers’s zeal for the truth is evident even to some who can’t accept the conclusions his studies led him to.

(That’s probably because Sellers’s conclusions do not cohere with what Catholic teaching authority holds; which understanding, to be fair, my friend does not believe contradicts the meaning of Scripture. He is free, of course, to test that understanding against Sellers’s labors, or not. In my view, one can trace all disagreements among Christians back to their divergent interpretations of Scripture and the weight they give one non-divinely inspired person’s interpretation of it over another’s.)

Benedict identified a value he shares with Sellers: familiarity with the content of Scripture. In the article appended below, Sellers wrote:

My studies in the Word of God began when I was eighteen years of age. My first efforts were mostly reading, as my sole purpose at that time was to gain familiarity. [My emphasis.]

In 1979, he elaborated on this purpose:

Familiarity with the Bible, a working knowledge of its pages, the ability to turn to any verse that comes to mind, is one of the greatest assets that can be possessed by the believer in Christ Jesus. I give thanks unto God for those circumstances in my life that could hardly produce anything else but a solid acquaintance with the inspired Scriptures. From this I know how precious to the Bible student are those great truths which do so much to make the Word of God a simple revelation of God’s truth to His people.

After gaining a good degree of familiarity with the New Testament and experiencing great frustration because of inability to find answers to questions, to solve problems, and to resolve the apparent contradictions that increased in number with every reading, I came upon one great idea that did more to make the Bible a living and relevant book than anything I had ever discovered before. This was the recognition of the true character of the Acts period and of the distinct program and purpose of God during that time. Related to this and in collocation with it is the great truth that Paul’s declaration in Acts 28:28 marks a definite change in God’s method of dealing with men and that his words there mark an administrational (dispensational) boundary line.

“The Acts Dispensation,” Seed & Bread, No. 7, 1971

Thirty-three years earlier he had written:

. . . it was with the sole desire of becoming familiar, and with no desire to interpret or understand all details, I began my study of the Word of God [in 1919]. Before long I was burning with the desire to understand. I was becoming familiar with what God had said and my desire was now to know what He meant. This changed my ministry from one of getting sermons and preaching them to a ministry of teaching the Word of God. . . .

The growing familiarity with the Word of God increased my conviction that there were many plain statements in the Word of God which I had no room for in all my thinking. I was well acquainted with many plain passages and if I accepted what they taught it would contradict and set aside some teaching that I held very dear. I searched the writings of men but could find no satisfactory help on the multitude of questions, problems and difficulties.

“A Testimony,” The Word of Truth, Vol 2, No. 12 (June-July 1938), 117-118. My emphasis.)[1]

And so it is not only his insights into Scripture that have sustained my interest in Sellers’s theology. It is also his maverick spirit, that is, the way this autodidact from early 20th-century Ohio withstood the pressure to conform to reigning theological opinion.

His understanding of what he was doing, both its limitations and achievements, is as exemplary as it is (in my experience) rare. But there was no false modesty or bashfulness about him. What he believed, he confidently asserted. But if further study proved his provisional understanding to be unsustainable, he retracted it without delay, apology, or fear of the consequences that the retraction logically implied for the rest of his teaching. He unflinchingly drew those consequences.

By ‘progressive study’ I mean that I must advance, change, correct, or clarify my position concerning any subject to bring my thoughts into harmony with every new fact, which I discover in the Word of God. And since Truth is a unit, readjustment at one point will call for some readjustment at a hundred other points. (From “Progressive Bible Study,” appended below.)

Sellers regimented his thought along lines his Biblical studies dictated. He had no system to defend: there were only truths God had committed to the pages of Scripture, which were his delightful burden to discover. He subjected whatever he conjectured to the grammatical and historical tests that the text required, scrapping whatever crumbled under that stress. Not under any academic or ecclesiastic institutional obligation, he was free of office and departmental politics. He had his own platforms. He couldn’t be fired.

. . . inasmuch as I believe that every precious truth of the Scriptures has been overwhelmed by and buried under the ecclesiastical rubbish and human tradition that has been heaped upon it, it is my conviction that my work lies in the realm of uncovering and recovering the truth that God declares by means of His Word. This puts me in direct conflict with those who would not only preserve the rubbish, but who would pile it still higher. I do not like this conflict, and do not seek to intensify it, but must accept it as part of my work for the Lord. (From “Progressive Bible Study,” appended below.)

In 1951, when he was 50, Sellers elaborated upon this spirit in a way so representative and, to me, touching that I’m moved to reproduce it here. The title is “Progressive Bible Study,” which is governed by the norm to bring one’s thinking in line with one’s discovery of the Biblical evidence, grammatically and historically vetted.

(It has nothing to do either with “progressive dispensationalism,” an offshoot of “orthodox” dispensationalism which asks about the soteriological progress from one dispensation to the next, or political progressivism.)

Sellers neither founded nor, after 1932, belonged to any denomination, congregation, assembly, communion or any other society into which Christians have organized themselves these past two millennia. I’d like to know whether anything in “Progressive Bible Study” offends the sensibilities of a reader who belongs to any such body. If that’s you, please consider telling me in the comment box below.

This article appeared in the August 1951 issue of Sellers’s periodical, The Word of Truth (Volume 12, No. 5, 105-111). I copied and pasted the text from the .pdf on Seed&Bread.org, but checked it against the original that had been electronically scanned to correct the typos that scanning inevitably brings.

Anthony Flood

Progressive Bible Study

Otis Q. Sellers, a student of Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, 1921

It is my earnest desire that all who come into contact with my spoken or written ministry shall understand the nature of the work, which I do as unto the Lord. My labors as a minister of Jesus Christ do not follow the usual patterns of service in which men engage who seek to serve God. My work is peculiar. However, I cannot help but believe that divinely arranged circumstances have so shaped my life and ministry that now I am doing the work that the Lord would have me do. I stand only before the Lord in regard to this, and welcome no suggestions from anyone that some other form of labor would be more acceptable in God’s sight.

My service to the Lord is perpetual and progressive Bible study, and the setting forth by every means available that which I find as a result of these efforts. By “perpetual study” I mean that my investigations can never come to an end in regard to any subject dealt with in the Word of God. My study of a subject may come to a temporary halt while results are appraised and assimilated. At such times I may set forth in writing my findings to date. But I accept as a Biblical fact the declaration that even when I think I know a thing, I still know nothing as I ought to know it (1 Cor. 8:2); therefore, the study must be resumed.

By “progressive study” I mean that I must advance, change, correct, or clarify my position concerning any subject to bring my thoughts into harmony with every new fact, which I discover in the Word of God. And since Truth is a unit, readjustment at one point will call for some readjustment at a hundred other points. It is this fact that keeps many men from receiving even one new ray of light. They become frightened when they see how many other changes must also be made, and that each of these changes may call for other adjustments.

If a student advances, changes, corrects, or clarifies his position as the result of the truth he finds, it will leave a trail of discarded ideas and abandoned positions. But this is a price that must be paid if we would “buy the truth” (Proverbs 23:23); a price that is all the more difficult to pay when one has thousands of books or pamphlets in print; a price that cannot be paid by anyone who has pledged eternal fidelity to a static system of theology.

My own trail of discarded ideas and abandoned positions may lay me open to a charge of instability, and it may embarrass those followers who have accepted me as a final authority, but this cannot be otherwise if I do the work the Lord has called me to do. I will make no attempt to dodge the consequences that come from following a true course. If in making any change I should lose “my following,” I will still have God’s leading. And since I am more interested in “His leading” than I am in “my following,” all changes that are forced upon me by increasing light from the Word of God
will readily be made.

This does not mean that I will quickly throw overboard without due exercise of heart and mind anything that I have believed and held to be true. Neither does it mean that all that I believe and teach is still open to question. I am not among those who are ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. But since I am learning as well as teaching, I can never pose as having nothing more to learn. In fact, my work of teaching is one process by which I learn. All my hearers and readers know this. Those who are looking for authoritarian dogma will not find it in my ministry.

My service unto the Lord is in relationship to the truth, which He has placed within the book we call the Bible. If, as some claim, there is truth in the stars, I leave it to them to bring it out. If, as others claim, it is to be found in the pyramids, they will have to crawl through its dusty passages without my fellowship. If, as many believe, the truth is hidden in great libraries, someone else will have to do the research to bring it forth. My ministry unto the Lord is related only to the truth that God has placed within His book. And inasmuch as I believe that every precious truth of the Scriptures has been overwhelmed by and buried under the ecclesiastical rubbish and human tradition that has been heaped upon it, it is my conviction that my work lies in the realm of uncovering and recovering the truth that God declares by means of His Word. This puts me in direct conflict with those who would not only preserve the rubbish, but who would pile it still higher. I do not like this conflict, and do not seek to intensify it, but must accept it as part of my work for the Lord.

I believe that in serving the Lord in relationship to His truth that I also serve those men in whose hearts God has awakened a desire for the truth. In the providence of God, lest the love of the truth should utterly perish from the hearts of men, He is constantly kindling in them a desire to know what He has said in His Word. It is evident that many snuff out this flame the moment it begins to burn, but a limited number fan the spark. I seek to serve these men who honestly desire to know, but since their number is limited, it makes a limited ministry, especially so since no great number of them can be found in anyone place. The most difficult fact which the man of God must accept is the limitation, which the truth places upon the service he performs. Some have abandoned the truth in order to have what they call a “wider ministry.”

If the service I perform in behalf of the truth is ever in any way hampered by the service I seek to perform for men, then my service in behalf of the truth must remain preeminent. Well meaning friends regularly point out the greater service that can be performed if I will leave out or go easy on that which hurts in the truth. I reprove anyone who makes such a suggestion, for truth is of greater importance to me than any service I can perform. A wider ministry would be most welcome, but more truth is even more desirable. I will give up nothing, which I believe to be the truth in order to serve men. In view of this I trust my readers will understand when I say frankly that the ministry I perform is not in relationship to men, it does not have the welfare of men as its goal, it is not inspired by the love I have for my fellow-man. I serve Jesus Christ; my service is related to His Truth; it has God’s glory for its goal, and it is inspired by my love for the personal and written Word of God, that is, Jesus Christ and the Bible. If this should seem blunt, then it needs to be understood that I feel such statements are necessary in a time when most service has men in view, when the goal of all service is to reach men, when love for men has replaced love for God, when devotion to service has replaced devotion to the truth.

An Example of Progress

What I have said above is a rather lengthy introduction of a pertinent example of progressive Bible study from my own personal experience. It might better be called an example of how the truth unfolds. There are many who believe that if a man sits down at his desk with his Bible open and his other books before him, that he can get the truth on any passage in a few hours’ time, more or less. This is not true. I would be the last to depreciate such study, since this must be done if any passage or problem concerning it is to be understood, but there is no guarantee that understanding of the truth can be gained by a few hours of research.

In this issue [of The Word of Truth] the reader will find what, to him, will probably be a new interpretation and a new position which I set forth in regard to Matthew 16:28. Since this represents a somewhat radical
change of viewpoint, he may well wonder about the processes by which I arrived at my present position. The passage reads:

Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom. Matt. 16:28.

My studies in the Word of God began when I was eighteen years of age. My first efforts were mostly reading, as my sole purpose at that time was to gain familiarity. In view of this the major difficulty, which was apparent in this passage did not bother me too much. But others bothered me about it or with it so I desired a solution. This desire was intensified when a minister who held the post-millennial view on prophecy argued with me that the second coming of Christ had to be something which took place while some of the twelve disciples were still alive. This verse was presented by him as the basis of his argument.

The first interpretation or explanation of this passage which I accepted and taught was that in the transfiguration which took place six days later, three of His disciples saw a type or picture of the second coming. Thus not one of them had died, and three of them saw a pattern of the kingdom.

I believe that I first came upon this explanation in the writings of Arno C. Gaebelein. It was also taught to me by a teacher in the Bible institute I attended [Moody], and since it was concurred in by the notes in the Scofield Reference Bible, I accepted it as being a satisfactory interpretation of the meaning of our Lord’s words. I passed this on to others as being my understanding of the passage. Nevertheless, the interpretation was wrong.

At this point it seems well to state that the acceptance of this wrong interpretation did me no harm, it did no harm to anyone to whom I taught it, neither did it do any damage to the unbreakable Word of God. It even served as a temporary resting place in my search for the truth. Real harm might have come from it if I had not been a student, or if I had been determined to hold this view in order to be
consistent. A false position leaves no room for the truth, but it was impossible for me to have the truth on this passage until certain other erroneous ideas, which were the original source of the difficulty were banished from my mind. This was to be a long process.

As time went by, my familiarity with the Gospel of Matthew greatly increased, and this resulted in a feeling that my interpretation of this passage left much to be desired. It jarred against the context. It made my Lord look ridiculous to interpret His words so as to make Him say that some out of twelve men would live for at least six days; which is just what we make Him to say if we explain His words as meaning an experience that was to be the lot of three of them in six days. I could no longer teach this interpretation, for I no longer believed it. This left me without an honest explanation of the difficulties in this passage. I was back where I began. This condition continued for several years. The desire for a satisfactory explanation, which would leave no difficulties was always with me.

My next explanation and position came after careful consideration. It was suggested by . In this passage (also in Matt. 10:23 and 24:34) there is an untranslated particle, an [ἂν], which denotes a contingency or dependency, and when used in the subjunctive mood makes a statement to be hypothetical rather than a direct assertion. This particle is untranslatable into English, but it would make this passage read, “Till they may see the Son of man coming in His kingdom.” This explanation will be found in writing in Volume VIII, Number 5, of The Word of Truth. I was very well satisfied with this interpretation. I received it myself and taught it to others. And, while I do not say that it is wrong, it is not a satisfactory explanation of this passage.

About a year after I wrote the article mentioned above, I was examining the Greek text of another passage, in no way related to this subject. In it I came upon the particle an, and it dawned upon me at once that while it denoted a contingency, it in no manner made the statement to be hypothetical. I determined to check at once every passage in which this particle occurred, and when I did the whole idea based upon the occurrence of this word in Matthew 16:28 was in ruins at my feet. I had reasoned upon a few facts, without taking into consideration all the facts. I was back where I was at
the start, with the same seemingly insoluble problems, which I had in the beginning.

However, just at that time certain other studies were driving from my mind certain deep-seated errors, and it was these errors that had caused the difficulties in the first place.

The first of these was the idea that in all passages such as this where the word coming is used that it refers to the personal, literal second coming of Christ.

The second was an erroneous understanding of the word kingdom. I made this to be the concrete instead of abstract, and thought that it included such elements as a territory, a city, a people, a law, and a king. This may be true of the English word kingdom, but it is not true of the Greek word basileia or the Hebrew word malkuth.

The third error was that “the kingdom of heaven” is the millennium of Revelation 20:1-6 and the final error that grew out of this was that the kingdom was postponed; that it never started.

It was these four errors, picked up the first year in which I knew the Lord, that created the difficulties in Matthew 16:28 in the first place. These errors led me to think that Christ said some of these men standing with Him should not experience death until they had seen the Son of man coming the second time and establishing His millennial reign.

My studies in the Word of God long ago convinced me that there are quite a few passages in which the coming of Christ is mentioned that have no reference to His personal, visible second coming. For example, in John 14:18 He said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” Only one true position is possible concerning this. He did not leave them comfortless; He came to them; therefore, this is not His second coming. This conviction led me to reconsider every passage, which has been arbitrarily assigned to the second coming.

Careful consideration of every occurrence of the Greek word translated kingdom showed the error of requiring that this word encompass a land, a city, a law, and a king. See Matthew 12:28, Luke 12:20, 1 Thessalonians 2:12 and Colossians 1:13, where the word kingdom appears and these things are not in view. The conviction came that the Greek word for kingdom really means government.

Then I came to realize that the kingdom of the heavens is not the millennium of Revelation 20:1-6, but that it precedes the millennium, and that the heavens actually began their government to a certain
extent the moment that Christ arose from. the dead.

With these errors in my thinking straightened out, the next time I looked at Matthew 16:28 there was no difficulty there. Eleven of the men to whom these words were spoken remained alive and saw “the Son of man coming in His kingdom.” Judas died by his own hand before the first great manifestation of heavens’ government was seen. The reader is asked to see the article on “The Kingdom of the Heavens” in this issue for a fuller exposition of this truth.

I have set forth these experiences which cover a period of almost thirty years to show the process by which I have been led into my present position on this one passage. And yet I find people who are frankly disappointed and ready to cast it aside just because they cannot understand the whole Bible “in one easy lesson.”

Those who do not understand the nature of my service unto the Lord will be inclined to ask how I can know or feel that I am right in my present understanding, in view of the fact that I have abandoned two previous positions. Some may even declare that a man who makes such changes is not a safe teacher.

I would answer these by saying that if I desired to cause men to believe that I speak with absolute authority, if I desired them to look upon me as infallible, if I aspired to deify myself so that people would regard me as God’s spokesman upon the earth, I would meticulously avoid making any such changes. Such confessions of error serve effectively to destroy any illusion that I am an authority, it keeps men from looking to me for truth instead of to God, and it reveals that I am nothing more than a student of the Word of God.

Tracing one’s position or belief back to its source will help greatly in determining whether it originated with man or with God. I can do this in regard to my present position on Matthew 16:28, and feel assured that my present understanding is correct. However, study will not cease, and if I should be wrong, even this will come to light. This is the glory of perpetual study. What one believes must be again and again exposed to the light. That position which has come from constant study, and which is the result of thoughts often revised and corrected, is more likely to be the truth than that
which has come from arbitrary decisions that a certain interpretation is the true one.

The demand for certainty seems to be one, which is natural to man, so men look for an authority who will settle things for them. Because of this a cocksure prophet is assured of a larger and more devoted following than one who makes no claim beyond being an honest student of the Word. To endure uncertainty even for a short time is difficult to all, and impossible for some. They will believe anything just to get a matter settled. They have not trained themselves to withhold judgment until all the evidence can be secured and considered. To be able to endure uncertainty is a virtue, which must be cultivated.

If the reader of these lines is seeking an authority who speaks infallibly and never needs to change, I am not that man. If he desires fellowship with a student whose life is devoted to perpetual and progressive Bible study, then come along with me. I may probably be of some help to you. You probably can be of some help to me.

Note

[1] Earlier in the article Sellers wrote:

Early in the year 1921 I entered the Moody Bible Institute as a student . . . . In the few months that had passed since finding Jesus Christ as my Savior I had been greatly helped in my understanding, my assurance, and my spiritual life through reading certain books by Dr. James M. Gray. It was only natural that my desire to see this servant of God was almost intense and I was happy to discover that he would be the teacher in one of my first classes. . . . Rushing across the courtyard, I found the class in session and Dr. Gray already teaching. And even though I was trying to find a seat and listen at the same time, his words made an impression on me that could not be erased. He was saying, as near as I can remember, these words.

Young men—read the book. Read it repeatedly, read it independently, read it carefully, read it prayerfully. Young men—read the book.

After that day I heard these words repeated many times. He enlarged upon them, stressed them, and emphasized them until the value of this methods of knowing the Word of God was so impressed upon my mind that from that day to this, these words express my chief method of Bible study.

. . . . Having no knowledge of God’s Word, except a few Bible stories learned in childhood, I determined to try this method with one book and keep at it until the thing became a familiar path. The book selected was Galatians and, being a rapid reader, it was not long until I had traveled through the book one hundred times. Being normal (I trust) as to my powers of perception and having an average memory, I became entirely familiar with all that it said, even though I had very little understanding of what it meant. But at least I knew what Paul had said, what Peter had done, what the Galatians had done, etc. It became as familiar to me as some of the paths of my childhood days when every bush and stone was a familiar friend. . . . (“A Testimony,” The Word of Truth, Vol 2, No. 12 (June-July 1938), 117-118.)

Links to previous posts on Otis Q. Sellers