Can anyone really understand the Bible? Understanding what the Bible says is not always an easy task. The Bible is made up of 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses and 774,746 words. Located within this text is the directions of God to humanity and the guidance needed to make decisions on life and eternity. The Bible can be seen like a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces being represented by the over 31 thousand verses. The Bible has many dimensional aspects in that it covers physical, mental and spiritual as well as past, present and future. Yet, in order to understand it we will examine it by comparing it to a one dimensional puzzle.
A few years back I undertook the task of putting together a 3,000 piece puzzle. I had the help of my daughter, April, who would stop by on her lunch hour to help. We used the four rules of putting any puzzle together. First we placed all the pieces face up on a table and worked to find all the edge pieces and to separate out some of the more distinct colors. Second we worked to construct the edge of the puzzle. We were able to do about 85% of the edge when we started. Third we did some easy parts. It was a Coca-Cola puzzle so the yellow truck in the picture went fast. Then finally the last part was just slowly working on the puzzle. Some days we did not find any parts that fit together. After we had worked on it for weeks it came down to the last two pieces. She came over and we each put one in of the final pieces. The puzzle was finished. I mounted it and have it framed in my office. Here is my point there were rules we followed. We did not trim any pieces to get them to fit. We did not turn them over and draw our own picture. We did not force any of the pieces. It was designed to fit together easily, the picture was already laid out and all we had to do was take our time and put it together. That is also true of the Bible.
There are four simple rules that should be followed when you are reading the Bible. These four rules will help you read it and interpret it correctly. Follow these rules and you will find that the Bible will reveal itself to you as a beautiful picture planned by God. Break these rules and you will end up with a picture that looks nothing like God intended it to look like.
- Scripture interprets scripture: The Bible is a self interpreting book. Planned by God. It is designed so the pieces fit together. Here are two example. In Mark 4.1-9 Jesus tells a parable of the the sower. The problem was the disciples did not understand so he had to explain it to them in Mark 4.13-20. We have scripture interpreting scripture. The second is a little more complicated. Genesis 6.1-6 says that the "sons of God" married the "daughters of men." Some have interpreted this to mean that the male angels came down and had sex with the daughters of the men and this is how demons came into existence. Now this interpretation is not based upon anything the scriptures say. So what does it really mean? The answer is found in the New Testament in the book of Galatians 3.26 where it says, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Now I know they did not know about Jesus in Genesis but they did have those who had faith in God. So the verse in Genesis could be interpreted as saying, "Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of men who believed in God (sons of God) saw that the daughters of the men who did not believe in God (daughters of men) were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose." And their kids were "the mighty men who were of old, men of renown." Genesis 6.4 Scripture helps us know or helps us to interpret what scripture says and means.
- Nothing out of context: This means you cannot take scripture and make it say what you want it to say. You have to keep the original meaning form the text. Ephesians 6.5-9 says "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him." Some have lifted this from the text and used it to say that God has intended slavery for some and that some be masters. This is not what it says, in fact Paul does condone or even deal with the question of slavery here at all. He is dealing with Christian witness and conduct. At the time Paul wrote this letter as many as one out of every three persons in the Roman Empire may have been a slave in one form or another. Paul was saying that if you are a slave and become a believer you must now show that a believer who is a slave is a representative and a witness of Christ. He said the same thing to those who owned salves or the Masters. They had to treat them differently because how they treated their slaves was a witness of their relationship with Christ. Paul is saying that no matter the economic or social status of the believer they represented Christ. Paul neither condones or condemns slavery here. To say he does is taking the text out of context.
- Easy explains the difficult: In Matthew 24 there is a text that is often quoted but few know its true meaning. What they need to do is allow the clear or easy text to to be used to explain its meaning. The disciples have heard Jesus say that the temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed. They ask Jesus “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” Matthew 24.3 They have actually asked him three questions here. 1. When will Jerusalem be destroyed? 2. What sign will there be that you are coming back? 3. when is the end of the age? We will only look at the third one here. They wanted to know when the end of the age would be. Now the question is what are they talking about? Some have interpreted this to mean the end of the current age before the anti-christ takes over and sets up his tribulation reign in Jerusalem. Yet I contend that it is not that at all. Jesus tells another parable and then has to explain it to his disciples. While explaining it He will also show us what the end of the age is referring to. In Matthew 13.39-43 we read "the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." We learn that the end of the age is the time when God judges everyone who is sill alive on earth. This includes all the wicked and all the righteous. So we know that the end of the age is the end of time not the end of a time period, but the end of all time. The wicked don't get to rule with the anti-christ in Jerusalem they get to spend eternity with him in the furnace of fire. The righteous or believers will spend eternity with their heavenly father. Here the easy is used to understand and explain the hard. In fact we have used all four rules here. Scripture has interpreted scripture, nothing is taken out of context, the easy has explained the hard and....
- Jesus is BOSS!: What Jesus says is the final word. The pharisees were often critical of Jesus. His disciples were going through a field on a sabbath and began to pick grain and eat it. The pharisees saw this as wrong and a violation of the law of Moses. (see Mark 2.23-28) Jesus rebukes and sets them straight about the sabbath. Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Now a simple question here. Who was right about the sabbath the pharisees or Jesus? Jesus is always right, his point of view is the final word on a subject. In fact Jesus often spoke about the misunderstanding of the Law and the teachings of the pharisees. In Matthew 5 He has a conservation with himself that is unique and shows how much authority he actually had. You have heard it said, you shall not commit murder....but I say to you... You have heard it said, You shall not commit adultery... but I say to you... You have heard it said, You shall not make false vows... but I tell you...You have heard it said, an eye for an eye... but I tell you... You have heard it said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy... but I tell you... JESUS is Boss even over the ten commandments and the Law of Moses. He explains it like he did to the pharisees and he raised the standards as he did when he taught the people. Jesus is the final word because Jesus it the BOSS?
You need to be careful that you do not break these rules and that you do not allow others that break these rules serve as your teachers. Either in the local church or in the books you read. People who force the Bible to say what it does not can be compared to a person putting a puzzle together by forcing the pieces together into place. Or cutting off edges of puzzle parts so they will fit where they want it to. Then when they have it in place they turn it over and draw an new picture and because they have used scripture try and sell it as the word of God. In their case the context is a pretext to explain the suffix of the doctrinal text. (It makes more sense than most of their convoluted teachings.)
Let me give you a place to start your study of the word as a believer. After you have done your basic reading of scripture. (see January 3, 2011 Post on how to have a successful Bible study) You need to add the edge pieces to the puzzle of your life of faith. Hebrews 6.1-2 talks about the six edge pieces. (foundations we all share). These six should be understood by every believer. (Blogged in 2010 March and April covering these six is detail).
The world has either thrown out most of the puzzle pieces and will stand before God with a piece in each hand. One will say, God is love and the other Jesus wept. Or they have decided to deny the puzzle and its creator even exists. In either case they will be greatly surprised as they face a very warm eternity.
Remember the four rules:
- Scripture interprets scripture
- Nothing out of context
- Easy explains the difficult
- Jesus is BOSS!
Start with your six edges pieces and plan to spend a lifetime learning what God has hidden in his word for you to find.
