Tag Archives: Scripture and context

I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.–Jesus

Matthew 10

21Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved….

32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

An outrageous example of the bane (the poison) of Memory-Verse-Theology derives from the saying of Jesus, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Ripped from its context, it gives to us Christians the warrant to march off to war and shed blood, a la these self-made, pseudo-theologians who put themselves forward as ‘teachers’ in the Church. [And these same wooden, illiterate literalists do the same with “Buy a sword…” Link ]

The parallel of this saying of Jesus in Luke 14:

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Both these passages address “The Conditions of Discipleship,” or in the title of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous classic, “The Cost of Discipleship.”

Here in Luke (as in Matthew) we see the “hyperbolic form, which is an authentic part of Jesus’ teaching…Nowhere is the diverse character of the Kingdom’s advent seen more clearly than in the severance of family loyalties” a la I. Howard Marshall in the New International Greek Testament Commentary. Such is a noted feature in Jesus’ parables. For examples see “Shock and Awe.” (Link) Hyperbole serves to grab the attention of Jesus’ listeners.

As to this hyperbolic saying in Luke (and in Matthew) about family, surely, any true Christian knows we are to love all people, even our enemies. (Link)

Kevin Sorbo Movie, Rise of the Antichrist


“Beam me up, SCOTTY!”

That stands as an iconic line from a TV movie series that we all know.

“Before those empty clothes hit the ground”

That from a narrator, gives us a cringe line that stands out in one of the Left Behind movies, Rise of the Antichrist (2023) directed by and starring Kevin Sorbo.

At 30,000 feet, Captain Ray (Sorbo) turns to the co-pilot, only to see his crumpled uniform lying on the right seat. And half the passengers have disappeared.

Later in the movie, Ray’s daughter goes to the cemetery with a shovel and digs up her grandmother’s coffin. Looking for confirmation of her growing belief in the Rapture, she opens the coffin to find only a nice dress and a cross necklace.

A narrator opens the movie with these lines:

“With God, all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26…now, for the first time, I know it’s true. You see, , six months ago, something impossible happened down there. In one instant of time, millions of people just disappeared without a trace. POOF. Gone…

Sorbo’s movie gives us clean entertainment with a clear intent to evangelize non-believers. The movie ends with Captain Ray (Sorbo), his daughter, and a pastor barely escaping the antichrist thugs who are trying to kill them. As Sorbo circles his single engine plane over the city, they ‘bomb’ the streets with Christian tracts explaining the “Rapture.”

The movie tells us that “there were plenty of warnings [about the Rapture]…but there were plenty of closed minds, and we all know that a closed mind is not an easy thing to open…those people just vanish into thin air…most people still had no interest in the fact that all of it was written down thousands of years ago in that dusty old book…”

In a video left behind by his wife’s pastor, Captain Ray Steel (Kevin Sorbo) hears the message that “false teachers” did not believe. And Ray had also failed to believe. His wife, “Irene had told him what would happen, and it did.”

The movie focuses on the extra-biblical teaching of the “Rapture,” NOT on Christ’s death on the cross and the Resurrection and His Second Coming. The movie message “trust the Bible” leads to this question by Chloe, Ray’s daughter (whose mom and brother had disappeared): “What about all those people who claim the Rapture is not in the Bible?”

The movie gives us an immediate answer: “First Thessalonians Four.”


But as any honest New Testament scholar will tell us, 1st Thessalonians 4 gives its readers assurance about the parousia, the Second Coming of Christ. Verse 13 gives us the key context, the concern of some in Thessalonica that fellow Christians who had already died might be at some disadvantage when Christ returned. Verse 15 references the Parousia, the Second Coming.

As Prof. N. T. Wright wrote, “the rapture is an American obsession.” And the Left Behinders seem oblivious to the hard fact that the overwhelming majority of their fellow members of the Body of Christ, believe only the New Testament’s teaching about the Second Coming, not the extra-biblical Rapture teaching. That Rapture belief is confined mostly to a segment of American Evangelicals, and those to whom they sent missionaries with their Schofield Bibles [like those in the Corrie Ten Boom Quote Below] . But standard Evangelical reference works and commentaries do not teach that. See such noted New Testament scholars as F. F. Bruce, I. Howard Marshall, Leon Morris, etc.

The ‘Rapture’ business is a billion dollar industry which had sold over 60 million copies, by 2016, of just the Left Behind fiction series of books. And every popular Rapture teacher has his own books for sale. Think Hal Lindsey, back in the big beginning of this business. And then we see the list of many movies, including this one with Kevin Sorbo, and another with Nicholas Cage. The advertising budget is BIG. (Take that you New Testament scholars!).

The thrilling plot of “Rise of the Anitchrist” pushes the world towards “the great re-set,” a one world government, and a single electronic currency with all the trimmings. Terrified people and families watch murders and suicides all around them as they grapple with the disappearance of friends or loved ones in this world where the salt and light all went “poof” and vanished.

In the film we are told that the Rapture is “Jesus taking his church [true believers] to heaven to protect them.” [Never mind believers come lately like Kevin Sorbo and his daughter.]

This is a key point of the Left Behind teaching, [ “God did not appoint us to wrath”–1 Thessalonians 5:9a, ripped from CONTEXT] and its greatest irony. God will not leave those true, seasoned Christians here to go through the Great Tribulation, but He will leave these NEW Christians who are converted after the Rapture, during the tribulation, to do so, all by themselves!

Corrie Ten Boom noted: “There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this….

“In China, the Christians were told, ‘Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated — raptured.’ Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly,

‘We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes — to stand and not faint.’”

Paul, the Parousia & his Epistles

READ the Exposition of the texts in the LINKS above. Put behind you the cardinal sins of sloth and hubris. BE a true disciple, a learner.(LINK) “diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
–-2 Timothy 2:15

Paul, the Parousia & his Epistles

Pastor Robert Jeffress, one of a few good Bible teachers who promote “the Rapture” on Christian radio, made a clear, insightful point of exegesis: Jesus did not speak of the “Rapture.” But rather, of the Second Coming.

[But Pastor Jeffress does think that Paul did– For Jeffress, the “Rapture” being a distinct, separate event from the Second Coming/Advent]

In Matthew 24, Jesus teaches about “the coming [parousia] of the Son of Man” v. 27, that “all the nations…will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

“…He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect…”

[His elect that were already gathered at a previous ‘Rapture’ ?!]

In 1 Thessalonians, Paul greets his converts with the praise that they “turned to God from idols to server the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven…” (1:10)

These Thessalonians are his hope and joy, to be fulfilled “in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming [parousia].” (2:19)…with the trumpet of God (4:15).”

Paul was clearly drawing on Jesus’ teaching.

F. F. Bruce: “What is called the ‘day of Christ’ in Phil. 2:16 is referred to here as Christ’s Advent [parousia]. This is the earliest occurrence in literature of παρουσία [parousia] in its distinctive Christian sense of the advent of Christ in glory.”

“This Christian sense of παρουσία occurs six times in the Thessalonian letters…” and in 1 Cor. 15:23.

“It occurs four times in… (Matthew’s) discourse (Mat. 24:3, 27, 37, 39).”

“That the Thessalonians had been taught to expect this great event is plain from [1 Thess.] 1:10.” ***

The KEY CONTEXT, of 1 Thessalonians 4:

v.13f But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming [parousia] of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Chapter 5:  Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night *….whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another…

* “…the night the thief was coming…”–Jesus, Matthew 24

Exposition of 1 Thess. 4, Here (LINK)

Give it an honest reading.

***F. F. Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Word Biblical Commentary, 1982. {Rapturists are oblivious to the fact that Evangelical New Testament scholars and reference works do NOT espouse the Rapture. Not in this noted commentary, nor in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, nor The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, etc.}

Like those Christians who believe in Purgatory, nothing this side of Heaven is apt to convince Left Behinders to truly take the Bible in context on this subject. What we can do is help keep others from being misled as we share God’s word in context.

Parousia. In the NT, parousia, with reference to Christ, refers to Christ’s Second Advent, his Second Coming, “…the coming of Christ at the end-time for the general resurrection, last judgment and the creation of the new heaven and earth.”--The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, s.v. “present” (II:899ff).

N. T. Wright: “Rapture is an American Obsession.” It is not found in the New Testament

There are real consequences to mistaken beliefs. Corrie Ten Boom pointed out one very sad example (the result of American missionaries with their Scofield Bibles):

“Who Are the Nephilim?” Dr. Michael L. Brown

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GENESIS, Chapter 6.– When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim* were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

—Genesis

*Possibly means “fallen ones”; traditionally, “giants”; Num. 13:31-33

NOTE on the Text from NICOT Genesis:  In v. 4 “children” [Not Nephilim] is taken to be the antecedent of  “These mighty men…”  [ Nephilim…in those days is simply a time marker; a parenthetical historical note.]

david

Dr. Brown begins: “Isn’t it interesting that one of the most obscure verses in the Bible is the subject of so much conversation and speculation?”

And Dr. Brown ends: “Let’s not try to read too much into it.” youtube video here

In between, Dr. Brown makes clear that “We do not know.” Except for half of one sentence (which will not be even  noticed by most of his fans)  in the almost 3 minute video, we would not know that there are other explanations other than that of the far-fetched offspring of “fallen angels.”

Dr. Michael Brown is dealing with the nut-case fringe which speculates about aliens, space ships, and Nephilim today–this is the kind of stuff that sells books for a certain segment of evangelicals. Most who listen to him on facebook will never open a Bible and read Genesis in context.

The above text is Chapter 6. Chapter 5 gives us the line of Seth. And Chapter 4 gives us the line of Cain, preceded by the account of the offspring of Adam and Eve.

The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT) gives us three views of “the sons of God” in verse 2. One is that this is the standard reference to “angels” and equates their progeny with the Nephilim, as “fallen ones,” of verse 4. [It should be noted that this is the first reference to “sons of God” in the Bible. This exact phrase is found only three other times in Hebrew in Job, where it is a reference to angels. We must ask, is it proper to apply the definition found in a later book of a different genre to this very first [and ONLY] reference in Genesis?]

The masterful Old Testament scholar G. Ch. Aalders (BSC*) states, “This view is, in our judgment, untenable….it [sons of God] refers exclusively [here in Genesis Six] to the world of human beings.”

Prof. Aalders cites Hosea 1:10 which is a  reference to God’s chosen people as “sons of the living God.”

[NOTE the flow (the context) of the text above.  The FOCUS is on MAN–v. 1 “When Man”; v. 3 “Man”; v. 4 “men“–Which is why God pronounces his judgment on MAN immediately after ‘sons of God‘ in verse 3– Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years,  And again in v. 7 “I will blot out man” ]

“There are, moreover, other places in the Old Testament where people are referred to as ‘sons of God.’ In Deuteronomy 32:5 and Hosea 1:10 the Israelites are so designated.” [The Israelites, God’s chosen people who replaced God’s original chosen ones of Adam.]

Another (second) view, related to the flow of the text (chapters 4 and 5) given above, is that the “sons of God” were the descendants of Seth, and the “daughters of men” are the descendants of Cain. The sin is that of intermarriage between believer and unbeliever. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Harris, Archer, Waltke) sees this as the “more likely” explanation.

And a third view is that the “sons of God” were early royal aristocrats and “daughters of men” were “the royal harems of these despots.”

“The sin, then, is polygamy, along the lines of Lamech*, who also “took wives”(4:19).” [cf. 6:2, above, “took as their wives.”] *Lamech –descendant of Cain; both shed blood; Lamech is the first recorded man to take more than one wife.

The TEXT of this Scripture gives us no grounds for equating the Nephilim with the offspring of fallen angels

Cf. “the sons of God.” NICOT: “…the text establishes no causal connection…the giants were present at the same time [emphasis mine] as the marriages between ‘the sons of God’ and the ‘daughters of men.’” [Read that bold type again and make it clear in your mind.]

“The reference to the presence of giants is, thus, no more than a designation of time. This is indicated by the word ‘then’ or ‘at that time.’”

G. Ch. Aalders: “The writer speaks of the giants….a historical phenomenon that was familiar to his readers. Thus it was a meaningful designation of a specific period of history.”

“Genesis 6:1-4 should be approached as a straightforward description of the conditions that prevailed among the human race [the race of Adam] before the Deluge.”

Despite what we do not know about the Nephilim, we do know the context. And context is king. The one reason to study these verses is to be equipped to exhort those who carelessly use them [leading to their following various ‘winds’ that capture the vain imagination] to study them. Vain imaginations and idle speculations are stumbling blocks to others, esp. unbelievers, and give a poor witness when used by Christians.  All of us are to focus on Christ and His Kingdom that we may be found faithful stewards who do not need to be ashamed when He returns. Marana tha

*Bible Student”s Commentary, Genesis, Zondervan, 1981.

jesus-on-cross

Evangelical NT Scholars You Should Know: Leon Morris

morris

By Thomas Schreiner, prof. of NT

Leon Lamb Morris (1914–2006) stood out in his generation as one of the great evangelical scholars. He wrote 50 books and traveled extensively, speaking all around the world. His book The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, which has sold more than 50,000 copies, was his signature achievement. He wrote often about the cross, and his more popular treatments were also well-received. Morris stubbornly attended to the biblical text and closely sifted what it said, showing that penal substitution and the satisfaction of God’s wrath could not be expunged from our theological vocabulary. His massive NICNT commentary on the Gospel of John should probably be mentioned second in terms of its influence and scholarship. The effect of his writings is staggering. He wrote two commentaries (Tyndale and NICNT) on the Thessalonian epistles, and they sold more than 250,000 copies. His Tyndale commentary on 1 Corinthians, which appeared in two editions, also sold more than 250,000 copies.

Continued

Love One Another and Herding Cats

{Please note, all advertisements are random insertions by WordPress over which I have no control. Never used to happen.}

love_one_another_1 John 4

4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

These days, trying to help Christians think straight [i.e. to ‘love the Lord with all their heart’] and to take the text of Scripture seriously is akin to herding cats.

[Herding Cats–famous old Superbowl commercial]

As always, the above text, “love one another,” refers specifically to our fellow Christians, not to our unbelieving neighbors or to anyone else outside the Church.

[It is astounding how many American Christians do NOT know this; who do not know that “one another” is always a reference to our fellow believers.]

This is the special commandment which Jesus gave to his disciples. It is the sign by which Jesus said others would know that we are HIS.

 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”–John 13

Yes, Jesus also taught us to love our neighbor  (The Second Great Commandment). As E. J. Carnell wrote, “The responsibility to love all human beings is repeatedly set forth with such solemnity in Scripture that an unloving Christian is a manifest contradiction in terms.” (What we today call an oxymoron.) [But watering down “one another” so as to make it generic destroys its meaning.]

The_Good_Samaritan

But when Jesus and John said, “love one another,” they were referring to that unique fellowship we have with all those who believe in Him.

And Jesus set this teaching before the disciples with an extraordinary action before the Last Supper. Remarkable Maundy Thursday

See Love, Prayer, and Forgiveness: When Basics Become Heresies

Three Dollars NOOK &PC  or  Kindle

The Scene at the Last Supper (link to Maunday Thursday post)

 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13

Dispensationalism & the rapture

Dr. Ben Witherington is professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. This is an excellent synopsis of where “Left Behind” came from, and it is NOT the Bible. For the exegesis of the supposed ‘Rapture’ passage in 1 Thessalonians see: https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/second-coming-rapture-vs-scripture-christian/

timmacbride's avatartimmacbride.com

See this excellent 7-minute video discussing the origins of Dispensationalism and the idea of a secret rapture, from NT Professor Ben Witherington III.

The Rapture ‘Uncaged’

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Got Tools? Scripture Scissors

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I John: Who Are “They”?

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 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you…(2:27).

 The First Epistle of John vividly illustrates the key role that context commands as we seek to understand the text.  Those Christians to whom John wrote knew, first hand, that context.  For us, understanding requires a little homework.

Our first step, in the study of any of the epistles, should be to read the whole letter through.

Paul ends one letter, “I charge you before the Lord to have this epistle read to all the brethren.” This was the common practice in the church.

In days gone by, when we received a letter in the mail from family or friends, we read the whole thing. When we pick up our Bibles and turn to any epistle, we should first read the whole thing before we begin a piecemeal reading of it.

As we do that in 1 John, we come to the key clue, which clarifies the context, “They went out from us…”(2:19).

 Now, we need to seek some understanding of the spirit of those times.  Cerinthus, a contemporary of John at Ephesus, shows us the ideas that were in the air.  “Cerinthus, believed the spiritual Christ entered into a human (physical) Jesus at the time of his baptism (in the form of a dove) and left the human Jesus before the crucifixion. History reveals that Cerinthus lived in Ephesus toward the end of the first century, which was also where the aged apostle John lived. Irenaeus (AD 130–200) tells us that John specifically directed his Gospel against Cerinthus (e.g., John 1:14; 20:19–31).″
http://www.equip.org/PDF/JAJ210.pdf

The dualistic world view of that day [spirit=good/superior vs. matter=evil/inferior, i.e. matter is that which was created, e.g. flesh, body; thus “Creator” became an inferior deity. Marcion rejected the God of the OT] led to full blown Gnosticism in the following centuries with its docetic view of Jesus ( (dokeo—to seem). Jesus only ‘seemed’ to be a man.  “Docetists, claimed that Jesus had only the appearance of flesh, without substance or reality (like a phantom). (‘Docetism’ comes from a Greek word, dokeo, meaning ‘to seem’ or ‘to appear.’) Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, they said, was not real, for the body was not real.” 

This ‘Christianized’ spirit of the times, which developed into a more formal Christian Gnosticism by the mid-second century, emphasized an intuitive, special knowledge (gnosis) of mysteries, which separated out the true believers and gave them true salvation.

 Thus, as we read John’s letter, note his emphasis, starting in the first two verses, on the original, apostolic teaching “from the beginning” which his fellow Christians have received. John stresses the physical reality, e.g. “…our hands have handled.”  This stands in contrast to the new claims and new ways of those who “went out” from them.

Note the key verses, which test the doctrine of this new teaching:

Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?…(2:22).

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, (4:2).

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,…(5:1).

 The ‘liars’ denial led to new ways.  Denial of the Incarnation, results in denial that “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin”(1:7). For those with this ‘new’ knowledge, sin is no longer of consequence.  This is merely a concern of the inferior, created order. So, as you read through John, note his repeated emphasis on sin.

   And as you read, underline all the times he uses “know” and “Jesus” to help you see his emphasis.  Then, see if you understand the opening verse  at the top of this post.–“ you do not need that anyone teach you…(2:27).

We will look at that in the next post (linked).

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Note: other articles in this series linked here: 1 John 4:9 I John 2: Teachers versus False Teaching I John 5:16, Sin Unto Death I John: “God Is Love” vis-a-vis Heresy Love One Another 1 John 4

Of Ponds and Pitfalls

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Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
–-2 Timothy 2:15 (NASB)

Versus

Memory Verse Theology

Too often, we hear fellow Christians talking about “what this verse means to me.”

There certainly are verses that do have a special place in our hearts [link], which have given great comfort in times of crisis or direction out of aimless wanderings— this blessing , we may confidently hold unto. But if we become me-centered rather than Christ-centered, we quickly close the door to understanding as we quench the Spirit’s guidance.

Still, God in his great mercy bears with us in our immaturity.

As a child growing up in the Ozarks, Erasmus’ parents forbade him to take part in any skinny-dipping in the local ponds. As a teenager, Erasmus felt the conviction of a verse in James (1:2) which, in the King James Version, speaks of “divers temptations.” Perhaps “divers lusts and pleasures” (Titus 3:3) served to strengthen his convictions, and “divers diseases” (Mark 1:34) might have instilled enough dread to keep this young man out of the pond! But, being unfamiliar with Scuba diving, what would he have thought about “divers weights” and how would “divers colours” fit into the scheme of skinny-dipping unless it was winter tide and he was thinking of the color, blue?

We may make light of silly interpretations to expose our weakness. We, however, must take care not to make light of conviction in a boy indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But his understanding of this particular Scripture verse is not to be an example that we strive to follow. Rather, the example highlights one pitfall along our path as we read Scripture.

Though God bears with us, “the smoldering wick he will not quench,” immaturity is not our goal; nor are subjective interpretations of Scripture to be the guide that we follow.

If we continue on this post-modern path of subjectivism, of giving equal weight to each of our own opinions about what a verse of Scripture teaches, then we are reinforcing the secular claim that there is no absolute truth (which, of course, is an absolute claim and utter nonsense). If “what this verse means to me” becomes our standard, then we have nothing to say to the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses about their heretical teachings. After all, select verses of Scripture mean something different to them. And, in this new age, who are we to question their interpretations?

Against today’s subjectivism, we must clearly declare “that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20).

As The Expositor’s Bible Commentary states, “no prophecy of Scripture is to be interpreted by any individual in an arbitrary way.” If we are ignorant of its full meaning and simply think of prophecy as limited to predicting the future, we will lose our way here. But prophecy encompasses bringing the mind of God to bear upon the present situation. The Old Testament prophets repeatedly reminded God’s people of what the word of God had already revealed to them. The prophets vividly reminded them and called them to return to God and obey his ways. They called them to repent.

When Peter wrote that warning quoted above, his concern centered on the parallel between “false prophets among the people” and “false teachers among you; who will secretly bring in destructive heresies . . .” (2 Peter 2:1).

Peter warned us about arbitrary interpretations of the prophecies of Scripture by any individual. This warning, as we see from the parallel that he drew, also applies to arbitrary interpretations of the teachings of Scripture. And the specific point we must see here is that we are not to interpret and apply Scriptural teaching  in some arbitrary way which is awash in the philosophy of our own day.

The path that avoids that deep pitfall of our arbitrary ideas, lies alongside our familiarity with Scripture. (There can be none of this picking and choosing of verses without our awareness of their context.) To walk that path requires discipline. Step by step, we must regularly read God’s word and study it with the diligence of true disciples. [True students, learners.]

Adapted from(Link)>  Love, Prayer, and Forgiveness: When Basics Become Heresies 

Here is an example of a Bible passage where many American Evangelical Christians throw the context out the window and insert their own ideas.

Link>  1 Thessalonians