For many of us, it is helpful if we have various Bible study aids to go along with our study of Bible. Please allow me to give you a word of caution on this subject. Earlier in this article I stated that Holy Spirit knew there would be a tendency for men to teach their own opinions rather than scriptural truth. This problem is just as prolific in written material as it is in spoke word on TV or radio. My prayer is that you will be able to determine when this is happening and "see through it." Many people today who claim to preach God's word develop a theology (an organized body of opinions concerning God and man's relationship to God - The American Heritage Dictionary) and then use isolated scriptures to "prove" that they are right. Let me give you an example. Suppose that I decided that suicide was taught in scriptures as a viable means of concluding one's own life. First I would need to locate and quote scriptures that I wanted to use to prove that this theology was correct. Which ones would I use?

"Then he threw down pieces of silver in temple and departed, and went and hanged himself." (Matthew 27:5) "And Jesus said to them, 'Go and do likewise.'" (Luke 10:37b) "Then Jesus said to him, 'What you do, do quickly.'" (John 13:27b) Now obviously suicide is not being taught in Bible. However, putting these scriptures together in this fashion, pulling them out of context, it can be made to appear that suicide is taught in Bible.

You are probably saying to yourself, "that's absurd." Friends, this is no less absurd than many of so called "scriptural truths" being taught today by men concerning salvation, baptism, deity of Christ, and where spirit of man goes when he/she dies. This is why it is so important that we "rightly divide word of truth."

The point I am trying to make in this discussion is this: Do not accept spoken word or writings of men (mine or anybody else's) as gospel. Go to scriptures, in prayer, using sound principles of interpretation and study to see if scriptures are saying what men say it is saying. What are sound principles of interpretation?

(a) Determine who is speaking. In Bible there are many different people speaking. It may be Jesus teaching His disciples. It could be one of apostles in their writings to churches. It could be a prophet, a king, Satan, or even Balaam's mule. The point is, in order to fully understand significance of statement, we must know who is making statement. (b) To whom is it being spoken to? Here again, relevance of statement depends on to whom statement was given. Is statement made to Christians, sinners, enemies of church, a person seeking to be saved, or to entire congregations. The meaning of statement could be entirely different if spoken to each of these examples. (c) What is statement speaking about? In other words, what is content and context of statement. Is it a command, a warning, about nature of God or His Son, about Israel, Christians, or church. Knowing what content is about is very important in understanding teaching contained therein. Also, what is context in which it is being used. What goes before statement and what goes after statement. What goes before and after statement can (and does) alter statement. My example about suicide shows this very well. (d) When does passage speak? Is it written for just that time, Patriarchal age, Mosaic age, or Christian age. This is just as important as is to who statement is made. God has dealt with His people differently at different times. The Christian must know and recognize difference in how God has chosen to deal with His people in various ages. We must make a distinction between two testaments. The Old Testament was for Jewish nation, whereas New Testament is for world and Christian gospel age. (e) Allow Scripture to explain Scripture. Let scriptures speak for themselves. Some passages which may seem a little unclear can be further understood in light of other passages. For example, God's plan of salvation is an excellent example of this. There are eight occasions in Acts where one or more people were converted to Christianity. In Acts 2 when three thousand were converted we have repentance and baptism specifically mentioned. In Acts 8 when Samaritans were converted, we have faith and baptism mentioned. And in Acts 8 when eunuch was converted, we have confession, faith and baptism mentioned. We can then use passages from all three occasions (and other five as well) to see that we must have faith, we must repent of our sins, confess Lord Jesus, and be baptized into watery grave of baptism to receive gift of salvation. Taking any one of these passages by itself and using it exclusively to show God's plan of salvation, we would be misinterpreting scriptures.

If we love God and give Him all our allegiance, then we must make every effort to "rightly divide word of truth." It is my prayer that this article has given you desire and ability to do this.

All Scriptures quoted are from New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

Stephen Kingery is an author, preacher, teacher and founder of The Home Bible Study Institute.

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