Tag: interpreting the Bible

No Private Interpretations!

~ wzippler

cropped-bible-e14417322078632 Peter 1:20-21
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Bible was a gift given to all people at all times. Some of the scriptures were meant for a particular person of a group of people, but as a matter of history, everyone needs to know about them.  After the context is considered (Is it historical, future prophecy, or for all people at all times) It means the same thing as it has always meant.

If you are interpreting it in a way that is just for you, and the meaning changes when someone else reads it, you are going against this passage.

I once heard of a man that was lusting over a woman named Grace. He was already married, and so was she. One day he was praying about it and he read in the Bible something about grace, that led him to believe that he had permission from God to break up two families and marry Grace. Unless God wanted every person who has ever lived to marry a person named Grace, the Bible did not mean that. A careful study of the Bible would have told him that divorce may have been permitted at times, that wasn’t what God wanted for anyone. It can, however, tell a single man that if someone named Grace is a single Christian who isn’t related to him, she might be the one, but the meaning of the passages in question would be the same if the woman in question was named Gina, Cindy, or Sarah.

The Holy Spirit can make different passages stand out to different people at different times. I personally have read passages that I know I have read before, but I suddenly had to stop and re-read the passage several times then realize that there is something that the Lord wants me to pay particular attention too. But if the passage is about feeding the hungry, it has always been about feeding the hungry…while the application of the verse may vary from person to person, it means the same thing that it meant thousands of years ago.

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The Most Abused Book of All Time.

~ wzippler
Dusty Bible


    The Bible has been the most read, and most tested, and the most abused book of all time. It has been used to create cults that destroy families, steal lives, and destroy souls, so many ways that it can be misused. Even Satan himself quotes Psalm 91:11-12 to Jesus in the wilderness.  Matt.4:6  Jesus responded by quoting more scripture that shows how Satan was misusing that passage Deut.6:16.  Well meaning Christians, as well as wolves in sheep’s clothing can abuse scriptures as well.  If you misquote the Bible you can make it say anything that you want. I have even heard of a lady who justified breaking up with her husband so that she could get a new one when she read the words “put on the new man” in the Bible.

There are so many ways to read the Bible wrong it is important that we figure out how God intended us to read it.

Jude 3  tells us that the scriptures was delivered to the Saints once, and it is for all. Since it was delivered once and for all, it isn’t a special message for you and a different message for me. While the way we interpret the Bible can change as we mature in Christ, I can’t expect to find a message specifically for me in the scriptures.  It was written once for everyone.

2 Tim 2:15 Says that we should work at correctly teaching the truth, which implies that there is a wrong way to teach it.

2 Peter 3:16-17 teaches that untaught, and unstable people can twist the scriptures to their own destruction., we should be on guard against this or we will be led astray by wicked people.

While it can take a lifetime to process all of the things that the Bible tells us, we can learn a great deal now via careful study.  Two of my easiest to understand tips are: Never read just a Bible verse, read the whole chapter before you make any definitive statements about a verse within, and let the Bible interpret the Bible. All of the most significant teachings in the Bible are repeated several times within the Bible. If you find a teaching in the Bible that isn’t to your knowledge repeated in the Bible, get help interpreting it.

My favorite Bible translation, that is easy to understand, and comes with many useful articles to read is Apologetics Study Bible

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