Influence part 2

A couple of months ago, I was at a para-church meeting when the speaker, a good friend and somewhat a mentor and inspiration to me quoted an obscure verse from Psalms that had to do with Free-will/Armenian theology and took a little rabbit trail into his free-will point of view.

I remember thinking, "Wow, I didn't know he was a free-will guy? Oh wait, he was raised in the Pentecostal church so that makes sense..."  *

That has lead me to think a few things:

A) How much do I believe, because it was the first thing I was taught... 

B) Am I invested in certain theology/thoughts about God for sentimental reasons more than a mature biblical revelation from God?

or put another way:

      B.1)How much do I support/defend/advocate for certain doctrines/teachings because of I have an emotional attachment to defend the integrity/reliability/spiritual orthodoxy of friends, loved ones, mentors...

C) How does this affect my interpretation of scripture? Do I allow scripture to interpret me or do I read it in a way to confirm my biases?

      C.1) Often I have caught myself reading the bible saying "Aha! See this did happen here in scripture, and that proves my point that God moves that way, teaches this or that, is like this or that, and not like so and so teaches.

Any thoughts?

* I shouldn't assume that my friend was simply indoctrinated into his view points because he was raised in certain church or that he didn't come to conclusions after personal study and seeking God. It just made me think is all.

Posted by - Jason