My Scripture vs Your Scripture!
by
Robert Schmid
Everybody, young and old, loves to play a game. Bible games
are as popular as ever. They are great for entertainment,
but also serve to educate and to act as a tool to memorize
Bible verses.
However, Bible games are not only played by the general public
for entertainment and scripture memorization. Bible games
are also played, whether realized or not, by serious Bible
students, Pastors, Theologians and anybody who speaks or writes
on the Bible in order to convey and prove their point of view.
But, before we consider some of these Bible games, lets define
what the Bible is and why on the one hand it is the most popular
book ever written and on the other hand it is the most ignored
and misunderstood book in existence..
The Bible is not only The Bible, it is The
Holy Bible! What makes the words in this book holy
is that its author is holy. It’s author, the God of
Abram, Isaac and Jacob, is a Holy God who
caused His Holy Thoughts to be expressed
through and by His Holy Word. “Holy
men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy
Spirit.”
Then, in the fullness of time God’s Holy Word became
flesh, became God’s firstborn son whom He named Jesus.
Jesus, as the living Word of God, came to
authenticate the written Word of God, i.e.,
the living Word of God was and is the same
as the written Word of God. Just as the Word
of God does not and can not speak anything different
then what comes from the Mind of God, so
the Son of God does not and can not speak
anything different then what comes from God the Father.
However, man (kind) in his fallen nature does not and can
not accept that the Bible is the Word
of God. Most simply do not believe it and those who
do, all to often use the Word of God , to play that most popular
Bible game; “My scripture vs. Your scripture.”
Here is how it works: Depending on where you are coming from
determines what scripture you are going to use. For example:
If you are a Trinitarian, you will find and use all scriptures
that (seem to) support that from the beginning there was ONE
God in THREE persons. If you are a Twinitarian, you will find
and use all the scriptures that (seem to) support that from
the beginning there was ONE God in TWO persons. If you area
Unitarian, you will find and use all the scriptures that (seem
to) support that from the beginning was ONE God in ONE person.
The winner, usually, is the one who comes up with the most
verses, and or knows the most Hebrew or Greek, and or who
has the most convincing historical, and or linguistic information,
and or is simply the more dynamic and convincing communicator.
Every doctrine and every issue in scripture lends itself
for this game.
Another popular game is the “One or the Other“
proposition. This game reduces every issue into two options
with the assumption that one is right and the other is wrong.
For example: The One God Seminar held recently offered TWO
options. There were those who advocated that God was,
is, and always will be ONE God and that therefore Jesus can
not be God. The opposing view was that there
were always TWO Gods and that Jesus therefore must be God.
The possibility that both options may be wrong is not even
considered. But, what if they are?
How about a game of “Lets interpret scripture”!
That’s a fun game because everybody gets to speculate
about what a particular scripture means.
To be sure, most would understand that when Jesus said: “I
am the door”, that He did not mean that He is a literal
door. Obviously, an interpretation is required to understand
the metaphorical use of the word “door”. A “door”
has certain attributes and Jesus means to say that such attributes
may apply to Him.
But, what about when Jesus (as the Word of God) said: “Remember
the Sabbath day and keep it holy”. Is the word “Sabbath”
a metaphor subject to interpretation, or is the word “Sabbath”,
and for that matter the whole sentence a command of God that
is to be taken literally, not requiring any interpretation?
Well, we all know that the great theological minds and doctrinal
committees of “Christianity” teach and believe
that this verse needs interpretation and so they turn Sabbath
the seventh day into Sunday the first day.
So much for relying on our spiritual leaders!
A real favorite of this game are the words of Jesus when He
told Nicodemus: “You must be born again”.
Theologians and doctrinal committees have debated those words
in great length and have written about their possible meanings
in lengthy doctrinal papers and many books. The (false) assumption
is that these five words represent a metaphor that requires
human interpretation. But, no metaphor is involved, only a
literal command from God that requires belief,
not interpretation.
We all know and understand that we were born,
physically, as a human-kind, and the simple message is that
we must be born again, spiritually, as a
God-kind. 1 Cor.15 clearly tells us that first is the physical
and then the spiritual and Rom.1 clearly tell us that we know
God, even His deity, by the things that have been made. God
made Adam and Eve and build into them the process of procreation
so that we are without excuse to know what it means to be
born again.
Let no one be deceived, God says what He means and He means
what He says.
Lets be careful that we don’t play Bible games, “making
the Word of God of none effect by our traditions.”
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