Wednesday, August 29, 2012
2 Peter 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
THAT'S JUST YOUR INTERPRETATION
Many believe that multiple, contradicting interpretations of God's Word can be considered equally valid. This attitude treats the Bible like some kind of abstract painting. You know, one where the artist doesn't want to tell you what he intended it to represent. Instead, he wants everyone to interpret it in their own way.
That's fine if you're an artist and if it's your work being viewed. But God didn't inspire the Bible word by word so we can say it means whatever we want. God didn't meticulously guard these words and phrases for millennia so that we can insert our own personal thoughts into them.
The same general rules that apply when reading the daily newspaper also apply when interpreting the Bible. To understand an article in a newspaper you have to understand what the individual words mean. Then you have to understand how sentences work to transmit information. Then you have to consider the whole article and any other articles you've read by that same person. If the newspaper is from a different country you might benefit from knowing something about the history of that country, or some of the current events. With these things in mind you'll be able to understand what is being said in a particular article.
Let the words, the grammar and the rest of the person's work speak! What if I told an evolutionist that Darwin's book, "On the Origin of Species" was really an extended parable expressing Darwin's belief that one God created all life in six twenty-four hour days? That person would scream, "That's not fair! You can't just read your own beliefs into someone else's work!" But that's exactly what humans do to God when they insist that the Bible can mean whatever they want it to mean.
