Let's Avoid Scripture Twisting Part 4

 

Part 4: Combating Scripture Twisting with Real Examples

By Brother R. Michel Lankford
 
God be with you. Thank you for joining me again. Today, we will be closing our series on avoiding Scripture twisting. I hope that it has been useful beneficial and informative for you. It certainly has been for me. In the first three parts of the series we covered some foundational principles of how and why Scripture gets twisted. I have reviewed them often lately because they are so critical. If you need to review them, they are in the December and early January edition of the blog. Feel free to review them and even copy and share them as the Lord leads you. All I ask is that you do not do anything to change the message, or to misrepresent them in any way.

 

Why Is Getting This Right so Critical?

1. Scripture has many promises, but most are NOT unconditional: Scripture contains literally thousands of promises which believers can claim and upon which we can stand to encourage ourselves in the faith. All the promises of God are yes and amen through Yeshua the Messiah (2 Corinthians 1:20), because He is the source and central focus of all good things which Almighty God has promised in His Word. At the same time, the vast majority of God's promises are NOT unconditional. Most of His promises have direct conditions attached to those promises.
2. Through Messiah, we can claim virtually any promise so long as we are obedient to meet the conditions: While it is ostensibly possible for believers in Yeshua the Messiah to claim every single promise principle and blessing of Scripture, we must always remember that we can only rightly claim and stand upon the promises of Scripture if and when we meet the spiritual, physical and circumstantial conditions and limitations that God has stated, where ever they are correctly applicable. Quite simply, if we do not meet the conditions, then we cannot righteously claim and expect to receive the benefits of the scriptural promise. That is a very basic principle, but it's often neglected.
3. When we twist Scripture we damage our own faith: Proverbs 13:12 tells us that, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is the tree of life." The biggest danger of Scripture twisting is that it will mis-lead us to put our hope and expectation in the wrong place. Our hope will be deferred and we will become heartsick. That is, because we have misread, misinterpreted, misunderstood, or even twisted Scripture into something that God did not truly say, we may begin to place our expectations (our hope) into something which God did not really promise. Then, when our own misguided hope and expectation is not fulfilled because it is not truly in-line with what God actually promised, even when we have made ourselves believe God says something He did not say, then we damage our own faith, because we placed our expectations into a particular result that we made ourselves believe God said which He did not truly say.
I've seen tragic life damaging examples of people who lost hope, and some have even turned away from the faith, because they assumed that God let them down, didn't come through, supposedly did not fulfill what He promised, (according to their misguided understanding), and therefore they conclude that the Biblical faith must not be true. I have personally witnessed this occur in people's lives. It's a real problem. The shepherds who truly love and care for God’s sheep cannot allow this to continue if they would be considered faithful servants of the Lord. Almighty God cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). He will stay faithful and true to what HE has spoken, our own misguided conclusions notwithstanding. It is up to us to adapt our thinking and beliefs to agree with God and what He has actually said. God will not adapt Himself to agree with our thinking. We must get out of such misguided expectations. (Isaiah 5:20-24; Isaiah 55:8-12; Romans 8:5-8; Romans 12:1-2).

 

 

Real Life Examples of Scripture Twisting

In our final portion of this particular series, I felt directed to give the classic examples of Scripture twisting. For your information, all of these Scripture twisting examples come from sermons that I myself have either personally heard or read. They are not hear-say. I have not included specific sources of information on purpose. My goal is not to embarrass the preachers involved, but merely that we should not repeat their mistakes, but instead learn from them and avoid repeating them.
Now, remember that in Messiah all of the promises of God are yes and amen through HIM, (2 Corinthians 1:20), but remember the majority of God's promises come with real conditions attached. Most promises of God are NOT unconditional. Therefore, one can only rightly claim the promise if one is meeting the physical conditions (or the spiritual equivalent where applicable), in order to righteously claim a promise. So if you do not meet either the physical conditions or the spiritual equivalent conditions which are attached to a promise, you cannot righteously claim or expect to receive the benefit of that Scriptural promise. Let us remember and not forget that attempting to claim the rights and privileges of a scriptural promise while violating and not meeting the conditions which God attaches to those promises is part and parcel of LAWLESSNESS.
There are approximately 1500 promises in the so-called New Testament alone. I have not yet seen a reliable count of the actual promises contained in all Scripture. In any case, I promise that we will not review all 1500 in this blog. I will simply limit my examples of those which I have personally heard and seen misused which are most memorable.
Example: Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (NASB)
The Modern Usage: We need to forget past negative experiences and move on toward the good and positive things God has for us in future, not looking back.
Original and accurate usage: If you look carefully at the entire context of the Scripture, what Paul was forgetting was not actually forgetting his past negatives but his past achievements. The apostle Paul was telling his readers that if anyone appeared to have the right to rest on their laurels, he would apparently have the right to do so, but this is not how he lived. Paul was letting his readers know that he was continuously straining to improve in excellent obedience to Christ. He was not resting on his glorious accomplishments of the past. That is a reality that we all too rarely hear presented whenever we hear this passage preached today.
Example: Romans 10:8 But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, (NASB)
The Modern Usage: This is a hugely popular verse among word of faith or the so-called, “Name it and claim it” preachers. I promised in the beginning that I would not name names, but just type word of faith preachers into Google, and you will get a fairly accurate list. Suffice it to say that many of them make a lot of money in television preaching. Twisting this particular verse is very popular with them because it contains the words, 'word of faith,' which they have chosen to label their own particular brand of Christianity.
The whole premise upon which this incredibly popular movement operates is the idea that God wants you to prosper in every single situation, and that the reason most people are not prospering is because (according to their definition), Christians are not properly standing upon and confessing the Word of faith with their mouth. The idea that is often conveyed is that you should find the promises of God in Scripture that seem to fit your particular situation, then you should resolutely confess and profess those verses with your mouth, and that those blessings contained in those promises are yours as a believer in Christ, and you should stand firmly and resolutely upon your confession, and God will change your situation, and supposedly you will prosper.
Ostensibly, if you do this well enough and faithfully enough, then you will prosper in your job and finances, you will have a house you want, the car you want, the marriage you desire, and the ministry that you desire and on and on the sales pitch goes from there. In theory, if you are not "prospering" according to their definition of the term, then either something is wrong with your faith or with your confession. According to them, either you didn't really believe it, you didn't stand on your confession firmly enough, or didn't stand on your confession long enough to see your posterity come forth. It's a very easy and convenient way for them to explain why the vast majority of believers who support their ministry do not see the level of prosperity that the slick sales pitch promises on TV. The whole problem with that theology is that it's bogus. It teaches you to take Scripture out of context and to twist Scripture and to apply themin such a way that seems most pleasing and appetizing to our flesh and sinful nature. It simply is not sound biblical theology or practice. It builds expectations that God did not really promise, and that's the tragic truth of the matter.
Original and accurate usage: Did you notice in the scriptural quote of Romans 10:8 above that the NASB writes it in all capital letters? Whenever the NASB translation does this, it indicates that the biblical writer is quoting directly from the Old Testament. When Paul wrote these words under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to the church in Rome, the apostle completely understood the context under which he was writing to them, because he had memorized the entire books of Genesis to Deuteronomy by age 6. We know this because he was educated under Gamaliel, and that was a standard requirement to be educated by Gamaliel. So Paul was entirely aware of where this verse came from, and what God was having him write. We are the ones who have lost and misplaced the context because we are so far removed. The wise student whose goal is to rightly divide and apply the Word of Truth, must then go back and cross reference the original place where this Word was given. Romans 10:8 is a direct quote taken in context from Deuteronomy 30:11-14.
The simple fact is that the apostle was NOT teaching that you can pick and choose any promise from Scripture that sounds good to you, and if you believe it and confess it with your mouth, then the blessings of that promise are automatically yours because you belong to Jesus Christ. Paul was not saying that, he was not teaching this whatsoever, not even close. What he was in fact saying was that obeying God's Word and Instructions is not difficult. Obeying God's word and putting it into practice is typically simple and straightforward, so we should not overcomplicate matters. We would know that if we cross-referenced the verse that Paul was actually quoting. As it is written:
Deuteronomy 30:11-14 "For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. “It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it. (NASB)
1. Do you see the whole difference that proper context makes? What God was speaking through both Paul and Moses was that obeying God is not really complicated, so don't over complicate matters and make God's instructions seem more difficult than they truly are. Obeying God and following His Instructions is usually simple and straightforward to understand. It's not complicated.
2. Pay attention to your thoughts (your heart), and what comes out of your mouth, because that will be a strong indication of where you truly are spiritually (Matthew 15:19-20; Mark 7:21-23). If you are in a space or situation where you find it difficult, or you are unable to think, speak and behave in agreement with God's Commands and Instructions, then this should rightly indicate to us that we are in need for God to do a real heart change in that area of our lives. If we are finding obeying God's Commands and Instructions to be a burden, then this indicates that our love for God is not really healthy and mature in that area, because the evidence that we are healthy and mature in His love is that we have His Commandments, and we do not consider them to be burdensome (1 John 5:1-3). The whole point is that we can see our hearts true condition based on what comes out of our mouths, and how we respond when we hear God's Commands and Instructions.
Example: Where there is no vision the people perish –Proverbs 29:18
The Modern Usage: We have all heard this sermon in modern times, right? It's most often presented exactly the same way. 'We need a God-given vision of the great things that God wants to do in our lives in ministry etc. etc. etc.' Or, 'The reason that our ministry or our personal lives are not thriving and prospering is because we don't have a spiritually induced vision of what God wants to do in our lives in ministry.'
Original and accurate usage: If you look carefully at the entire context of the Scripture, you will notice that the whole point is that when people lose sight of the law of God they also lose self-control and self-restraint. Even the word vision here literally means to have a revelation or understanding of God's law and His standards. The proverb is strategically placed between two other proverbs on correction and discipline, and the second half of this very verse has to do with actively keeping God's law not doing modern strategic planning or making better mission statements.
Example: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Philippians 4:13
The Modern Usage: In modern times this is very popular. It's used very much like a Norman Vincent Peale lecture. The precept presented is usually that since you are Christian, you believe in Jesus Christ, and you can do anything and everything that you set your mind to do, so just believe and think positive, and you can do anything through Christ who strengthens you.
Original and accurate usage: This is not what that passage is meant to convey at all. Nowhere does it imply that because you are Christian you can do whatever you choose or set your mind to do and you're guaranteed to succeed because you believe in and belong to Jesus Christ. If you look at the whole chapter in its context, it is obviously saying that in whatever circumstances of life Paul happens to be undergoing, he can still remain faithful and obedient to Christ; whether he is finding himself in a situation of suffering or lack, or whether he happens to be enjoying a situation of abundance makes no real difference, because his faith, determination and obedience to Jesus Christ will not be altered by either scenario, because Christ will strengthen him to be faithful in either situation. The focus of the passages that Paul can cooperate with God and behave faithfully and obediently toward God regardless of the changes in his situation, because God will give him the grace to do so. Do you see how the true focus of the verse is not on what Paul can do, but the focus of the verse is on God's power to keep all faithful regardless of Paul's changing circumstances. The true meaning of the passage is much different than what is commonly conveyed.
Example: For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. -- Jeremiah 29:11
The Mistake in Modern Usage: This is perhaps one of the most commonly tortured passages in all of Scripture throughout modern Christendom. I have heard this verse many times in a number of sermons portrayed as though it were a promise that God has plans for me, and wants to prosper me…as if God wrote the verse to me. It is often used or rather misused when Christians are having a hard time through life in order to keep their hopes up and to encourage them. The intention is not bad, but very often believers do not experience the benefits of this promise. Why is this? Well, because very often we smorgasbord this verse. By that I mean that we often treat this verse as though it stands by itself, and take the verses we like and ignore every other verse that surrounds the 'promise verse.' Preachers and teachers and congregations alike, all clearly ignore the principles that are taught in Jeremiah 29:1-10, before trying to claim verse 11.
Original and accurate usage: Of course the verse was not even written to Jeremiah personally. It is a promise for the exiles in Babylon, an actual group of ancient people to whom God made this specific promise and there is no biblical evidence it was a universal promise to all people everywhere.
If you were going to apply this particular promise under 2 Corinthians 1:20, which is a theological habit I recommend using extremely sparingly and with great caution, because the risk of Scripture twisting and self-deception is much greater. However, if you absolutely insist upon doing it, then at a bare minimum you must be actively meeting the same type of conditions and prerequisites that were in force when the promise was originally given by God.
I say again, when we attempt to claim a particular promise of God's word, but we refuse to meet either the spiritual prerequisites or the physical prerequisites which were stated or implied and attached to the promise, that is the definition of lawlessness. In other words, trying to lay claim and to receive the promises made by God without first actively submitting to God, that is the quintessential definition of lawlessness.
Since this particular promise was given looking forward to the time when God's people would be coming out of Babylonian captivity and returning to Israel, then at the absolute bare minimum this presupposes that you would be actively coming out of the sinful world (out of Babylon) in your worship, in your thinking, in your attitudes, in your desires, and your choices and behaviors, and that you would be actively taking up a lifestyle of applying God's commands and principles in each of these areas.
If on the other hand, you foolishly chose to remain in the comforts, traditions and apparent affluence of the sinful world, "Babylon", then you could not rightly claim or receive this particular promise. You might qualify for other promises in God's word, but you couldn't rightly claim this particular one without first meeting those prerequisite conditions.
The inconvenient and unpopular reality is that if you refuse to come out of Babylon even as a believer, then what you actually qualify for is to be punished and cursed with the plagues that Almighty God will unleash upon Babylon (see Revelation 17:1-18:4). The truth is that Almighty God is forever calling His people out of Babylon. From the time that Almighty God called Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldees; (for all intents and purposes a Babylonian suburb), and into special covenant relationship with Him in Genesis, until Revelation 18:4, Almighty God is forever calling his people to come out of Babylon:
Revelation 18:4 I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues… (NASB)
The sad reality is that unbeknownst to most believers the vast majority of the worship traditions that are used and commonly accepted in Christianity today are a hold-over from the Roman Catholic Church traditions of the popes, which ordered that all pagan worship traditions were to be adopted and incorporated into the 'normal life of the church’ by Pope Gregory I; (circa 600 A.D.) .
These are not Scriptural at all. In fact, Scripture specifically commands the direct opposite of such practices. Scripture forbids syncretism; which is mixing paganism with the worship of Almighty God (Deuteronomy 4:2; 8:3, 12:1-4, 8, 29-32; Jeremiah 10:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-20; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; Revelation 18:4). We are told to separate from this nasty stuff.
The scary part is that the Roman Catholic Church directly countermanded Scripture and they purposely enfolded and adapted these traditions directly from Babylonian worship traditions which ancient Rome adopted, and which the Roman Catholic Church strictly honors. The Protestants have strictly maintained Roman Catholic traditions, while claiming to be scripturally obedient.
These include; forsaking the Biblical Sabbath and enforcing Sunday worship, commemorating the birth of the Messiah on December 25 (which is coincidentally the birthday of every pagan sun-god throughout the world), instead of honoring the feast of Tabernacles which is when Messiah was truly born, honoring Valentine's Day which comes directly from the Babylonian tradition of honoring the day that Nimrod's wife had sexual relations with her son, Tamuz. Honoring the resurrection of Messiah on the same day and with almost the exact same traditions as were used to honor the Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar, instead of honoring the resurrection at the feast of first fruits which is what it truly happened, and on and on the story goes. It would not be so bad, except that Nimrod and Babylon have made themselves the direct enemy of Almighty God and His Kingdom. So when the honor Babylonian worship traditions, then what are we really praising and glorifying?
All of these come directly out of Babylonian worship traditions. This stuff is a stench in the nostrils of Almighty God, according to His own Word. You can learn about these for yourselves, if it matters to you whether you worship Yahweh and honor Messiah in spirit and truth (John 4:24; Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:1-13).
The simple fact of the matter is that we cannot as believers claim the benefit of Jeremiah 29:11, while we insist on retaining the Babylonian Festival days, many of the mythologies, decorations and traditions which we used to honor Babylonian fertility sun-god, and sex gods and goddesses. This would not be so bad except that traditionally, Nimrod and Babylon have made themselves the direct enemies of Almighty God and His Kingdom. No matter how warm fuzzy we feel about maintaining these traditions, the truth is that God will not honor this, because following these traditions obeys the traditions of men, in direct defiance of the written word of God, at the very moment that we claim to be scripturally obedient. The whole of Scripture defines that as spiritual adultery or infidelity. God will not honor spiritual prostitution and harlotry (Revelation 17:1-18:4).
I could probably go on with countless examples, but you get the idea.

 

 

Practical Steps to Avoid Scripture Twisting

Assuming that the reader is sincerely desiring the truth, and that we desire God to change us so that we are in agreement with Him, and that we are not expecting God to change in order to accommodate us, then there are several basic things that we can do to avoid misreading, misunderstanding misinterpreting or twisting Scripture. I offer a summary below:
1. When you are reading Scripture begin by asking God to send the Holy Spirit to teach you. He promises to help you when you ask Him, so do not forget to ask for God's help in reading, understanding, and obeying the Scriptures (Matthew 7:7-8; James 1:5-8)
2. Read the Bible book by book: Do not piecemeal. Do not pick and choose or smorgasbord read. Instead, start at the beginning of a Scriptural book and read carefully systematically through to the end of the entire book day by day. That way you will be more likely to get the complete thought that God was trying to convey through that particular writer. This will make you less likely to take any promise or Scripture out of context.
3. Read what it actually says. Avoid automatic reading/automatic filtering: If we are accustomed to being in the Scriptures, it can be tempting to operate on automatic pilot. Unless we make a conscious effort to avoid it, sometimes we accidentally disengaged our brain. We tend to think to ourselves, I have read this before, so I know what it says. So then we do not permit the Holy Spirit to teach us in that moment because we think we already know. Believe it or not, I've actually encountered instances where I was reading Scripture and I spotted myself actually explaining away the text by inserting into it and explanation that I had been given for years. In other words, I was actually hearing my pastor’s words in my head explaining away what the actual physical text said, because my pastor held a particular theological point of view, which this particular actual physical text of the Scripture did not support. It wasn't until I felt the Holy Spirit stopping me and motivating me to take a second look at the Scripture that I realized what I was doing. Sometimes without realizing it we read things into Scripture based on what we've been taught instead of paying attention to what Scripture actually physically says. That's dangerous.

4. Use cross-references and parallel passages where available

5. Ask yourself some questions to force you to be attentive and less passive: In order to help you pay attention when you are reading Scripture, it is good to ask yourself some questions. I highly recommend these for beginners, but I still use these questions as an experience Bible student and even as a teacher. So they are very useful. Asking yourself these types of questions will help you to be more focused and pay closer attention as you read so that you do not read Scriptures passively, but you read intentionally
a. God's Character: Are there any verses in the chapter I’m reading which describe God's nature and character?

b. God's Commandments: Are there any verses in the chapter which identifies a Command (something that God specifically requires us to do; or something that God specifically directs us not to do)

c. God's Promises: Are there any verses in the chapter which identify any promises (something God says that He will do for us).

d. Conditions to Promises Are there any verses are places in the chapter which identify any sort of conditions which are connected to the promises in the chapter. For example 1 John 1:9, God promises to forgive our sins IF we confess our sins. So the promise would be that God promises to forgive us, but the condition would be that we must confess in order to receive that forgiveness.

e. Guiding Principles: Are there any guiding principles in the verses of the chapter that I'm reading? A guiding principle is not a direct command, but is still good and positive advice that God gives us. For example, Proverbs 15:1 says that a gentle answer turns away wrath. Now that is not a direct command such as, 'you must speak gently at all times.' However, it is still a good piece of advice from God's Word that we should follow. It's a guiding principle but not necessarily a commandment.
6. Become a deliberate doer and practitioner of the Word: Scripture is very clear that one of the biggest things which makes us most susceptible to deception is knowing about the Word of God, but failing to actually practice what Scripture says. If we know enough to mentally assent that Scripture is a good idea, then we know enough to know that we should honor and obey what Scripture says. When we don't, then we open ourselves up to deception and self-delusion (James 1:19-27). As it is written: James 1:21-22 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. (NASB) Scripture tells us that is by practicing God's Word that we learn to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:12-14); (cf. Galatians 6:7-9; James 4:17; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:4-6; 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:20; etc.). There are plenty more verses like these, but you get the idea.
Thank you so much for joining me. I pray that Almighty God will bless you and give you grace to hear, believe, obey and persevere in rightly dividing and faithfully doing His Word, so that you may be truly blessed. Thank you for your kind attention. I do hope you'll join me again.
Brother R. Michel Lankford