Our culture loves to assert the severely misguided belief that "the Bible is open to interpretation". They have various motives for this. An atheist might attempt to say that such an ambiguous book cannot truly be from an all knowing God. A Catholic would go to the other extreme, stating that since the Bible can be interpreted so many ways, we need them to tell us which way is right. A Liberal would say it's so ambiguous, it's arrogant to insist on one... so let's insist on theirs. Whatever the motive for claiming the Bible is ambiguous, the fact is, it is not.
Ultimately, the mere existence of an interpretation does not make it valid. The example I like to bring up is Isaiah 43:10, which says "...Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me." So, how many gods are there according to the Bible? Any literate person would say one. There is no realistic way to fit more than one god in the Bible. Yet, a Mormon believes God was once a man on another planet, worshiping a god, that came before Him, and that by being good Mormons, we, too, can become gods after Him. Therefore, Mormons will not interpret Isaiah 43:10 as being necessarily Monotheistic. This is not because the Monotheistic interpretation is flawed, or because their interpretation is valid, but because it conflicts with their pre-existing theology.
This practice is called "eisegesis", which literally means "to lead into". It is a subjective interpretation method designed not to understand the text, but to gain support for one's own opinions. Conveniently, the book of Proverbs directly attacks this method of interpretation: "A fool has no delight in understanding, But in expressing his own heart." (Proverbs 18:2). It is foolishness to approach Scripture seeking support for your own views.
In reality, the Bible was not written so we could draw our own conclusions, but so that we can draw God's conclusions. In fact, in his second epistle to Timothy, Paul tells us "But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:14-17).
Thus we see the purpose of scripture. Given to us by God Himself, moving His Holy messengers to write by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:19-21), the Scriptures:
- Make us wise to salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ
- Teach us doctrine
- Reprove bad behavior
- Correct error
- Instruct us in righteousness
- Complete our walk with God
- Thoroughly equip us for every good work
When we lose sight of this, we lose sight of God, and our religions are just products of our own imagination. Utter delusions, no better than jumping from a cliff and believing you can fly. Yet, while many religions give lip service to the Bible, they twist it dramatically. In this series, I intend to take the top 6 most commonly misquoted "proof texts" from various pseudo-Biblical religions and put them back into context.