Monthly Archives: July 2020

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 15

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Confusion from not WANTING to believe it!

The kingdom of the saints will last forever

Scripture does say that the kingdom of the saints will last forever. That is not really an idea to contest, unless you have a very distorted view of the Bible or of prophecy. When God was promising a kingdom to David’s Son Jesus the Christ, it was said that,

“Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before you: your throne shall be established forever.”
2Sam 7:16

We are now translated into this kingdom, past tense.

“who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;”
Col 1:13

Heb 1:5 quotes 2 Samuel 7 as being about Jesus! Further, Hebrews says that we are Jesus “house.”

“but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.”
Heb 3:6

And Revelation talks of Jesus already being on His throne.

“He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
Rev 3:21

And that throne is forever, per Daniel 2 and many, many verses.

But the beast “conquers” the kingdom?

Huh? What? It is amazing the number of verses which we gloss over and fail to get the messages we desperately need.

There is someone called the “beast” in Revelation 13, and the “man of lawlessness,” in 2Thessalonians 2, and the foolish shepherd, or the idol shepherd in Zechariah 11, and it does indicate that for a while, it does look like, he has had the final victory over the saints, the house of God, the kingdom of God. The entire world will worship this man.

“that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
2Thes 2:12

It says the same thing in Rev 13:4-5. Further it says,

“It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him.”
Rev 13:7

No it couldn’t be, I have heard it argued. NO ONE can overcome the church, so they said, and they rejected the clear meaning of Revelation 13.

Of course ultimately, the church will NOT be overcome.

The beast thinks he has won, but it is only for a short 3-1/2 years. Then at the last the faithful saints are delivered and the beast is thrown alive into hell, Revelation 19. Still the Savior says,

“… Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Lk 18:8

In other words, even our Lord questions whether there will be any faithful at the end.

Our incomplete understanding of Scripture sometimes prevents us
from seeing God’s warning to us.

We should always remember that Scripture is NOT a pick and choose buffet, but that it is all true. The challenge is to see how all the parts fit together.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 14

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Confusion from misreadings:
and time shall be no more? Rev 10:6

Clearly there will be radical differences between the world to come and our present universe. It even clearly says things which we cannot imagine. For instance,

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”
Rev 21:1 KJV

We really cannot imagine this, even though it does speak at times of something “like a sea of glass,” Rev 4:6 WEB. So I have heard all my life, that in the world to come that “time would be no more.” Revelation 10 pictures mighty and beautiful angel standing on the sea and the land, and he,

“… sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, … that there should be time no longer:”
Rev 10:6 KJV

I mulled these things over for many years.

I have even talked in sermons about the Second Coming of Christ as “the end of time,” and it was phrase I used in my everyday thinking about the Second Coming. It did seem to clearly say that in Rev 10:6 in the KJV. And if God said so, well it must be, even if I didn’t understand why? But there were disquieting voices going on within me.What does that mean? Time will be no more?

Something did not seem to set right.

Of course that happens all the time when we really read and study all of Scripture. Even so I was still trying understand what this meant for this new country to which we were going. No time? I even read some physics articles and some mushy philosophical articles on time. Then I thought: does one thing often happen after another, even in heaven? And I must say, it does seem so in both Testaments when talking about eternity. Well, if one thing happens after another … isn’t that time? At least in some sense! Duh!

Then I went back and took a closer look at Rev 10:6.

(I mean, we don’t have time to take a closer look at everything in Scripture, do we? We only live a few decades). But then I took a jolt. The WEB and the New American Standard and many other translated it along the lines of, “that there will no longer be delay.”

My goodness, that is quite a difference.

It is like when you and the kids are about the house, and you say, come on kids, we are out of time.” But we don’t mean that literally. Even if we miss our appointment, time still goes on. Then comes the next question.

Is the King James Version at fault?

I think not! On thinking it over, I think they are saying the same thing as these other translations, only in words that perhaps many of us took more literally than we should have.

Misreadings can cause a great deal of unintended confusion, and end up in our day to day traditions, that often lead us astray. Further, none of us are immune to these things. We all start somewhere.

KJV is the King James Version, 1611.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 13

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Misunderstandings can cause confusion.

Now saints and the holy ones are a big subject in Scripture. The main Hebrew word is qodesh. It has the idea of setting something apart, dedicating it to a special service, or work. It can refer to special day that is set aside, as the Sabbath day, Ex 20:8. It can refer to a spirit, the living God, of whom it is said,

“Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders? ”
Ex 15:11 WEB

It can refer to an assembly for a holy purpose (Ex 12:16), or a holy place (Ex 3:5), or even a holy nation, the people of God (Ex 19:6). It is the Old Testament word for the saints, those purified by the Lord,

“As for the saints who are in the earth,
They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.”
Psa 16:3 WEB

And there is the phrase “holy ones.”

It might refer to a place or a thing that is holy, or even a person or an angel that is holy. The New Testament word is hagios, and it has the same range of meanings.

And certain beings come with God, both in history,
and at the Second Coming.

It is clearly angels which are spoken of iater times.

“ …Yahweh came from Sinai, …
He came from the ten thousands of holy ones:”
Deut 33:2 WEB

It is clearly not talking about men. There are “holy angels,” and one appeared to Cornelius in Acts 10:22.

But who does Jesus come with at the end of our age?

And there are some startling passages.

“… Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, ”
Jude 14 KJV

The Lord is coming with His “saints”? How does this come to be? When Paul discusses this he says that those who are alive will arise to meet Jesus in the air, 1Thes 4:17, preceded by the resurrected saints of old, 1Thes 4:16. But in Jude 14 KJV it has Jesus coming with saints! What is going on here? How can this be? I never stopped to study it out as a young man, but this greatly mystified me.

Qodesh or hagios can mean EITHER a holy person
(a saint), OR a holy angel, OR
a holy thing or place.

The phrase is often just the word “holy” by itself, with the context left to determine if it is a holy thing, or person, or angel. Sometimes translations simply say “holy ones,” as many translations have it Jude 14.

So who does Jesus come with at the end?

He comes with his holy angels, and can be easily proved from verse after verse.

“… the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mk 8:38 WEB

And when Jesus comes again He will send out his angels to gather His elect, Mtt 24:31. When even some translators confuse the issues, it can muddle the thinking of many.

KJV is the King James Version, 1611.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 12

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Trying to make the Word justify what we already
believe or are doing.

Let’s face it. Sometimes we may have an agenda. Even the most sophisticated of students may do this at times, including preachers and politicians, and world renown scholars. As human beings we often seem to be a self justifying breed. We may have already taken a stand, a perhaps ill advised one, that we never should have made. Now we want to justify that stand, and even deny the truth if that is “necessary” to uphold “our” word.

Adam did this in the Garden of Eden.

They were living in a garden. The Hebrew word in Genesis is gan. It seems to imply an enclosed place. The Greek equivalent is paradeisos, a paradise is a transliteration in English, a word for a garden or a park. They were very innocent, our first ancestors. They were naked but did not realize it. Further the constant temperatures in the garden were such that the absence of clothing was not noticed. God Himself had “planted” it, Gen 2:8. It was watered, like the whole earth in those early and plentiful days, by a mist arising from the ground (Gen 2:6), and also by a river which then split into four rivers, the best known to us Westerners being the Euphrates river (Gen 2:14). So all of this occurred in what is now northwestern Iraq or eastern Turkey. Food seemingly was there for the taking, and although man did have to tend it (Gen 2:15), man’s work was not cursed as it is now. Entropy. A perfect set up.

Some think that all knowledge is good.

They think it is shameful to destroy any knowledge, but knowing somethings can just be a snare to us, to cause us to do what is wrong. And so came the fall, when first the woman and then the man ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You know the story. And so it has been.

When God questioned Adam,

he tried even to shift the blame back to God!

“The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.””
Gen 3:12

How very much like us as humans.

Remember that admitting the truth will NEVER commit
your grandparents, for instance, to hell.

You do not have that power, nor do I. We need to take hold of the truth no matter what, and leave judgment to God. The Solution is to be ready to believe WHATEVER is said, and hold to it, and further,

being willing to admit WHATEVER
proves to be wrong.

Just go ahead and admit it, and accept the consequences, and beg the Lord for mercy. There is no sin that is unforgivable, other than bad mouthing the Holy Spirit of God (Lk 12:10). Make your life one of continual learning, repenting, picking yourself up again, forgetting what is behind (Phil 3:13-14), and always trekking on.

As men, we cannot avoid being wrong at times, but we can avoid staying there.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 11

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We have False Expectations about what will happen,
or what God will do.

Such things are all over the map, depending on what your particular beliefs are. Quite often our personal beliefs about God and the Bible are not really from Scripture but from popular summaries or narratives about Scripture. Even among Christians these things are often so. Or to put it another way, our faith is often in the doctrines and commandments of men (compare Mtt 15:9). Our faith is often not genuine Biblical faith. We are often NOT like the noble Bereans (Acts 17:11), we are not searching the Scriptures to see if these things are so. Often we need to not merely confirm what an individual verse says, but also need to see how the impressions we initially receive fit with the rest of Scripture.

Sometimes we are merely unnecessarily dogmatic about what God does or doesn’t do, without really searching for possible exceptions from what we might read in one place.

These sorts of things can dumb us down in our reactions to what we hear.

The Sadducees had a “this is all about this
present world” view of Scripture.

“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these.”
Acts 23:8

That means they had an tremendous amount of Scripture to explain away or to deny it authenticity. These were very dark lenses through which they were reading the Bible. Hopefully you and I are not making such gross mistakes in perspective, but still, even without realizing it, we may almost unconsciously put on light blocking shades when we read certain passages, or study certain subjects, and these things often make it hard for us to see certain Bible subjects clearly.

The Sadducees approached Jesus with a question
about eternity in Matthew 22.

Seven men had at one time or another married one particular woman, but none of them had a child by the woman. One by one they all died, and lastly the woman died (Mtt 22:23-27). Then they at last sprang what they thought was a foolproof trap to show the absurdity of believing in a resurrection from the dead.

“In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”
Mtt 22:28

Jesus said they were “mistaken, not knowing the
Scriptures, nor the power of God.” Mtt 22:29

Although they probably read the Scriptures everyday, they were so blinded by their own overviews of Scripture that they came to not really know the Scriptures. Their strange glasses distorted everything that they read in the Bible.

And they did not know or understand the power of God. If an almighty God can take mere dirt and turn it into something as complex as a human being, how small a thing would it be for Him to raise them from death? He went on to say that in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven, Mtt 22:30.

We need to really listen to whatever God says,

and not push our own expectations off on God.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 10

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We cannot believe that such could happen

God often stretches us just a little farther than what we think is possible. That is what he did with Abraham, or as his name was at first, Abram. First God appeared to Abram (the name means exalted father), and made great promises to him.

“1 … “Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great. You will be a blessing.””
Gen 12:1-2

So Abram left at age 75, and Sara his wife was 65, to obtain the promise that he would become “a great nation.” It was actually kind of late for him to have children when he was called, but Abram believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6, Rom 4:22). Later the promised was expanded to include a certain land, but … still no children were coming to Abram. Abram was even promised that his descendants would be a countless as the stars of heaven in Genesis 15, but … still no children were coming to Abram.

Then Sarai thought of a way to maybe “help” God.

Perhaps Sarai could have a child through her personal slave Hagar, and perhaps that was what God intended. So they tried that and Abram did finally have a child by Hagar at age of about 85. It was a son, Ishmael. So finally Abram did have a child.

Finally God appeared to Abram again at age 99 in Genesis 17. God told him,

“… “I am God Almighty. Walk before me, and be blameless. 2 I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.””
Gen 17:1

Then God went on to change his name to Abraham (which means father of a multitude) and said, “… for the father of a multitude of nations have I made you.” Gen 17:5.

Then came one of the real tests of Abraham’s faith.

At age 99 God told Abraham that He would make Abraham’s promised offspring to come from Sarai. Abraham was astonished and he pleaded, Can I really have a child at age 100, with Sarah being 90 years old? O that Ishmael might live before You, Gen 17:17. But God said, No, the promises will come through a child from Sarah, Gen 17:19. And Abraham believed it!

There were more tests to come, but Abraham did not waver in faith, and in the end had a child at age 100 by Sarah, and did receive the promises.

Similarly God tests our faith in what He says.

Will there really be one evil man who will be worshipped by the entire world (2Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13)? Why that is unbelievable! And that man will die and be raised from the dead, Rev 13:3? Why that is unbelievable! And this man will overcome the church world-wide, Rev 13:7? Why, that is unbelievable? So we reject what we have in fact, truly seen in Scripture.

The issue is not believing God.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 9

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Walking in the Dark

The opposite of being alert and watchful is being in the dark, either mentally or spiritually.

“5 You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness, 6 so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep in the night, and those who are drunken are drunken in the night.”
1Thes 5:5-7 WEB

If you are in the dark, you won’t see what you need to see.

“Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going.”
Jn 12:35 WEB

Sin, doing what is wrong, blinds us,
hobbles us, changes how we see things.

“You shall not twist justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.”
Deut 16:19 nf

You don’t have to be ignorant or ruined for wrong things to affect you, and to affect your judgment! You can be wise and righteous, and these things can affect you. We can be very sophisticated and learned people and end up darkened in our sins.

“Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding. ”
Hos 4:11 WEB

Rejecting the commandments puts
blinders on us.

The commandments do test us and sort us out. When we hesitate and halt at doing what God says, it places limits on what we can see and comprehend and experience in those directions. Sometimes it is simple things of mercy and compassion for others that we reject, so we end up going around in mental and spiritual circles which lead nowhere.

“But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
1Jn 2:11 WEB

In their distorted logic on oaths, Jesus said to the leaders of the scribes and Pharisees,

“You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?”
Mtt 23:17 WEB

Satan will deliberately blind us if we will let him.

“in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.”
2Cor 4:4 WEB

Jesus can give us relief from our darkness

“ Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” ”
Jn 8:12 WEB

But sometimes we know our deeds are evil,
so we don’t want the light.

“This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.”
Jn 3:19 WEB

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

nf is my own translation based on the WEB.

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 8

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Forgetting the power of God,
or underestimating it.

I think that quite often men do CORRECTLY understand various prophecies, either from Revelation or of the prophets of old, or of in between things such as the eventual conversion of the Jews as a nation, and then immediately reject what was said, because they do not understand how that could ever happen! So the initial correct reading flies out the window, forever forgotten, and never again to be considered, because they thought, “That could never be!”

I think really this happens all the time, and it becomes unthinkable to ever reconsider these things.

“Those along the road are those who hear, then the devil comes, and takes away the word from their heart, that they may not believe …”
Lk 8:12

No better example of this sort of blindness can be seen than that of,

Israel in the wilderness.

Moese had brought them the Ten Commandments under spectacular circumstances, and they had seen many power actions by God, but they still did not understand His power.

Psalm 106 touches on some of these things at times. It does seem to have been written during the Jewish captivity in Assyria and Babylon, Psa 106:47. Although the author is unnamed, he zeros on Israel’s failings in these matters time after time. The Psalmist remarks on when Israel came to the Red Sea.

Indeed they had already seen incredible powerful actions of God while they were still in Egypt. But when the irresistible force met the immoveable object of the Red Sea, they forgot everything they should had learned, and fell apart when Pharaoh’s army approached on their rear. They had no reason really to distrust God’s power, but instead fell back on “common sense,” and failed. “Nevertheless, God saved them for His name’s sake.”

“Our fathers didn’t understand your wonders in Egypt.
They didn’t remember the multitude of your loving kindnesses,
But were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea.”
Psa 106:7

But then it says,

“13 They soon forgot his works.
They didn’t wait for his counsel,
14 But gave in to craving in the desert,
And tested God in the wasteland. ”
Psa 106;13-14

They wanted something better to eat, but instead of humbly asking, howled protests in the wilderness.

“21 They forgot God, their Savior,
Who had done great things in Egypt,
22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham,
And awesome things by the Red Sea.”
Psa 10621-22

“24 Yes, they despised the pleasant land.
They didn’t believe his word,
25 But murmured in their tents,
And didn’t listen to Yahweh’s voice.”
Psa 106:24-25

And so do we many times.

For a fact, many astonishing things happen
in history.

And that is not merely in Biblical history, but also in secular history. Who would believe the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), or the Russo-Finish War or the Battle of Midway in World War II, IF they had been related in the Bible?

But we should be men of faith, not stumbling at what we may think could never happen. Then it is easier to get what we need out of prophecy.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 7

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Having our facts wrong, of Scripture, or of history

John 7 is instructive of the many ways that wrong facts or ideas can blind us. The Feast of Booths was coming up, but Jesus did not immediately go. Everyone was looking for Him, but were not talking openly about Him for fear of the Jewish leadership.

Finally Jesus showed up, speaking and teaching and calling the hand of the Jewish leaders. He said they were trying to kill Him, and this was answered immediately by saying, “You have a demon. Who seeks to kill you?” Jn 7:19-20. Still the crowd was whispering, isn’t this the one they are trying to kill? Jn 7:25 WEB.

So where did Jesus come from?

Then the crowd surmises from popular ideas:

“However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
Jn 7:27 WEB

Ah! He really came from God. So Jesus said,

28 … “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know. 29 I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
Jn 7:28-29 WEB

Of course Jesus speaks here of His coming from God, which it doesn’t seem is exactly what the crowd had in mind.

Then the chief priests and Pharisees sent troops
to arrest Jesus.

The crowd was debating.

“41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “What, does the Christ come out of Galilee? 42 Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?””
Jn 7:41-42 WEB

So there were conflicting opinions.

Finally the officers came back empty handed. Their superiors asked why they had not brought Him in. Their answer was that there had never been a man who spoke as this man had.

The leaders were furious, and answered, are you also led astray? Have any of the leaders believed in Him? But of course majorities have never been a measure of truth. Compare the story of the true prophet of God Micaiah as opposed by the 400 false prophets in 1Kings 22, or of Jeremiah alone telling the truth in his time. In fact Jesus says,

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”
Lk 6:26 KJV

Nicodemus protested their condemnation without hearing Jesus answers, and they answered,

“… Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.”
Jn 7:52 KJV

But the truth was,

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They thought of Jesus as from Galilee, but He wasn’t actually from Galilee. He was actually from Bethlehem, as the prophets foretold (Micah 5:2), and from God (Isaiah 40, Deut 18:15, etc.). The Pharisees, though well educated, had their facts wrong, so they were either puzzled, or reached false conclusions.

KJV is the King James Version, 1611.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901