I have noticed that some teachers and preachers today just rip passages of the Bible out of proper context in order to support whatever point they happen to be teaching. However, the Bible is a book of scripts from God and most of His scripts do have context. So maybe some teachers should read the context of a passage of the Bible before they give a teaching based on a passage.
Taking scriptures out of context and applying strange interpretations to them has been going on since scriptures were given. Making certain Bible passages allegory and misapplying them is how we got Gnosticism, certain Catholic Theologies, some Protestant Theologies, Dominion Theology, Replacement Theology, Liberation Theology, Emergent Theology, Word/Faith Theology etc, etc. Most heresy comes from some misapplication of scripture.
In evangelical Bible churches and in Pentecostalism teachers that would never resort to allegory will resort to taking a passage entirely out of context and applying it to support their message. This is not just going on with fringe teachers. I see scriptures that are ripped out of proper context published in evangelical Sunday School material and other teachings in the mainstream. I do not think it is a malicious attempt on the part of teacher to deceive since what they are teaching can often be supported elsewhere in scripture. So why do they use passages that do not support what they are teaching as if it supports it?
Perhaps because the passage is a convenient short cut. Rather than digging up various passages to support what they want to convey they conveniently find one that out of context says what they want more concisely. Maybe they think their audiences are so biblical illiterate that they will not know that the passage does not support their teaching. Perhaps there are a few that never were taught or never grasped that the Bible is not a book of unrelated passages to be quoted like the Koran. Much of The Bible is a script of related passages that needs to be understood in context. Who really knows why teachers rip verses out of proper context? Probably some of them are ignorant, others are preoccupied with other things, others are overworked and others are just lazy.
I see quite a bit of abuse with those quoting Old Testament passages where God is talking specifically and obviously to Israel and then making it some application for the Church. I know that most using these passages as some application for the Church do not support Replacement Theology but they often claim scriptures as if they do. The Church is not Israel and many things said specifically to Israel can never apply to the Church.
Some would then claim that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2Ti 3:16 ). Yes it is, but only if the scripture is applied as God intends for the above. For correct exegesis of the Bible Christians need to use the Grammatical-Historical interpretation of scriptures that also takes into account the context of the passage.
Much nonsense would not be taught if teachers would just read the full context. If your going to take a couple of verses out of the Bible to prove your point at least make sure that in context it proves your point. Even major cults use Bible passages to support their own theology. One can make the Bible say just about anything if your going to quote verses selectively and narrowly to support your own belief system.
The Bible is a book of scripts from God so we need to use the Grammatical-Historical interpretation of scripture and take into account the context of the passage.
Here, Here. I used to have a teacher that always said, text without context is error.
Biblical text without the context provided by the Holy Spirit is just Biblical text and will not be fully understood by even the most ardent believer.
The context is already provided by the Holy Spirit in the Biblical passages as God breathed them through His prophets.
The Holy Spirit helps us understand the deeper things of God (the meat) through a correlation of all the scriptures (studied in proper context)and our life experiences walking by faith in the Spirit. It is why we told to study to show ourselves approved and also why we are told to pray for ourselves and for others to receive wisdom and understanding from God. Further, being trained by walking by faith in the Spirit is why some have attained greater spiritual maturity in the Body.
The Holy Spirit is not going to reveal spiritually discerned truths to those who have not even grasped the basic Christian foundational truths (1Co 3:1-2).
But getting back to the post topic. All scripture needs to be read and studied in full context of the passage or there is a huge chance that one will never understand what God really said in the passage and to whom He said it.
“All scripture needs to be read and studied in full context of the passage or there is a huge chance that one will never understand what God really said in the passage and to whom He said it.”
Don,
That is precisely the point I made in my comment: it is the Holy Spirit – and ONLY the Holy Spirit – who guides the believer to the corresponding God-breathed context, and thus the correct understanding of the context.
Why are they so many differing interpretations of God-breathed scripts of prophecy if there is but one Holy Spirit who guides the interpretation of the prophecy? Obviously more than a few interpretations of various prophecies are not led by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and thus they are in prophetic error.
While we are all sealed by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ at the moment of our salvation, the Baptism of the Spirit and the manifestation of that baptism in the gifts of the Spirit (the Speaking and Serving gifts) are something else. ! Corinthians 12:4-7, 11.
Sean,
I understand your Pentecostal second Baptism of the Spirit viewpoint and it seems that is why we are on different pages here. I totally disagree with the second Baptism of the Spirit views that you hold but do agree with spiritual gifts for service. Anyway, that is off post topic for this post and I know from experience that these issues are not going to be settled here anyway.
My point is that there is context in the Bible that is obvious normal language context. People should not quote people out of context neither should Christian leaders be quoting God out of context. Certain understandings of the scripture are spiritually discerned for sure, but that is not what I am talking about in this post.
Don, I used to be a farrier or horseshoer. I went to a school that taught us how to fit the shoe to the horse, not the horse to the shoe. Just like a person’s fingernail a horse’s hooves grow. I could take a straight piece of steel, put it in a coal fired forge and then hammer the bar of steel into something that would help protect the hoof and not change the gate of the horse. I have taken that same principle of horsehoeing into studying the scriptures. Before I start my studies I always pray about what I am reading so that I am guided by the Holy Spirit. I would heat the steel to an orange/red glow, no sparking that’s to hot, if the metal is to cold when you start to hammer the steel it will break or crack, if it is to hot it will break also, then it is no good. But if heated like I said earlier then it bends easily, and I can put the holes for the nails to attach the piece to the horse. So it is with studying the Scriptures, you need to fit verse to the Bible, not the Bible to the verse. It also helps to have the hammerhead hot and anvil hot, this is so when you lay your metal to be shaped on the anvil it will not cool too quickly and when you strike the metal with the hammer it will not draw to much heat from the metal either. I look at it like this the hammer is God the Father, the anvil being the Holy Spirit, the piece of steel is us. We are to be heated by The Word. If you have not prayed before reading you are not properly heated, and you are going to fail or break.
True Joel, and a good analogy. But that is not really the issue I am addressing in this post. I am claiming that some Christian teachers just take scripture out of context because they find it very convenient to do so.
By the way, 1Rosebud. Just telling me you read the post and commentaries are not going to get you posted in the comments section. You must contribute something to the conversation.
This is one of the most significant themes in biblical discernment issues. And if we have the wrong interpretaation of the bliblical text, how can we judge things happening all around the world?
Normally people quote small texts when explaining doctrine. But I find it difficult to cite a small part of a verse to back up my reasoning without explaining the context. This makes the quote longer and it takes more time to read, but it is the best. For example, I like it when Don quotes long chapter texts in his Revelation commentary.
This I have found: the smaller the cited text, the father away writers are from the truth. Some cults cite a lot of the Bible. But they like to pin point, ignoring the context. They have built their wrong doctrine in pillars of twisted Bible quotations. I’ve seen they normally have 2 or 3 favorite biblical references. These they explain thoroughly and change the meaning of the key words. It may be by altering the text or adjusting the meaning of a word to favor their doctrine. After changing the meaning of these 2 or 3 passages, they then bring up logical deductions and pretty wrong unsound conclusions and doctrines.
Starting from two weeks ago, I’ve been doing some research on progressive creationists or the creationist “Gap” theory. It is interesting how they center their beliefs on misinterpreting two passages: 2 Peter 3:5-7 and Genesis 1:2. The lecture on “Biblical Principles for
Interpreting God’s Word” by Cooper P. Abrams, III gave me more understanding on how these creationists err. He mentions them as an example on how they twist the texts.
May God give us discernment while reading His word and perspicacity when encountering a whole range of interpretations, some of them opposing to each other.
I am glad you have addressed this issue about the bible, it seems that with the rise of easy access to information, is also the rise of misinformation from tyhe information. People seem to just use information nowadays to support their points rather than to support a point