Lay it to Heart

HOME	THE BEGINNING	THE PAST
THE PRESENT	THE FUTURE	THE END
	SITE MAP

Other Teachings About the Bible

Over the years scholars have added their interpretation to Bible in a way to take away from the meaning. Here are some examples.

Synoptic gospels

The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are sometimes called the "Synoptic Gospels" meaning with one view. The Gospel of John is not a part of this. Some instructors use the term "Synoptic Problem" not able to understand why John has a different format than the other three. This theory ignores the greater meaning, theme or intent of all four gospels; that God became a man (Isaiah 9:6), lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins and rose from the grave the third day to become the first of the resurrection. Nothing in the Gospel of John disagrees with Matthew, Mark and Luke. The "Synoptic" theory is really an attack on the word of God by incorrectly attacking the details and ignoring what is most important. In reality, there are not synoptic gospels. They are just gospels. Going back to scripture, it was required that matters be matters be confirmed by two or three witnesses. As an example, Deuteronomy 19:15 tells us, "One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established." The three gospels establish the witness. What happens from time to time is that the scholars label something. The label or analogy is not perfect. When trying understand teachings or theology they draw truths from the label and not the Bible. If the label is not perfect the teachings derived from it will not be correct, either.

Psalms are not poetry

An attempt to classify scripture has prevailed pushing Biblical books into categories such as the law, old testament history, poetry, prophecy, the gospels, new testament history, epistles and Revelation. A simpler and more accurate classification would be the past, the present and the future. God tells us what happened in the past, how we should be living today in the present and what will happen in the future. While some of the books may fall into the groups that are commonly taught, the classification of Psalms being poetry is not accurate. Poetry is often fictional or abstract. Psalms in no way are fictional or abstract. Poetry in times is writing for the sake of writing with an emphasis on style or artistic expression. The purpose of Psalms is the praise and glory of God. It also contains prophecy. Poetry does not place an emphasis on proclaiming God or speaking of his son. Psalms may contain alliterations or special forms of writing but the emphasis is not on clever wording. Poetry is primarily intended for fun or entertainment. That is not why God gave us the Psalms today. Poetry is optional. Some people do not like poetry and that is their choice. In contrast, however, God expects everyone to love his Palms. God's holy word is not optional. It is acceptable to not like poetry and ignore it. Those who love God, however, will love his word which contains Psalms. Classifying the Psalms as poetry disrespectfully diminishes the value of the Psalms and does not honor God.

What Paul says here

Bible teachers will tell you, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" (2 Timothy 3:16). A lot of times they will say, "Now what Paul says here is..." Why don't they say, "What the Bible says here is..."? For other books do they say, "Now what Moses says here is..." or "Now what Isaiah says here is ...". Now it is not the case all the time, but in some cases there is a desire to deemphasize the inspired nature of the Bible verse or passage and make it look like it is just Paul's opinion. Paul gave his opinion once with respect to marriage and the Bible identifies it in 1 Corinthians 7:25 as his "judgment". From there people want to think of Paul as a bigot. He said women should not be preachers. See Are Women Preachers Acceptable? Next they think he was wrong about long hair versus short hair. See Can the Length of Your Hair be Wrong?. Paul was not a bigot. People attack Paul because they cannot face God. Unless noted otherwise, understand that it is not Paul, it is God who is speaking to us through his word, the Bible. If it is not God's word, it does not belong in the Bible. You should be encouraged to follow the New Testament because it is the word of God and not some man's personal viewpoint.