The three most important words to keep in mind when studying scripture is: context, context, and context. Do I have a scriptural basis for making this claim? Yes, yes I do. Proper context of God’s Word is addressed in all sixty-six books of the bible. And if you looked for the references concerning proper context, I would bet you’d be able to find more than one reference to the importance of proper context in each one of the sixty-six books.
In the book of Revelation there are seven churches listed with the character of each church described. Additionally, the name of the churches listed are also descriptive of their respective characters if you translate them to the original Greek. These churches are characteristic of seven corresponding ages the church has gone through in the order they’re listed in scripture over the last two thousand years. We’re living in the church [age] that corresponds to Laodicea. Laodicea literally means: church of people’s opinion.
You can’t honestly look at the church today and come to any other conclusion than it being a church of people’s opinion. It’s no longer, “what does God’s Word say?” It’s, “God’s Word is what I want it to say.” These two views are defined by two words: exegesis and eisegesis. Simply put, exegesis is taking out of the scriptures what God put in them, and eisegesis is reading into the scriptures something that isn’t there.
I left the church I belonged to for ten years because the Word of God is’t being properly taught. It was the first and only church I knew from the time I got saved. I wrote the pastor a letter voicing my concerns and cited some specific examples of error. There wasn’t a scriptural response to the four main areas I named. Instead of giving a biblical rebuttal, to one of them he told me, “Lawrence, that’s just mean.” An absolute joke of a response! Prior to that in his response he said, “As you know [with the scriptures], there’s one interpretation but many applications.”
I absolutely disagree with this statement in the CONTEXT in which it was made. Are there multiple meanings to particular portions of scripture? Of course the answer to that is yes, but not as a means to make the Word say whatever you want it to say. I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about.
I just saw a post a few days ago where the pastor of a church said, “If you tithe to his church God will protect you from the Corona-19 virus according to Psalm 91.” I called this individual out for being a liar and was roundly attacked for speaking the truth by the people who follow this individual. There is not one single verse, word, letter, or even punctuation in the entirety of Psalm 91 that says tithing to a church/pastor will give you the promises of that psalm. If you want to stand on Psalm 91, more power to you. Giving your money to this individual or any other doesn’t activate it though.
The people who believe this stuff are idiots according to the Apostle Paul as directed by the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 14:16. Yes, in the original Greek he says you’re an idiot. Peter warns about this stuff specifically.
2 Peter 1:20 (NASB) But know this FIRST OF ALL, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.
You see a pastor telling you the Holy Spirit told them to tell you to give a certain amount of money to their ministry, or similar nonsense to the example I gave above, STAY AWAY FROM THEM. They are liars and deceivers. They are inventing this stuff up in their own minds. It’s not the Word of God and can’t be found in the Word of God.
When you don’t know scripture in its proper context, or it’s not being taught in its proper context, you are actually more susceptible to being deceived and led astray than if you were just taught complete lies all the time. Half truths are actually whole lies and could ultimately lead to apostasy. I want to give you two more biblical examples to highlight what I’m trying to convey.
In 2 Peter 2:1-2 Peter uses a Greek word: Paraso Cousin. He uses this word in the context of warning about false teachers. It means: to lay the truth next to error. Have you ever had someone defend a false teacher by saying, “Not everything they teach is false.”? I have. That right there is the danger. If everything they taught was false you’d never be taken in by it. For the sake of time I’ll reference another example and ask that you read it for yourself. It’s in Matthew 4. Jesus is led into the desert to be tempted by Satan. Three times Satan quotes scripture to Jesus. When you read it I want you to notice Jesus never, not one time, corrected Satan’s quoting of scripture. Why, because Satan quoted it accurately. Jesus put it in its proper context.
I’m not trying to convey to you that someone has to have an absolute understanding of everything in the bible. That’s not possible. I’m talking about having a correct approach to the Word and studying it in the manner and context the Holy Spirit instructed the writers to write it. The bible warns that false teachers will introduce destructive heresies in the time we’re living. Protect yourself from deception.
I’ll leave you with these two things.
- I don’t want anything from you. I am only trying to give you the truth.
- Concerning anything I’ve written about: Search the scriptures daily to see whether these things are so.” (ACTS 17:11)
I pray this is helpful to you as we enter a time of deception concerning God’s Word that will only increase. God bless.
Lawrence Grott
If you’d like to learn more or get a copy of my book: The Purpose for the Passion, please visit me at: https://spiritandtruthministries.life 