Taking Scissors to the Scriptures

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. -2 Peter 3:14-18 (NASB)

Even in the first century church, there were false teachers who misconstrued or distorted Paul’s teachings and the rest of the Scriptures, just as Peter points out in this passage. In particular, Peter claims, these false teachers botched the more difficult things to understand in Paul’s letters. We know that, even today, not everything in Paul’s letters is easy to comprehend. As a matter of fact, the gap of 2000 years has produced some tremendous cultural differences and problems with interpretation. There are a number of disagreements over many of Paul’s various teachings, even things as simple as the doctrine of salvation. And in fact, this is indeed true of the whole of Scripture, and not just Paul. There is, of course, only one right interpretation of the Bible; God only meant to convey one truth. The problem is, however, that no one has it all figured out. Still, we do as best we can to study God’s Word and extract theological truths and principles from it without boasting that we’re omniscient, or all-knowing.As a matter of fact, I am intimidated by the fact that we have thousands of manuscripts of various New Testament documents and are continually trying to figure them out. It’s overwhelming to think of how difficult it really is to “understand” the Bible.Despite the fact that we are far from knowing everything, though, there are some basic doctrines the Church can simply not deny. Scripture makes it very clear that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on a cross and was resurrected in order to save us from the eternal damnation we deserve. Our sin leads us into death, but we have life through Jesus Christ and continue to live by the Holy Spirit. This is what Christianity is all about, in simplified form. And yet there are people who profess to be Christians that deny even the simple doctrine of substitutionary atonement–that Christ died to pay for our sins. There are many weird ideas out there, indeed. But what do the Scriptures have to say about them? I don’t want to lead anybody astray, nor do I want anyone else to lead people astray. I ask that you check the Scriptures in regards to everything I write, making sure you give them a clear look before believing anything I (or anyone else) might say. Don’t believe my teaching on one Scripture before checking it with the rest of the Bible. If anything I teach is contrary to the gospel of Christ, I am to be accursed (Galatians 1:8). There is truth in the Word of God; while you can’t always trust men, you can always trust your Scriptures. Please, brothers and sisters, don’t neglect that blessing.