Abstract:
Discernment is one of the concepts that urge
each and everyone to think critically and anew. The concept of a never-ending spiral of
thinking is very familiar in the circles of reformed churches. This concept is also known
from the wisdom literature in the Old Testament. The realisation that you do not know,
means approaching the ability to grasp something of wisdom. In order to find out what the
Old Testament is saying about ‘discern’, I did a textual research on the two Hebrew words:
בין and בחן . I apply the results of this research to the context of the church (with specific
reference to the ‘Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika’ [NH Church]) attempting to
find out what the church’s responsibility is with regards to what is really important (i.e.
discernment).
