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What is dangerous about taking a Scripture to mean something other than the plain, natural or literal sense? Do we have the option to say the Holy Spirit has given us new meanings from the same words in Scripture? Explain your answers.
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5 Replies
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Not real sure how to say this.
If you don’t know for sure, it might be best not to say anything. In other words, some things are not clear, and if you don’t know, don’t say. Allow time for the Holy Spirit to edify you. It is the nature of humanity to figure things out, but some things we try to figure out when it’s best we wait.
In one of my books, I wrote, “If I read the bible and get one thing, and you read the bible and get another thing, it’s clear that either you, me, or neither of us know how to read the bible”.
Knowing the times and culture of the original readers is mandatory. “Exegesis”! The study of the history of the Church is a MUST!
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It is dangerous to take the meaning of Scripture to mean something other than that what it plainly says when it pulls people away from who God really is and who they really are. We do not have authority on our own to be divisive by using the Holy Spirit as a weapon. We need to talk with brothers and sister with gentleness and respect. Many times pride takes over, making us believe we are so right and others are so wrong. That is sin.
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The danger is that we can interpret based on our own biases, cultural backgrounds, personalities, etc and come up with meanings of Scripture that was not what God or the author meant. Cults may arise when enough people try to see the deeper meaning of a passage and come up with new theology that is not Biblical. The Holy Spirit can use the Bible to speak to us in our situations, but we need to use wisdom and discernment when listening to the voice of God.
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The danger in taking scripture to mean something other than it says is wrong because we are either going to accept the Word as it is written or not. The Bible is Gods Word or love letter to us.
We do not have the option to say to the Holy Spirit to give us new meanings from the same scripture. That’s like blaspheming God. You do that it’s changing Gods Word and God warns us about that in the Bible.
People sometimes take the Bible and try to make it say what they want. That’s dangerous too! We are to fear God, take his word like it is written and honor his word by living it out in our lives, through faith not works. -
I don’t believe that we do have that option, but I have a bunch of “Christian” friends who insist that they do and it just scares me and breaks my heart because some of them are so far out that, well, no I don’t. I do feel that, as Christian brothers, and sisters we have the option to come together in love and discuss differing ideas in an exchange of thoughts and beliefs that builds the Kingdom of God, not trying to pull other people down by saying that it means what it means, and I won’t hear anything else. I know a Pastor who says that a lot. I am always trying to tell people that we are really not “all that” in the eyes of God and our thoughts are not the “be all and end all” of scripture. Dangerous practice to even put ourselves in that position.
What doctrine(s) can you think of that do not appear to come from the plain teaching of the Word of God but do serve as distinctive beliefs for particular denominations of Christians? How do you respond to those who defend such beliefs?
