Sunday, May 13, 2012

342. Misunderstanding Bible Passages

While the Word of God may be perfect, our understanding of it is not. Although the scripture may be given by inspiration of God, that does not necessarily mean all scripture is inspired by God. Someone once said: "The Bible can become one of the most dangerous books you'll ever read... if you don't understand the gospel." So this week we take a quick look at a few scripture passages as examples that may cause people to misinterpret the message that God is trying to send. If your interpretation doesn't seem like it's good news, then it may just be another religious point of view and not the message of the gospel.

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8 comments:

  1. Hi everyone, it’s me, the Marcion poser.

    Anyway, I picture in the future life, the guys who wrote the NT being totally shocked and saying something like “you mean to say you dug up our old letters and gospels and glued them into a book …, did you guys miss the point in the new covenant about Christ living in you? …, do all you 21st century guys have cow pies for brains?”

    Just an opinion from a minion.

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  2. Paul, etc, might very well be shocked, but I'm especially thankful that the revelation of the gospel that he received directly from Jesus (so he says) is written down for us today. I've not a problem with it at all.

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  3. Just so you're aware, I'm no spring chicken when it comes to thinking about these things and discussing them. :) I've been over this in my own head and with others many times over the years. I understand where you're coming from - and indeed our life is not the Bible, but our life is Christ Himself. We've talked about that more than once on the podcast.

    But even Christ used ancient scriptures (writings) in His earthly ministry, as did Paul, when explaining the gospel. I personally believe we've got a treasure in Paul's writings, as well as in the writings of others... and again, not to elevate them higher than the life of Christ in us.

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  4. Appreciated your thoughts Joel.

    One reason that Jesus and Paul used ancient scriptures is that the only formal education Jewish kids received in those days (different from other cultures like Greece) was solely the OT. Paul, being a Hellenistic Jew, probably also received some additional training common to Greek kids (i.e. philosophy etc.), but later he went to U of Pharisee. There is no doubt that Paul had a good understanding of the new covenant (and even Marcion recognized this).

    My worry is that a lot of pages in the bible are related to the old covenant, and this has led to much of the confusion we see today (especially re grace). Some people can get a lot from the bible, so I wouldn't want to discourage them from studying it as part of their journey. For me, I guess I've just thrown out the baby, bathwater and bible but saved the beer. :)

    (I promise no more comments on this from my end.)

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  5. Jim, I agree that there is much confusion regarding the old and new covenants. As Joel mentioned, we have hammered that pretty good over the years on our podcast. But in my view, we shouldn't throw out this entire document simply because people don't understand it. Why? Because it actually documents truth. In spite of our human error regarding the bible, it is the one road map we have to help people understand where they are located (in Christ). The bible is not our instruction manual on how to live, it simply reveals the (former) mystery of God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. It is unfortunate that religion has diminished this truth and caused people not to see the big picture, but this is part of the reason we do this podcast. :-)

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  6. I think it all boils down to LAW and Grace. The law was put in place 430 years after God made the promise to Abraham, by and through Faith in God. This was and is the Covenant made to Abraham and revealed in Christ Jesus. The Law is what is in peoples way and stopping, blocking us to come to full Faith in God and God alone. The people continue to mix LAW and GRACE, yet grace did much more abound. So I think die to the Law and the more you believe you are dead to the Law the more one will see truth in Christ and his finished unto the new covenant, which was in the old testament promised to Abraham by Faith. God is the same today, yesterday and forever. God never changes and has not. It has always been by Mercy that we are saved his Mercy, shown to us via God's Son Jesus Christ
    Howard

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  7. Law verses Grace, does oil and water mix? Does flesh and blood mix? Can it? God is a Sppirit and can only be worshipped in Spirit and truth.
    So why do we not reckon ourselves dead to the flesh (law) and alive to the God's Spirit in our Spirit? Romans 6:11 says reckon thyself dead, and in Romans 7 Paul exclaims that it is sin that dwells in the Flesh that always takes one captive to sin, but through the inward man he always serves God. So who is this inward man? I think this is who I want to learn to always follow as much as posiible, being alive in the Spirit forever we are the ones that do believe that is. In the spirit we are complete in Christ so let us seek after this as in Romans 8:2 no condemnation and forget about trying to stop sin in us, and focus on the new life in christ in the spirit and Spirit alone, dead to flesh, is dead to law, which is dead to sin taking occassion through the commandment
    Howard

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  8. Yep indeed, Howard, it has always been by God's grace and mercy that people have been saved and brought near to Him. :) Law and grace do not mix, and the way for us to experience the closeness that we already have with God is to truly reckon ourselves as dead to the law, since we truly are dead to the law, and to understand that we are fully alive to God in Christ, apart from the law.

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