On The Bible and "Prooftexting"
In my many years as a believer in Jesus Christ I have seen many, many people "quote" scripture to make one point or another. Usually, someone will make a statement and then provide a Bible reference to "prove" their point. You will, in this little blog, see me do this many times, IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP!!! READ THE CONTEXT OF ANY VERSE GIVEN BY ANYONE!!! It is very (to the 5th power) common for people to make some incorrect point and provide a Bible reference that is out of context and, thus, wrong. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN! AS we move along into some Biblical doctrines I will try to include some common misinterpretations and explain them. But this rule applies to my writing as well. Are you familiar with the Bereans in scripture? The Bible says that the Bereans searched the scriptures to see if certain things were true (Acts 17.11). REMEMBER, THE BIBLE INTERPRETS ITSELF!!! It does not contradict itself. This is a matter of faith that is critical for right interpretation -- for RIGHTLY dividing the word of truth (2 Tim 2.15).
Another one about scripture, The Spirit and comparing passages…
1 Cor 2:12-16: But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are Spiritually discerned. But He who is Spiritual discerns all things, and He himself is judged by no one. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him?” But we have Christ’s mind.
Read the passages, check different translations (and by the way, NO translation is inspired or perfect -- they are all fallible!), compare them and, in faith, FIND THE WAY! :)
The Lord Jesus Christ, in His upper room discourse before His crucifixion, told the disciples…
John 16.12 I have many more things to tell you but you cannot bear them at this time…
He went on to reveal that we would receive the indwelling ministry of God The Holy Spirit who would guide us into all truth. And truth, it turns out, is permament…
Mathew 24.35, Mark 13.31, Luke 21.31: "Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away". This means that God preserves scripture. The Lord will not allow anyone to mess with what He has to say. (Someday I will do an incredibly clever post called "God invented blockchain!"). His words are forever. And, by the way, don't let anyone tell you that what was and wasn't scripture was decided by some council in the 4th century or whatever. God decides what is scripture, man can only recognize it. Early Christians had an extremely well developed idea of what writings were "canonical" and what writings were not. There have been some good books about this and many bad ones. I will find a couple of the good ones and let y'all know…
Mat 5:17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
This is another example of the fact that God preserves scripture. Don't let anyone use this passage to convince you that we as "church age" believers are "under" the law and obligated to do all that stuff. The law was (and is) divine revelation and Jesus "fullfilled" the many prophetic aspects of it. It stands as divine revelation forever and will continue to be valid forever even though subsequent revelation more fully explained many of those truths. Check out Paul, in Galatians, explaining that the law was a tutor. The law of Moses was given to teach and regulate the nation that was ordained to be a "light to the nations" and to reveal the savior to come (primarily) in ritual form. When a prophet "taught" the law, he explained the meaning behind all those things. The Law of Moses remains a shining example, even today, of God's grace forever.
Luke 16.17 -- "But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to pass away".
Just remember that when an apostle or other early witness of Christ talks about "the law" he is speaking in the sense that "the law" was the dominant revelation of Jesus Christ before the new testament epistles and the gospel accounts were written. Christ here is talking about the law as revelation, not as a code of living for believers after the sacrifice and resurrection and pentecost, which, at this point in His ministry, were not "on the table" yet. We are not "under" the law of Moses. It says so in many places in the new testament, particularly in Hebrews and Galatians.
Finally, I will wrap this up with what are known as "The Five Solas" which are, according to wikipedia (which we all know is the fount of all knowledge), a product of the protestant reformation. Actually, in my not so humble opinion, they are a product of scripture…
sola scriptura (by scripture alone) - growth as a believer is by God's word alone. There is no mystical revelation. God has finished what He has to say to the human race in writing (the greatest form of human communication). It is finished and beyond criticism. It is God's word and it is complete. (2 Peter 1.3). It has everything required for life and godliness (when someone who doesnt know thing one about the bible wants to criticize scripture or claims that God's message is incomplete thus requiring personal revelation from him, reject that person!) To be clear, I do not believe that God "speaks" to anyone today outside of His Word (That He went to a great deal of trouble to reveal, assemble and preserve in writing). I love people who make little effort to figure out The Bible but want or claim to have direct insider knowledge of stuff. (I actually do love them and can understand the confusion caused by a lot of unclear teaching out there..)
sola fide (by faith alone) - Christian salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. Go into your e-sword and look up the word "believe" and see all the verses. Faith is WHAT you believe. Jesus Christ was (and is) the God-man, 2nd person of the GODHEAD (dont freak out, we will talk about the trinity and polytheism, it's not so complicated) who lived a perfect life relying on God The Father and God The Holy Spirit, and was unjustly crucified (capital punishment in Roman times) and received judgement (the severing of that eternal relationship for three hours on the cross) of all the sins of mankind, past, present and future so that simple belief would "save" any single person. Remember, salvation is NOT by anything you do. You dont have to be a good person, you dont have to join a church, you dont have to weep tears of repentence or answer an altar call or speak in tongues or promise to change your life or stop drinking or anything like that. You just have to believe in THE SON. And not only that, Jesus was judged once and for all so that you could believe once and it will be effective forever. It used to be common in our country for people to talk about someone going to church and "getting saved". That IS how it works. You get saved once and for all time. As a nation we have gotten away from that which explains many of our problems at the moment.
sola gratia (by grace alone) - God's policy is grace. This means it is a free gift and you cant do ANYTHING to earn or deserve it. Christ died for your sins because of who HE is. Not because you are a wonderful person. Not because you earned or deserved anything from God. You, like everyone else, were born an unrighteous (which really means you are separated from God) human being and in need of Someone to FIX THAT FOR YOU. The Lord Jesus Christ did 100% of the work required to allow you to have an eternal relationship with God. Do not try to substitute anything for that simple belief that JESUS CHRIST WAS (AND IS) ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU! The Bible says the road to destruction is wide (working for it) and that many at the last judgement will try to argue (in vain) that their works should be enough to save them. In the old testament, Isaiah describes all our righteousness as "menstrual rags" in an attempt to communicate that our attempts at righteousness are unappealing (to put it mildly) to God. GOD GAVE THE MOST SO CLUELESS HUMAN BEINGS COULD JUST DO THE LEAST!!) Of course, nothing about the biological process of menstruation is, in any way, shameful. After all, God designed it. In our hypersensitive society I feel like I needed to say that…
solus Christus (Christ alone) - The Lord Jesus Christ said, "I am The Way and The Truth and The Life. No one comes to the Father except through me". The apostle Peter also said in Acts 4:12 "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." Jesus Christ is the only savior…
Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone) - A major part of my own theological foundation is that human history is about the Glory of God. It is a huge subject. There are many verses and rationales and it's not something that you can just quote a couple of verses and say, "THERE!!" But a quick summary that I think makes sense. God is perfect, eternal and almighty, and exists in three persons. God created a race of beings called "messengers", or more commonly to us, "angels". The Bible tells the story of the greatest angel who God created named Lucifer. He was perfect and sinless. But he came to desire the glory of God and sought to be elevated to that status. So he "fell" and there are indications that he took a sizable percentage of other angels with him in that desire to be worshipped like God. This has led to problems on planet Earth. Meanwhile, the same thing, more or less, happened with the newly created human race. God, who is perfect and just, made a plan to deal with these problems and His plan includes time to choose and reflects who He actually is. It is a plan of grace coming from love (John 3.16). He apparently offered some kind of salvation to angels and He offers something like that to all of us. He is the source of all good things in life. For His Son and for love and life and truth and beauty and happiness and laughter. For knowledge and pleasure and friendship and justice and victory. For every good thing that exists in our reality. For reality itself, for God IS reality. We exist within the reality of Him and outside of that there is nothing. The Bible says that we are to praise God, with our lips and our lives. Why? Does God have low self esteem and needs our praise? Nope. He wants us to know Him and recognize who He is and what He has done, not because He needs that. But because He KNOWS that it is the very best thing for every one of us. Be oriented to reality. See that the things that have been done are very good and that reality is awesome. Notice the beauty and intricacy of life. Use your ability to reason to know even deeper things. And know what HE has to say and understand that eventually it's all going to be perfect once everyone has had a chance to believe. It rocks and it's free. Love somebody and tell them! There are going to be self absorbed people who miss the point, who are going to fall for lies, and we don't want that. God is not willing for anyone to perish but for all to come to a saving knowledge of His plan…
That's enough for now. Thanks and tell a friend… :)
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