1) The scriptures contain, in the ancient languages in which they were written, the revealed truths, about what God wants us to understand about God, and what God expects of us; God is what he is, has explained to us what God is, in scriptures that are what they are, regardless of what any of us say think or about them.

2) There are always cultural ways we attempt to explain God and scriptures. Every denomination has grown in a specific society, over a specific period of time, and is an expression of that culture at that time. The Greek Orthodox Church reflects the Ancient Greek culture. The Roman Catholic Church reflects the culture of the Roman Empire. The Lutheran Church reflects the German culture in the colonial time period. The Anglican Church reflects the English culture in the colonial time period. The Baptist Church reflects the culture of the US, in post colonial times. In fact, there are thousands of cultures in the world, which have scriptures in their language, and a church that reflects their culture. The Churches I listed by name, are all orthodox expressions of Christianity. They have their own cultural ways to explain God and the scriptures, and are an expression of the culture and time, in which they grew. They tend to only notice the things about God and scriptures, which are important to their culture. They are all limited, in their ways of explaining God and scriptures, by the culture and time, in which they grew. If they have been in a theological battle, against other Christians, they will tend to only notice and emphasize the scriptures, which support their side of the battle. The growth of that denomination tends to be limited, to the culture in which it grew. Also, there have been movements within these churches, at various times in history, the caused them to emphasize different things.

3) Also, each person has a personal perspective, within the culture. This effects the way leaders explain, and the way individuals understand, God and the scriptures.

While reading theology is an enjoyable academic pursuit, it is not the way to understand, God or the scripture. We must attempt understand, the original cultures to which the scriptures were written, and what the scriptures meant to those people to whom they were written. Then we must communicate this message, to our own culture in a culturally meaningful way, which they can understand. Just be warned, that everyone who is attempting to discredit and diminish God and the scriptures, is also doing this, and intentionally twisting the meaning of scriptures, to achieve their agendas.

There may indeed be only one meaning for the Scriptures, but there are many interpretations. Determining which is correct is between you and God.

“…there is only one valid interpretation.”

Oh really, and which one is that? The one that the Southern Baptists claim, or is it the one that the Catholic Church proclaims? Maybe it is the predestination of the Calvinists, or perhaps it is the Bible beating evangelicals who are correct (if so, please tell me which it is).

As I explained in my post, if you believe in God, and if you believe the Bible is the word of God, then there is only one valid interpretation (God’s). Determining how close your perception is to God’s meaning is every believer’s task. Yet multiple people will have multiple interpretations. Therefore, since there is only one valid interpretation and multiple differing interpretations, a LOT of people are going to be wrong at some point or another. The whole idea behind your question daring me to identify which humans have the correct interpretation disregards the Christian belief that there is one God, and therefore one meaning behind the scriptures that God wrote (again, assuming that you believe that God is the author of scripture).

According to the Bible itself, there is no valid private interpretation of scripture:

For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (1 Peter 1:21)

Assuming you believe in God, only God’s interpretation matters. What is God’s interpretation? You do your best to identify what God means, and live by that. But all along you assume that there is only one valid interpretation, that being God’s.

John Dias

“…there is only one valid interpretation.”

Oh really, and which one is that? The one that the Southern Baptists claim, or is it the one that the Catholic Church proclaims? Maybe it is the predestination of the Calvinists, or perhaps it is the Bible beating evangelicals who are correct (if so, please tell me which it is).

Your claim is absurd. Outside of a few central precepts, that Christ is the Son of God, that He was crucified, that He has arisen, that He brought us a new Covenant, the taking of Communion, there is very little that Christians agree upon, but all are still Christians.

John Dias and mruffolo illustrate the fact that scripture can be interpreted any number of ways. Even evangelicals can’t agree on what a specific verse means.

It is true that the Bible can be interpreted any number of ways. BUT, if the Bible is the word of God (and this won’t have any meaning to you unless you believe it does, and this assumes also that you believe one God as creator exists) then there is only one valid interpretation.

Not everything is a democracy, and not everything depends on consensus (including objective truth). The fact that there are many views (or even a consensus) disproves nothing, and in itself also fails to prove that what the masses believe is true because they believe it. This is called objective truth. No one may ever have a complete grasp of it, but reality is reality regardless of who embraces it (or hides from it).

John Dias

The Bible tells us that we who believe will be scorned and hated for that belief. Who cares what Robert thinks? This is an individual who believes that we are better off with Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House and Harry Reid as Majority Leader in the Senate and you are concerned with what he says about Pat Robertson?

BTW Robert,

You state that Jesus was a socialist He was anything but that. He did not preach that the state should care for the poor and underprivileged, he preached that the individual should do so. He preached self responsibility, not foisting your obligations off onto the government. He, in fact, was very specific about rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s.

Any bibile edition you read, whatever translation you choose, unless you are reading it in the original languages of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, it is an interpretation only. We have only an inkling of the original contextual meanings of most passages of the Bible. Since we are not members of the society in which the books were written, we can only guess at the exact meaning. Understanding what the Bible says is a highly personal and individual thing. If you listen to any “authority” other than God as he is revealed to you, you are listening to an interpretation only.

Good evening.

There are about one million words in the bible. A scholar said that about 1/3 of the words are either not defined or ill defined.

Yet after 4,500 years people still share its words. Over 50 million copies are printed yearly in hundreds of different languages.

Pick up a bible and read it to share your insights too.

A favorite web site is:

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com

Blessings,
Mark Ruffolo, MS, MBA

Read a versus before Matt 19:9 that says “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”

Also read Mark 10:1-12. Moses permits divorce because of our hard hearts, but this is not God’s intent. Jesus warns, what God puts together [marriages] let no one separate.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2010;&version=47;

Malachi 2:16 quotes God saying “I hate divorce.”

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Malachi%202:16;&version=31;

The Greek word in Matt 19:9 is “porneia” that is undefined. You have it translated as “marital unfaithfulness.” I’ve also seen “fornication” and “pornography” and “sexual immorality”.

It’s not necessarily against Christian beliefs to get a divorce. If you accept the Bible as accurate, you should know that it quotes Jesus as saying that if your spouse has been unfaithful, you can get a divorce:

I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:9)

Not that I dispute the premise of what you’re saying about objective reality trumping public perception, but accuracy is a good thing.

Now just how to define “marital unfaithfulness…” That could be a challenge.

John Dias

Abraham Lincoln was fond of asking, “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have? “Five”, his audience would invariably answer. “No” Lincoln would politely respond, the correct answer is four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.”

If a follower of Christ is a divorcing homosexual murderer, they are not be a follower of Christ. By engaging in divorce, homo sex and murder, this precludes them from being a Christian.

Robert Abraham Lincoln expected the obvious to remain obvious, not to change the definition of words to fit a claim.

I observe that liberals like to change the definition of words to support their conclusion (words like abuse, marriage, among others). It appears that you may be doing the same, but I do not want that. I want definitions of words to remain true.

Communists did not kill in the name of atheism. They killed to terrorize the population and maintain their dictatorship. Atheism was not a central tenet of their socialist ideology.

Religion is the root of most evil in the world. Genocide, wars, murder, and all sorts of mayhem have been committed in the name of God.

As I wrote in a previous comment on this thread (comment #18), it is ideological atheism that has been the biggest killer in history, and that by totalitarian governments and dictators. Over 100 million dead at the hands of the Nazis and Communists, whose ideology specifically rests on a foundation of atheism.

No matter what you believe, RPR, the facts are what they are.

John Dias

Read Exodus 20:13.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2020;&version=47;

Mark

“Religion does not kill people. People kill people.”

Unfortunately, often religious people kill people. Or it could also be stated that “People kill because of their religious beliefs.”

Relgion is the root of most evil in the world. Genocide, wars, murder, and all sorts of mayhem have been committed in the name of God.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/28/nabortion28.xml

Religion does not kill people. People kill people.

Jesus: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matt 5:21-23).

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%205:21-23;&version=47;

Jesus places the bar high for us, yet he knows that we may error, however, each of us ought to aim for perfection as he asks so that when we fall short we are excellent.