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What Did God Really Say?

by Charles King

Satan asked Eve in the Garden of Eden “Did God really say not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?” Eve either did not know what God had said or she did not believe God. In either case Satan accomplished his goal “to kill, steal, and destroy.”

Satan’s game plan is still the same today. He is still asking the question, “Did God really say?” It is amazing the answers one gets when a question is asked about a specific Bible verse. Here are some common responses that you hear from many who profess to be Christians, included many well know preachers.

1) The Old Testament was only written for the Jews and does not apply to the Christian.
2) The “Law” no longer applies to the Christian they are under grace.
3) The Bible in the original manuscript contains no errors, which implies that our current manuscripts contain errors and they are the only ones capable of determining which is error, which is not.

For example the group who call themselves the “Jesus Seminar” imply that the Bible does not portray the true Jesus, but they are so intelligent that can read documents from the period of Jesus and determine the true Jesus.

Common sense tells you that if you were to read material of our day it would not project a true picture of those who truly believe in Jesus, but would portray a secular faith of those who have both feet in the world.
Before I attended Bible College and seminary, I had been a Christian for twenty-five years and had earned degrees in physics, mathematics, and computer science. All of these fields are a pure science and have very ridged rules that apply. However, when I started my study in theology, I was surprised at how much of theology, the study of God and His Word, was subjective instead of objective. How could it be that the creator of science, would allow the most important science, the study of Himself, to be that way? After much study of the Bible and different interpretations of man, I have come to the conclusion that the question Satan asked Eve is the issue, “Did God really say?” To answer this question we must address the issue from God’s primary revelation, the Bible. The first verse says “In the beginning God …”.
Hebrews 11:6 says, “So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (nlt). We must first believe there is a God. The Bible goes on to say in Romans 10:17, “Yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news-the Good News about Christ”(nlt).

So first we must settle the issue of is there a God and has He revealed Himself as stated in Hebrews 1:1-3; “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he made the universe and everything in it. The Son reflects God’s own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly. He sustains the universe by the mighty power of his command. After he died to cleanse us from the stain of sin, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God of heaven”(nlt).
The first step understanding the truth is a firm belief (faith) that God is and that He rewards those who seek Him through Christ. The second step understanding is seeking God through Christ. “Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father accept by me” (John 14:16). From this though drives the hermeneutic of interpreting the Bible through the lens of “Jesus and Him crucified.” Hermeneutics are rules of Bible interpretation. Interpreting the Bible through the theological lens of Jesus and Him crucified can be found in Luke chapter 24 when Jesus tells the two on the road to Emmaus that they should have known about the crucifixion because Moses and the Prophets (Old Testament) had explained it.
In the physical sciences you have rules that have been established by observation then proven by application such as gravity. The same can hold true for the science of theology. Just as it was observed that an object fell when dropped led to the proof that this was consistent and that rules of gravity could be applied consistently. Yet, Theologians are slow to apply the same process to the study of God and His Word. Satan is still casting confusion “did God really say?” and if He did say something specific, then just what did He mean by that statement?

Many Bible teachers today are more driven by their church doctrines or by subjective theories of man in their Biblical interpretation process instead of by the objective word of God. For example I have listed below a number of our current schools of theology which have developed rules of Bible interpretation, many of which I believe to be more subjective than objective. I must omit I am heavily biased toward Biblical, Covenant, and Systematic theology over the others because I truly believe each of these are more objectively devised from the application of Scripture, than “man’s opinion of Scripture” (subjective).

Below is a list of some of the major schools of theology and my ranking of objectivity versus subjectivity.
1) Systematic Theology - heavy objectivity (Word of God) - weakness - Scripture out of context
2) Biblical Theology - heavy objectivity (Word of God) - must understand the whole of Scripture - interpretation based on the unity of God’s Word
3) Covenant Theology - heavy objectivity (Word of God) focuses upon God’s covenant relationship with man - must understand His covenant revelations
The following four schools of theology, if you could say they are truly schools of theology are in my opinion heavily subjective and are more centered on a specific man’s opinion of God’s Word instead of the Word of God itself.
4) Calvinism - Developed from five basic doctrines that drive the Biblical interpretation. It is known by the acronym TULIP. Much information is available on the Web about
Calvinism and TULIP (in the 1500’s AD)
5) Arminianism - James Arminius who lived after John Calvin and developed a five-point theology to counter the five points of the Calvinist. (in the 1600’s AD)
6) Wesleyan-ism - John Wesley developed a theology that is very similar to Arminianism, which led to the formation of the Methodist church. (in the 1700’s)
7) Dispensationalism teaches biblical history as a number of successive economies or administrations, called dispensations, each of which emphasizes that God deals with the people of that dispensation differently than with other dispensatioions. (Darby - in the1800’s )

In fact that ending (ism) should be a clue to their subjectivity. Most people that focus on these more subjective theologies tend to read Scripture through lens that are shaded by their theology (very subjective).

As was mentioned earlier, hermenutics define the rules of Biblical interpertation (exegisis). One’s hermenutics are heavely influnced by their school of theology. I would like to address two current hermenutics (a) HISTORICAL / GRAMMATICAL (b) HISTORICAL / GRAMMATICAL /THEOLOGICAL.
HISTORICAL / GRAMMATICAL - This method relies on the grammatical structure, immediate context and knowledge of the historical setting. Again like the common sense approach to the law of gravity, no one is alive today that understands the grammatical and common understanding to word meanings of that day. For example the word “mouse” today means an animal and also the computer device; the word “gay” means to be happy or a “homosexual”. Image some of the difficulties of interpreting some of our current written material based our upon word understanding two thousand years in the future. Who today truly understands the historical events of Biblical history, in many cases we don’t even know for certain the year with-in a hundred years of the event or even the location, or identity of the writer.

HISTORICAL / GRAMMATICAL /THEOLOGICAL - by adding the theological element to Bible interpretation you add in a variable that from a common sense perspective gives you a higher probability of correct interpretation and that is interpret Scripture in regard to Scripture. I would like to suggest two common sense elements of using theological interpretation.

1) Make sure you interpretation agrees with the most common meaning. That is if Scripture uses one meaning 100 times and another meaning 1 time, the most likely meaning would be the one used 100 times.
2) Let the simplest verses be a key factor in interpreting the more complicated.
As indicated by my comments I believe that you approach theology like you would other God created sciences such a physics and mathematics. You establish rules that can be proven and you build a theology block by block.

For example Joshua 1:8 gives mankind the formula for success; “Study this Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. Only then will you succeed” (nlt).

Approximately 500 years later the man to whom God grants wisdom, Solomon states “there is nothing new under the sun” and “all is vanity except”; “Here is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad:” (Ecc 12:13-14).

Then a thousand years after Solomon Jesus makes a similar statement when He states, “Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. ( MT 7:21 nlt)

There seems to be a common thread in all of these three references and that is obedience to God’s Word brings blessings, and disobedience brings curses.

Let us “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” ( 2Tim 2:15 kjv)

Pastor Charlie is a pastor of a local church and has formed an Internet Ministry called Four Soils Ministry that offers Bible Studies (individual & small groups), Bible Seminars, and a Bible School that offers certificate programs in Preaching, Biblical Counseling, Bible Teaching and Discipleship.

life application study bible kjv

Is There More Than One Gospel in the Bible?

By Corey Richardson

Many Bible students assume that the word “gospel” refers to the same message each time it is used throughout the Bible. If that is so, why would the Bible use so many different titles for the same message? For instance:

Gospel of the Kingdom (Matt 4:23 KJV)
Gospel of the Grace of God (Eph 2:8-9 KJV)
Everlasting Gospel (Rev. 14:6 KJV)

The word “gospel” simply means “good news.” While all of God’s good news centers in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, not all of the gospel revelations contain the same information about him. Let’s examine the first two-the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of the grace of God-to see if they are the same message.

THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

The gospel of the kingdom is the message that John the Baptist, Christ in his earthly ministry, and Christ’s 12 apostles all preached:

nkjv bible study

Bible Study Begins by Selecting a Bible Translation
By Dr. Ralph Wilson

One of the keys to Bible study is to get a good translation. You know, of course, that the Bible wasn’t written in English, but in Hebrew (and a bit of Aramaic) in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament. A translation tries to render the original languages into clear, accurate English. There are two types of translations:

1. Literal word-for-word translation. This makes for accuracy, but can be pretty wooden to read out loud. A good example of this type is the New American Standard Bible (NASB).

2. Dynamic thought-for-thought correspondence. Here the translator takes a thought in the original language and tries to translate it into the same concept in good English, without being tied to the exact words in the original. A good example of this might be Today’s English Version (TEV).

The best Bible for Bible study purpose will probably contain a balance of both. You want a careful, accurate translation, but one that reads easily and clearly for family devotions or public worship.

Another issue is the underlying Greek and Hebrew text. The KJV translators worked with the best texts available to them in 1611, but in the last 150 years we have gained a much more accurate understanding of what the original text must have been. Nearly all modern translations are enriched by the translators working from the most accurate Greek and Hebrew texts possible.

Here are some of the most popular English translations. Your church or tradition may have a particular preference, but any one of these might be a good choice for you:

• The King James Version (KJV, 1611) is, of course, the granddaddy of our English Bibles. For its day it was a very accurate translation and is still used in many congregations today. In 1984, the New King James Version (NKJV) was published as a whole Bible by Thomas Nelson. Translators modernized the language of archaic words substantially and removed most of the “thee’s and thou’s,” through the original text it was based on remained the same as the KJV of 1611. For churches with a strong King James tradition, the NKJV is a popular choice.
• The New International Version (NIV) was first translated as a whole Bible by evangelical scholars in 1973, with revisions in 1983 and 1988. It provides an excellent balance between readability and accuracy of translation. For years it has been the most popular newer translation in the United States, especially among evangelical churches.
• New American Standard Bible (NASB or NASV), translated by the Lockman Foundation, was published in the whole Bible in 1971 and revised in 1977. Its big strength is its consistency in literally translating words and tenses. It is known as a very accurate translation, though perhaps not as easy to read aloud as some others.
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV, 1989) and its predecessor the Revised Standard Version (RSV, 1952) are careful translations in the King James tradition. Several Protestant denominations prefer the NRSV. It is both accurate and readable.

Of course, there are many other modern translations, many of them good for serious Bible study, too numerous to list here. The original Living Bible and The Message are not translations, but paraphrases. They can be refreshing to read but aren’t good Bibles for careful study.

As you prepare yourself for serious Bible study, carefully select a Bible translation that will make it easier for you to learn exactly what the Bible teaches. Of course, in the end it’s not the Bible that we seek to know, but the God of the Bible whom we seek after — and for that quest any Bible will do.

You may want to check out my other guide on bible store and niv online bible