To understrand the Bible we need to understand how it is written. It is a literal document that sometimes uses figurative language that is explained and defined in literal ways elsewhere.
There are so many claims out there on how to study the Bible. And how to gain understanding of what it says.
The Bible was written in everyday words of everyday languages according to everyday rules of grammar and language. And that is how it is to be read.
The Bible was written in language. The intent of language is to consistently communicate thoughts and ideas. This requires defined rules of grammar and consistent word meaning.
So red has to be red all the time. Not blue or yellow sometimes. Up cannot mean down and so on.
Does the Bible have figurative language? Of course! But so does everyday language in the world around us. Even figurative speech has literal meaning so while the phrase may be figurative the meaning is literal.
So when the Bible uses figurative language either the culture and language of the day written had a literal understand for the phrase or the Bible defines the figure of speech elsewhere. Nothing is up in the air for figurative interpretation. Even when we struggle to understand today what was said then.
2 Peter 1: (NIV) 20 But (1) know this first of all, that (2) no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, 21 for (3) no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men (4) moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
How much more clearly does it need to be stated? And yet we have individuals and groups declaring the Bible is not a literal document. That it is figurative and must be interpreted figuratively.
How do these people know they have these symbolic interpretations correct? Some claim the Holy Spirit tells them. Others just know it is right. Or that it is obvious.
Fact is there is no way to prove such interpretations. After all that requires either proof God told them or a literal foundation somewhere to work from. So anyway you go at it the issue always leads back to a literal demand for literal proof.
Not to mention it totally violates 2 Peter 1:20-21. But one must remember that is also figurative and needs to be understood as such according to this thinking.
Bottom line is this method of interpretation is totally based on human wisdom and human vanity to believe they are capable of performing such a task. And beyond any proving.
Another problem are groups, such as Roman Catholics, that believes only ordained priests, etc. of the Roman Catholic Church are equipped to rightly interpret the Bible. And that the Bible is a creation of the Catholics Church and other documents and men are equal to or superior to the Bible in understanding and interpretation of God's will and declarations.
Again, not of private interpretation. The claims these people speak for God to the common believer makes them oracles for God. They become the ordained interpreters that are required to understand God’s written word.
How else could it be anything else than private interpretation if no one but them can understand? Yet over the centuries their understanding has changed and is often directly opposed to understanding that existed before.
So is God changing his Truth or are these men just flat out wrong?
Another group that are major in numbers are those who practice what can be called "Shopping Cart Theology." In grocery shopping consumers pick what they wish off the shelves, put it in their cart as theirs, and disregard the rest of the products offered. These do the same with the Bible and its teachings.
A good example are those who value "unity" over truth. Or those who do not want to deal with the demands of study to be able to defend what they believe. Or be shown they are wrong. As in the often used:
Luke 6: (NIV) 37"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
But does it mean what they say it means? Never judge? Never condemn? And so on? No!
They do not finish the passage. Nor do they consider the context in which it is stated.
This was spoken to Jews who taught legalisms. The Pharisees and Sadducees live by Law, their Law.
Christ is telling them it is easy to love and praise those who do right and good to them. It is not easy to love and not condemn those who do wrong to them. But it is easy to judge and condemn them.
And those Jews did not believe in forgiving those who did them wrong. They were legalists. This was a new concept to them.
Notice this passage continues to say: 41"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
It does not say to not note there are errors in others. It does not say to not take action to remove the errors from another. It says first clean up your act and then you can help remove the error in others correctly. And listen to those who point out your errors.That you will then be able to correct others lovingly and not in judgment or condemnation.
It goes on to say the foundation we work from determines the strength of our works. Get our foundation correct before we attempt to build upon it.
We are indeed to judge. But judge in love, righetousness, correctly, for the right motives, and to act upon the judgment wisely, even when it means reamaining silent.
Here are examples of our required judging: Matthew 7: (NIV) 15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. 21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Here we are told we must judge within the Church: 1 Corinthians 5: (NIV) 1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. 2And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature[1] may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. 6Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. 9I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-- 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."[2]
Christ judged the money changers, Paul the divisions created by people dividing into separate groups over the teachings and doctrines of specific men (the beginnings of denominationalism).
The Bible must be interpreted properly. Word meaning, context, historical setting, and so on must be taken into consideration. And while passage meaning cannot be altered their meanings must be weighed and added to the meanings of the rest of the Bible to develop a more complete picture of all being said on an issue.
While others exist, the final group I will mention here are those who claim to be literal but reject rules of grammar and language. That there are special meanings and rules applied to the Bible. And they call these rules "Interpreting Scripture by Scripture."
Sound really solid and marvelous. And in fact is based on some sound interpretive principles. But principles that have been corrupted into a very non-literal and incorrect usage.
What this technique does is select certain verses in the Bible as foundation declarations. Then a doctrinal interpretation is made. In turn that doctrinal interpretation becomes the meaning of key words and similar contexts throughout the Bible.
And it also takes these key verses and in reading other verses reads those verses in as if these key verses were actually part of the text. So it is not verse x:1 and y:2 being read separately and understood. Then compared. They are read as if it were actually verse xy:1/2.
That is a total violation of rules of grammar and basic reading skills. Plus violates grammatical historical reasoning.
Each verse and passage must be read and understood by its independent meaning and context. Then on related subjects you compare and harmonize the meanings without corrupting individual meanings.
A frequently used example is Revelation 3:10. “Kept from” in the Greek literally means, “guarded by removal from the place of issue”. There is no way around the word definitions.
Yet, those of this method take other verses from the New Testament and merge them into this verse. They carry their doctrinally determined defining meaning over the actual words of Revelation 3:10. So, when talking about guarded by removal from testing from the whole earth it now means guarded in and during the testing on the earth because in other places where such protection was extended over a local area those protected were removed but not removed from the earth. Hence Rev. 3:10 cannot mean removal from the earth. And because Christ prayed (asked) for some to be guarded from evil and not removed from the world this demands no Church member is removed during the Tribulation Period.
I hope you see the picture. Totally unrelated situations are used as dictionary meaning for other verses. So doctrine becomes dictionary. And which verses are dictionary verses and which are defined by these dictionary verses are determined by doctrine.
They never see the issue of violation of word meaning. Or grammatical issues. Or who determines which verses define and which are defined. And that is because they believe there is a Holy Dictionary and Rules of Grammar, figuratively speaking.
The claim is made they are reading according to the Bible. Yet they cannot show their method in the Bible when challenged. But we are reading by doctrine.
Since when did normal rules of grammar become doctrine and non-grammatical methods become non-doctrinal? Would you read a newspaper, magazine or book their way? I don’t think so!
Plus the often-made claim by many the Holy Spirit revealed the truth of this method to them. Well, here is the violation of 2 Peter 1 again. And lack of proof the Holy Spirit said anything. Especially when others believe the Holy Spirit says to them literal is the true way and they are in error.
And as with such as Roman Catholicism and the ordained, they make themselves oracles of God. If you are not trained in this interpretive method you cannot comprehend the truth.
And contrary to the claims of some they were taught this interpretive method and the interpreted meanings. The Holy Spirit did not reveal it to all of them individually and they found others had the same revealed to them. It is more they feel the Holy Spirit confirmed it to them.
Yet we find others with doctrines they reject making the same confirmation claim. Many Christian Cults make the same claim to confirm their beliefs. In example the LDS and the burning in the bosom. Or the Unification Church. And so on.
Finally, contrary to those holding many of these positions literalists do feel guided by the Holy Spirit. We do believe he speaks and guides us to greater understanding. That no one can understand the depths of the Bible without his guidance. But that there is a vast difference in being guided to depths of understand of the literal word than to secret meanings that only can be revealed by the Holy Spirit. That is Gnosis, and the Bible says no to such private interpretation and understanding.
So how do we test these claims, including the ones made here? By following the literal guidance of the Bible. Test ALL spirits and claims against the literal word of the Bible.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NIV) "Test all things; hold fast what is good"
1 John 4:1 (NIV) "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
Matthew 7: (NIV) 15"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."
Prayer alone is not enough. The LDS, JWs, and Moonies will tell you to do exactly that for proof. But they will not tell you to look for literal confirmation in the literal words of the literal Bible.
So the second these claims arise where you cannot understand the Bible except by their special Holy Spirit or other revealed method one should walk away. 2 Peter has been violated.
