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Guidelines
- The Bible, and the Bible only, should be
the basis of our discussions. Our aim should be to
understand that which God has caused to be recorded. "All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness". 2 Timothy 3:16.
- To achieve this, we should appreciate that
"No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private
interpretation". 2 Peter 1:20. This means that
my opinion (and yours) has no place in our
investigations. Neither does that of any church. We must
leave our preconceived opinions, our hereditary and
cultivated ideas, at the door of investigation. If we
search the Scriptures to vindicate our own opinions we
will never reach the truth. Let us search to learn what
the Lord says for us today.
- In practical terms this means that when we
are faced with a difficult word or verse, the ONLY way to
understand it will be by allowing the Bible to explain
itself. First of all, by its context, especially the next
few verses, and then by allowing another Scripture to
explain the problem one. The Spirit of God will guide us
in this by showing us examples in the life of Jesus
Christ.
- As we do this we shall accumulate a
"spiritual dictionary" of understandings which
we can then use in other places and at other times. "We
have received... the Spirit which is of God that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which
things we also speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual". 1 Corinthians
2:12-13.
- Therefore we can use any translation we
wish, ignore any chapter and verse divisions, and
punctuation, for they have all been added by other men.
We do not need to use archaic words such as
"thee" and "heretofore", but can
translate them into their modern equivalent as we quote.
We do not have any of the original documents so we must
trust our heavenly Father that He will not give us "stones"
when we ask for "bread". See Luke
11:9-13. I will use the king James version as a basis
because it is accepted by so many, not because it is any
better than any other. We should show our references for
the convenience of others, and put Bible texts in
quotation marks.
- But that does not rule out sharing
something we have just found out through other channels.
We can make statements, if they are Bible based and
corroborated by another "witness", for "at
the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three
witnesses, shall the matter be established". Deuteronomy
19:15.
- This "witness" idea is not, as
so many suppose, another place in the Bible where the
same idea is expressed so that we can judge by
"weight of evidence". Those who think like this
usually require two or three verses to "prove"
God's word. But His word stands alone. If He says it,
then it is so. It is written, "Your word is true
from the beginning". Psalm 119:160. What we
want is another witness, or witnesses, to explain to our
dull senses what the first (true) one means. We may come
across many apparent "contradictions" in our
search, but they are only "apparent", not real.
The "contradiction" is in our understanding,
not in the word.
- Therefore we will need to give regard to "EVERY
word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD",
including those which seem to contradict what we want to
believe. Deuteronomy 8:3.
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