A sixteenth century monk was miraculously delivered
into the kingdom of God by a text with nearly the same
meaning as the one above cited. He read in the pages
of the jealously undistributed Bible of his time these
words, "The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17)
His name was Martin Luther, and upon the truth
contained in this verse, not only was his salvation
obtained, but it led him to challenge the dogma of the
Church of Rome which began the Protestant Reformation
that continues in one shape or another to this day.
This historical fact also substantially confirms that
"without controversy, great is the mystery of
godliness." (I Timothy 3:16) But how often has this
fundamental truth concerning faith been far from the
understanding, and even farther from the teachings of
what is commonly termed the "Christian Church" of this
Laodicean age? Moreover, how often has the proper
wisdom of faith been the spark of the greatest
controversies since the world was? Yet, all the
related truth concerning salvation by faith is given
by God between the two covers of the Holy Bible. That
is to say, the complete word of God; both the
fulfilled and unfulfilled portions of the Holy
Scriptures; not just selected testaments, books,
chapters, or verses that, largely by misinterpretation,
happen to agree with or support man's feeble
understanding about God and His creation.
In order to remove some of the misconceptions
regarding Bible interpretation, I shall attempt to
show some proper and improper methods of interpreting
the Holy Scriptures. That we are justified by faith
and not by works is fairly understood by most
believers and has been dealt with far better than I
could by other preachers. So, I'll just stick to
Bible interpretation in this work. In the course of
this, I will examine certain individual scripture
passages that seem to have been ignored which prove
that the Old Testament cannot be disregarded or thrown
away.
Now, a brief capsule on some proper and improper
methods of interpreting the Holy Scriptures.
There are numerous and large volumes upon the
subject of biblical exegesis. Since this is a brief
account, only the most important of the methods will
be presented. However, the reader is fully encouraged
to buy or check out works upon the subject of biblical
exegesis from Christian bookstores or public libraries
for a more detailed discussion.
I. The Bible is Complete
It is very important to consider and accept the
Bible as the complete Word of God. It ought not only
to be accepted as that from which nothing may be taken
away and to which nothing may be added under the peril
of the wrath of God (Rev. 22:18-19); but the whole
divinely inspired Word (II Peter 1:20-21) is to be
accepted or internalized by the heart and mind of
"every man that cometh into the world." (John 1:9) It
is to be accepted as a unit or a complete work. This
is asserted and justified by the following texts:
1. "For I (Jesus,
who is God) testify unto every man that heareth the
words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall
add unto these things, God shall add unto him the
plagues that are written in this book: And if any man
shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy" either by removing the words themselves as
in the over seven thousand deletions in the
Alexandrian Greek text upon which all modern
translations are based, or by taking away the meaning
of the words themselves by misinterpretation,
misrepresentation, or general 'wresting of the
scriptures' (II Pet. 3:16-17), "God shall take away
his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy
city, and from the things which are written in this
book." (Revelation 22:18-19)
2. This same testimony is given in Deuteronomy 4:2,
"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you,
neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may
keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I
command you."
And 3. "Every word of God is pure: he
is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee,
and thou be found a liar." (Proverbs 30:5-6)
Here is given the same command both in
the Old and the New Testament asserting that the Word
of God is entire and need not be changed by adding to
it or deleting from it in the sense of adding or
deleting words that change the meaning and spirit of
the Word itself. Another example of adding is books
such as all alleged "forgotten testaments or epistles"
that many deceivers attempt to palm off to the public
as the inspired or God-sent word. The scriptures here
plainly assert that the word of God does not require
the hand or voice of man to diminish, detract or
distill that which has been written by "holy men of
old." This is done not only as noted above, but also
by religious groups or individuals that claim any part
of the word of God need not to be observed that Christ
did not Himself fulfill.
Christ came "not to destroy the law, or the
prophets:""but to fulfill." One does not need to go
too far into the new Testament to find stark
contradictions to the teachings of a great majority of
so-called religious institutions of our day. In
Romans 3:31, St. Paul asserts that we establish the
law through faith. This plainly means that whatever
Christ did not fulfill, (e.g. the second coming,
spoken of in the Psalms and the Prophets; the
abomination of desolation spoken of in Daniel; all
hymns and songs of praise given and written by Moses,
David, a few priests, Deborah, and the children of
Israel as a whole; the Day of Wrath when the wicked
and Satan shall be destroyed forever, spoken of in
the Psalms and the Prophets; the regathering and reign
of Israel spoken of by the Prophets; the restoration
of creation in the day of peace spoken of by the
prophets; the ordinance of circumcision both physical
and spiritual; etc., ad infinitum) all of these things
which Christ did not fulfill are to either be obeyed
or observed till such time as they are fulfilled or no
longer necessary.
The Old Testament may not be "diminished" or "taken
away" merely because some of it has been fulfilled.
Those things which have not been fulfilled are to
continue such as all the laws concerning neighbors,
abhorrence of idolatry, maintaining the Sabbath, etc.
The only thing that has been done away is the
ceremonial law of Moses.
Neither can it be alleged that because Jesus
changed a few of the Old Testament laws, that we are
not to regard any portion of the Old Testament or only
regard that portion that was changed. Not only for
the reasons above cited, but the consideration of the
second proper method of interpreting the Scripture.
That is, 2.) The Holy Scriptures must be interpreted
and accepted as eternal. This is affirmed by I Peter
1:23-25; Matt. 5:18 & Matt. 24:35 as well as by
Isaiah 40:8 & Psalm 119:152. So, here again is stated
the same concept in the Old and the New Testament.
Therefore, to do away with one is to effectually do
away with the other. Thus, neither can either one be,
by any Christian, removed, replaced or rendered
obsolete since both here and in many other topics, the
Old & the New agree by asserting the exact same thing.
The
Revelation and Daniel are very similar, for example,
and very few parts of either one have been already
fulfilled by Christ. Ezekiel is told to take a little
book and eat it just as was John in Revelation:
neither of which were fulfilled by Jesus or any
Christian until the entire Bible is read and/or
memorized by every
Christian which is the plain symbolism of both texts.
These and thousands of other passages testify to the
eternal quality of the word of God.
That God changed His word He has both the right and
reason so to do. We know that God does not change but
man does. So, man's relation to God and man was by
Jesus changed. Because God fulfilled His own word is
no proof that He or His word has changed. But it is
proof, yea, the highest evidence, that He is truth and
is true to His word. That a few of the civil laws
have been subject to change is understood. But this
is nowhere proscribed in the Bible. In fact, it is
virtually endorsed by Romans 13:1-4 so that it
appears to be generally understood by the Bible
writers whichever way it is viewed.
III. Truth Does Not Contradict
Itself
One of the first laws of truth is that it cannot
contradict itself. This is also the third proper
method of interpreting scripture. The claim that the
Bible contradicts itself is not provable to any true
child of God, nor to any true logician. For if God is
truth, truth cannot contradict itself. Therefore,
whatever proceeds from God must be the truth which
does not argue with itself. Most highly this applies
to His word. That the entire Bible is from God is
affirmed in II Pet. 1:20-21. Here, Peter is referring
in part to the prophets of the Old Testament. Peter
quotes the Old Testament in the book of Acts. Paul
quotes the Old Testament in the numerous epistles
which he, under no minor inspiration, wrote. Timothy
begins the first chapter of Hebrews quoting the Old
Testament.
The Old Testament was the Bible of the Apostles and
first century Christians. There was no New Testament
until it was first written, then organized by the
Apostle John between 90 and 100 A.D. John also sorted
the Antioch manuscripts from the corrupted Alexandrian
copies. To say that Christ contradicted and made the
Old Testament obsolete by His life, death and
resurrection, is to say that for forty to seventy
years, Christians had no written word of God. It is
also saying that God is a liar; because God said that
His word is eternal. It states that everything that
God said to man in the Old Testament is false if it is
contradicted by the New Testament. It is saying that
God changes, saying to man, "Write this down today,
and four-thousand and thirty-three years from now,
none of it will be worth reading, so throw it away!"
Ridiculous!
This notion is absurd and contradicts the revealed
character of God from the scriptures, Old and New
Testament, as well as the first law of truth.
"God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a
liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be
justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when
thou art judged." (Romans 3:4) Thus states St. Paul,
not contradicting, but upholding the Old Testament by
making it part of the New Testament. He here quotes
Psalms 116:11; 51:4b & 62:9 and combines the truth of
them all into one sentence.
IV. Discerning the Agreement of the
Word
It is granted that parts of the Bible may appear to
contradict one another; but if rightly divided as Paul
has here done, together with allowing the meaning to
remain with its context, the contradictions disappear.
This is largely accomplished by the fourth method of
interpreting scripture. Namely, 4.) The scripture
must be understood to agree with itself. Not by
"wresting the scriptures," but "rightly dividing the
word of truth," (2 Timothy 3:16) so that by
understanding each part, we may have the "whole body"
of the word "fitly joined together" with itself. No
part may be interpreted in such a way as contradicts
another part. I shall provide an example of this
shortly in this paper. (ED/SD) This means that an
effort must be made on the part of the reader to do
this. One cannot blame God for not explaining Himself
better when the real fault is that one hasn't bothered
to
use the cross references or open up the dictionary.
If anyone holds a view, even if that one is a pastor,
priest or publican, if that view is directly and
obviously contradicted by another part of the Bible,
that view is to be disregarded and counted as nothing
worth. For example, many today hold the view that
Jesus had no brothers and sisters. This view is
directly contradicted by Matthew 13:55-56 & 12:46-50
which says that He does have four brothers and at
least two sisters; there could be more. This means
that the ones who hold to this view are both
self-deceived and are deceiving others with such
teaching. 2 Thessalonians 3:6 states that we are to
withdraw from such and have nothing to do with them
until they admit their wrong and change their views
to line up with the Word of God. The Bible does in
fact agree with itself and must be understood in this
fashion. All who teach otherwise are deceivers and
walk not in the faith according to the word we have
received from the Lord through His Holy Spirit and
the writers of the Bible. That this is different from
merely understanding that truth does not contradict
itself, is seen from being able to understand and
explain how the apparent contradictions really aren't
there. It is one thing to flatly assert that an
apparent contradiction is not one; and another to
be able to explain why the two texts in question do
not in reality contradict one another. For example,
the argument of whether we are justified by faith or
works, addressed by Paul and James respectively, may
be seen not to contradict each other when considering
the audience that each one was addressing at the time.
Paul was addressing Jews who had previously known
little but "works." James was addressing a belief
system that had developed and is termed
"hyper-Calvinism" today, which believe that we can sit
around and do what we please while our neighbors need
our help and still go to heaven. When rightly
dividing this truth, the correct course lies in
achieving a balance between these two. Neither
resting totally on our faith for justification, nor
our obedience to
the means of grace or helping others by what lies in
our power, or that is, loving our neighbors as
ourselves -- but a prayerful balance of both.
V. Prayer Before Reading = Respect
Lastly, and most important, 5.) Prayer is an
absolute necessity to understand most if not all of
the word of God. For this, one must know Jesus Christ
through faith, not church attendance; through being
born again, not just being sprinkled in baptism as a
baby. Through a constant, applied seeking the Lord
(Jeremiah 29:13-14) many scripture passages will be
revealed by the light of Christ through His Holy
Spirit. The light of Christ (John 1:1-14)
illuminating the heart and mind is the best method
for determining not only how a passage is to be
understood, but also how it may be applied to the
life of the seeker of truth. This truth may be
sought in any part of the word of God, not just the
New Testament. Despite what anyone else may teach or
believe, we have no such command from God Himself to
do away with any part of His word. It is ALL to be
read, understood and followed according to the best
of our understanding. Any who teach otherwise are
deceivers and antichrists. (Matthew 5:17-20) May God
bless you in your studies and guide you by His Holy
Spirit who desireth all men to be saved and come to a
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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