The Science of
Scripture Twisting
INTRODUCTION
When you look at the world of the cults, each of them has their own spin on what the Holy Scriptures teach. How could there be so many versions of the same passage and still consider it to be within “THE TRUTH”? This type of an idea that everyone has his or her own truth independent of each other has produced our post-modern mind-set where everything is relative and subjective. How far we have, as a society and as the church, strayed from the original truths of the Holy Scriptures!
When reading the Bible, there are two approaches to looking at its interpretation. First, are we looking for a proof text for our pre-conceived idea or secondly, are we allowing the written text to speak for itself as it presents the context of the issue that it is dealing with? The validity of the Holy Scriptures’ authenticity is brought into question when it is tampered with and is therefore, a direct attack on the Holy Bible.
As a Christian, the Bible means a lot to me. It has been my companion for almost 20 years. I have learned that its words are God’s Word, its commands His will, its perspective on life, the only true one. Of course, it has puzzled me with the depth of its insight. I am often frustrated by what God is demanding of me through the words of its pages. It encourages me, but it breaks me. It thrills me and it frightens me.
But one thing it does not do, it does not come to me in such a way that I can pick and choose as to what to hold as true or false. As a Christian, I find myself under its authority.
2 Peter 3:14-18 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.
Peter believes the Scriptures play a vital role in the life of a Christian. He does not stop challenging us to turn our attention to the Holy Scriptures. Even while Peter points us to the Word, he warns that some will seek to turn us from the truths of the Scriptures by perverting its teaching.
He does warn us that false teachers will arise. They may not claim to reveal new truth from God on the level of Scripture, but they will seek to distort the Scriptures twisting them to teach something completely different from the Author’s intended meaning.
We sometimes hear people say, “Your interpretation of Scripture is one of many interpretations.” If we want to convince someone that our interpretation of Scripture is correct, they might respond that the Bible is capable of meaning whatever one wants it to mean. This, of course, could be said of any writing.
Our purpose is to note the characteristics
of Scripture twisters so we may be alert to their presence among us. Further,
we must identify the most common ways that men twist the meaning of Scripture
and to help us avoid those errors in our study and interpretation of the Bible.
In this way, we will be able to sharpen our interpretative skills and
accurately handle the Word of truth. 2 Timothy
We must not conclude that man’s failure to interpret Scripture accurately proves God did not clearly reveal Himself and His message to men in the Bible. Neither is it true that the meaning of Scripture is so obscure it is virtually impossible to discern. There is one correct interpretation of Scripture and the rest is often the result of Scripture twisting, whether intentional or not.
The Apostle Peter’s words are written so Christians will be on their guard and alert to those who twist Scriptures. He expects that the saints not only can, but also should be able to discern those who pervert God’s Word. Peter is not speaking just to church leaders or Bible teachers here; he is speaking to all the saints. Every Christian should be able to recognize those that Peter warns us about. Peter indicates how Christians can be prepared to spot false teachers and turn from them.
The first things necessary is for us to realize we have been forewarned that Scripture twisters are going to arise. They will arise not only from without, but from within. Paul warns the Ephesian elders that some of them will depart from the truth, twisting the Scriptures.
Acts
own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
Ephesians 4:11-16 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
We must therefore be like the Bereans, always putting the teaching of others (even those whom we respect) to the test. Does the teaching we receive square up with the truths of God’s Word? Bible teaching must never be a substitute for our own personal study of the Word of God; it is an enhancement to our own study. Good teaching should only encourage and incorporate the personal study of God’s Word, never discourage it. Every teaching has to be placed under the microscope of the Supreme Court of the Holy Scriptures’ test in order to be validated and accepted in a true Christian’s life.
Secondly, the best preventative for false teaching by others is to actively pursue godliness and personal spiritual growth. Those whose walk with the Lord is stagnant are the most vulnerable to false teaching. The teaching of God’s Word should cause the slothful saint to be uneasy. The twisting of Scripture is what the wayward saint will feel comfortable hearing. Spiritual health is the best preventative for the disease of Scripture twisting.
LEVELS OF ERROR
Not all errors are alike. Some errors are
more dangerous and even more deserving of blame than others. Some errors stem
from ignorance. We simply do not know the Holy Scriptures well enough. It may
be that we speculate where we should simply acknowledge our ignorance and study
the Word of God to determine the truth. Some errors are errors of personal
opinion or belief. For example, Christians may differ over the interpretation
of a particular passage, especially a problematic passage that is a non-essential
doctrine of the Christian faith. Everyone cannot be right. Perhaps no one is
right. As long as we recognize our interpretation as our opinion, we are not in
trouble, but when we teach our opinion(s) as absolute truth, we are venturing
into dangerous waters. When it comes to the essentials of the historic
Christian faith, we must be in complete agreement. I.e. … Is Jesus God?
We need to distinguish between our convictions, which we should not impose on others and the teaching of God’s principles and commands, which all Christians are to accept and practice. Paul is very careful to indicate to his readers those matters, which are his personal convictions and those, which are not. We see this in 1 Corinthians 7. His convictions and practice are that he can better serve the LORD unmarried than married. He does not, however, like some false teachers, condemn marriage altogether like those
in 1 Timothy 4:3. He simply points out that marriage can be a
distraction and challenges us to consider the single life as an option. We
should learn to recognize the difference between our own personal convictions
and those truths that which Christians must embrace as orthodox. The Virgin
Birth of our LORD, for an example, should not be considered a personal
conviction, but a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. Those doctrinal
truths, which are an essential part of the gospel, are crucial. When these
truths are twisted, incalculable damage can be done, not only to ourselves, but
also to others.
I believe we should distinguish between those errors we sincerely hold as personal opinion or convictions and those we teach and advocate to others as God’s truth. Once we take on the role of a teacher, we assume responsibility not only for ourselves, but also for others, which is an awesome thing. No wonder James admonishes us that not many should become teachers in James 4:1. Those things we teach others as the command of Christ become matters of great importance, and if we err on this level, we err seriously, to our own shipwreck and that of any who follow us in our error. We are told by our LORD to believe all that He has commanded us in Matthew 28:18-20, so let us see that the commands of Christ are the curriculum of discipleship. To fail to teach these or to teach them in error is a very serious business.
It is very clear in Peter’s epistles (and also Paul’s) that the Scriptures are of primary importance to the Christian. Nothing is more dangerous than twisting the truth of God’s Word. I would like to suggest some ways Peter’s words relate to us and how the Scriptures have been perverted in our time, even with Christian evangelism.
(1) We err greatly in our interpretation and application of God’s Word when we limit the revelation of God’s truth to our own reason. When God’s command is clear, it does not matter nearly so much that we understand why the command is given as that we obey it. Too many Christians refuse to believe or obey Scripture until it makes sense to them. Some people think that Christians should understand the “full depth of injury” that others have brought upon them before they forgive them. I understand the Bible teaches us to forgive to whatever degree we perceive someone has offended us at that moment and grant further forgiveness if and when it is required.
Adam and Eve did not understand why God had
forbidden them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They did
not need to know this. In fact eating of the tree is what would give them this
knowledge. All they needed to know was that God had given this command and for
them to obey it. More faith is required to obey God when we do not understand
why than to obey when the reasons are glaring us in our face. All to often I hear Christians refuse to believe or obey God’s
Word at a point where they fail to grasp the reasons for it. I would remind you
that many distinctions between “clean” and “unclean” in the Hebrew Scriptures
seem to have no reason except God declared them to be such. The question is
whether we will accept God’s distinction between good and evil, clean and
unclean and truth and error. In the armed forces, boot camp is intended to
recruits to obey their leaders without question, and without the need to first
know why. It is not we who have been called to pass judgment on the Word of
God, but the Word of God, which is to judge and to guide us.
(2) We are on very dangerous ground when we seek to integrate God’s truth, as revealed in Scripture with man’s truth, as currently understood and taught from outside the Scriptures. “All truth is God’s truth,” we are told. That statement has a dangerous tendency, as currently applied. It tends to put all “truth” on the same level. It suggests that what is currently believed to be “true” through science, philosophy and psychology and others, is just as true and with the same certainty as the truths of the Holy Bible. It suggests that secular truths, as currently understood are just as important and as necessary to apply as God’s truth. In most cases, these secular truths are elevated above the supremacy of the Holy Scriptures.
I do not believe this to be true. Only God’s truth – the truth God has revealed in His Word is true truth of which we can be assured to be true. Scientific truths continue to change. Biblical truth never changes. How sad to see Christians rushing to the Scriptures to reinterpret Biblical truth because modern science has apparently exposed some new truth that challenges God’s truth as taught in His Word. How sad to hear Christians who are alleged experts in some secular field that proclaim these “truths” on the same, if not a higher level than the truth of God’s Word. Now the Bible is often not the primary source of truth, but a secondary source. The Bible is used to illustrate or proof text what the secular sciences have identified as truth.
The Bible is the only revelation of truth that is inspired, inerrant and infallible. The Bible reveals every truth essential for life and godliness. It is not God’s truth as revealed in Scripture plus another truth, which we need to live godly lives; it is God’s truth alone. Any truth not found in God’s truth is subordinate to God’s truth and thus secondary to God’s truth, if indeed it is true at all. No wonder Christians are reading so many books instead of the Bible. They will even have the latest Christian buzzwords to help you keep up with God. They think they will find truth that is more necessary and important in these latest how-to Christian books. They are wrong. If any book is of great value to the Christian, it will be the one, which turns our attention and allegiance back to the Bible.
(3) We twist the Scripture when we
strain “gnats and swallow camels”. The scribes and
the Pharisees practiced this error. They made much of little details of
Scriptures, but missed the main point. They put much emphasis on specific
commands of the Law, but failed to grasp the major principles like justice,
mercy and weightier matters addressed by the prophets. And so, it was that in
the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus interpreted the Law in such a way as to get to
the heart of the Law. The Law not only prohibits murder, it requires us to deal
with hatred by granting or seeking forgiveness. The Law not only prohibits
immorality, it teaches us to deal with impure thoughts as sin. This is the
reason David loved the Law of God and meditated upon it in Psalm 119. The Law
teaches us the principles of life and reveals to us the character and heart of
God. When we spiritualise the Scriptures, causing them to teach what they do
not, we are beginning to twist the Holy Scriptures.
(4) We twist the Scriptures when we take them further than to what they were intended to be interpreted or applied to. The Judaizers of Paul’s day took the command to be circumcised and imposed it upon the Gentiles, insisting they must do so to be saved
in reference to Acts 15:1-2. When we teach our own ideas and doctrines
(which are not in Scripture) as though they were scriptural truth, we go too
far, twisting Scripture. Paul warned us about this very thing, for it was the
cause of division and destruction in
1 Corinthians 4:6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.
Sometimes we
twist the Scriptures by over-spiritualising the text, interpreting its message
to be something far beyond what the text itself teaches or requires. Whether in
the interpretation or in the application of God’s Word, we must not go beyond
the written Word.
(5) We twist the Scriptures when we accommodate our own culture in the interpretation and application of God’s Word. In its most blatant form, we find the Scriptures to be in error or invalid when our cultural values differ from what the Holy Scriptures teach. And so it is that some has set aside Paul’s teaching on the role women play in the church. Now, we ordain women as pastors and overseers. We look down upon Paul for being a chauvinist. In matters that are sensitive, we either play down or remain silent if the Scriptures collide with our present day culture. The sin of homosexuality is no longer called sin and condemned as such. To do so would require that we exercise discipline on those who practice what God condemns. In order to have a large “successful” happy church, we do not hold to the same standards of marriage and divorce as our LORD did. To do so would alienate and offend some people and reduce church roles and budgets. Most pastors today don’t have a shepherd’s heart to spiritually protect their Christian flock with sound Biblical doctrines, but rather they are there as a CEO running the church as a business.
(6) We twist the Scriptures when we isolate the teaching of one part of the Bible from the teaching of the rest of the Bible. We will distort the message of the Bible when we fail to harmonize a particular passage of Scripture with other passages. The cults selectively use the Scriptures. Paul tells the Ephesian elders that he taught the whole counsel of God as illustrated in Acts 20:20, 27 and not just selected portions or truths.
Quite frankly, this is the way most Christians read and study their Bibles, in tiny segments, often in random sequence. Most daily devotional books are written in this manner. As a result, we are inclined to not read a whole book at a time and attempt to digest large doses of Scripture. Let us seek to read God’s Word more often, in greater portions and in sequence.
(7) We twist the Scriptures when we fail to hold seemingly contradictory truths in tension. We like to have our truths in neat little packages, all nicely labelled and easy to keep separated. So we, like the Pharisees of old, want truth to be one way or the other, but not both.
Matthew 22:16-17 And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any. "Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?"
They wanted Jesus to tell them whether they should pay their taxes
or not. They were trying to press Jesus into saying men should obey either Caesar or God. Either way, they could get Jesus into trouble. Jesus told them they should submit to God and to Caesar. They could not have it all one way.
Truths must be held in tension. God is sovereign. Nothing happens that is not part of His sovereign decree. Yet, we have been commanded to do certain things. We are humanly responsible for our decisions and actions. These two truths, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, are both true and must be held in tension. Those who would seek to hold one truth and deny the other will distort the overall message of the Holy Scriptures.
Some of the teachings of Scripture, which appear contradictory, were also held in tension by the saints of old and now can see in a clearer light. The truth of the Deity of Christ was taught in the Hebrew Scriptures and now in the Greek Scriptures, as is also the truth of His humanity. These two truths appear contradictory, but in the Incarnation, we see they were not. Even now, we do not fully understand this union of humanity and deity, but we believe it by faith. Still there are those who cling to one and reject the other.
The Hebrew Scriptures’ prophets spoke of the suffering of Christ and they also foretold of His glorious reign. The prophets themselves agonized as to how they might harmonize these two truths in tension as illustrated in 1 Peter 1:10-12, but they held to both. Now, in light of the two comings of Christ, we understand there is no contradiction. Let us not reject one Biblical truth (often the one we like the least) in a futile effort to remove the tension it creates with another truth.
(8) We twist the Scripture by private interpretation of a given text of Scripture as mentioned in 2 Peter 1:20-21. Over the years
I have observed many of these “independent”
Bible students. In truth, they are arrogant and unteachable. The irony is they
often are eager to teach others and they often can be found attempting to
straighten out the church. Peter teaches us that the Holy Spirit did not only
inspire the Scriptures, but that they are to be interpreted by the illumination
of the Spirit.
The truth of God is for the people of God. If my understanding of a passage fails to fall within the mainline of conservative, evangelical teaching over the history of the church, then my view is suspect. Such a person should read:
1 Corinthians
Those who have suffered and died for their faith and for the purity of biblical doctrine should not be ignored. There is no place for individual autonomy in the Christian life. Those who think they can interpret the Scriptures on their own, disregarding all others, are highly suspect in their interpretation and clearly wrong in their attitude. Often, such people will abuse the following verse as a pretext for their independence.
1 John 2:26-27 These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
Notice, first of all, that the context here is false teachers. These teachers are those, like many cultists today, who come to your door and try to confuse you about what you believe. They represent
themselves as “experts” (who think they know the original Greek or whatever). It is mainly the “whatever”. They offer to teach a Bible study in your home. They are those who have doubts about your ability to read the Word of God and understand its message. Let no teacher keep you from a personal study of the Word. A true teacher of the Word is the one who stimulates you to study the Word of God and is open for you to find out if what he teaches is indeed of God. Such teachers do not use clever or manipulative techniques, but rely upon the Spirit of God to convince you of what is true – from the Scriptures.
Acts
1 Corinthians 2:4-5 … and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
True teachers of the Word of God do not create a reliance on themselves, but a reliance on the Word of God. Note the humility of the Apostle Paul who, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote approximately half of the New Testament of the Holy Scriptures and yet he was not above being examined and cross-referenced to establish his authenticity of his source of wisdom and power.
Let us look at several examples of twisted Scripture. Some of them you may or may not recognize.
Article 8 of Mormon Articles of Faith
- We believe the Bible to be the Word of God as far as it is translated correctly, we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God
Is not it interesting that the Mormons do not put the same stipulation on the Book of Mormon as they do on the Bible. My question is: How do you determine how and where the Bible is correctly translated?
REINCARNATION
Eula Allen, a follower of Edgar Cayce in a conversation with Jess Stearn.
Jess Stearn asks: “What if people had lived other lives, don’t they remember anything from them?”
“But they do,” Eula Allen replied, “It is just sometimes they don’t remember that they are remembering. Jesus said I’ll bring all things to your remembrance, but He didn’t say how.”
Maybe Jesus did not remember to tell them how they were supposed to remember. Just a question before I forget.
In 1961when the Jehovah’s Witnesses came out with their own version of the Bible, Colossians 1:15-17 was one of the many passages that had been altered.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible no matter whether they are thrones or
lordships or governments or authorities. All [other] things have been created through him and for him. Also he is before all [other] things and by means of him all [other] things were
made to exist.
Is there any [other] word they could have used [other] than the word [other]? Do you see the effect this has on the entire message?
IGNORING
THE IMMEDIATE TEXT
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi not only misquotes, but ignores the immediate context of Psalm 46:10 “Christ said, Be still and know that I am God and when you know that you are God, you begin to live Godhood and living Godhood, there is no reason to suffer.”
Is there such a thing as a temporal God? Maharishi Mahesh Yogi tried to be one.
PLAY
ON WORDS
Mary Baker Eddy’s redefinition of the word “Adam” is displayed by the following remark.
Divide the word “Adam” into two syllables and it reads a dam or obstruction. This suggests the thought of something fluid, of mortal mind in solution. It further suggests the thought of that darkness … upon the face of the deep, when matter or dust was deemed the agent of Deity in creating man, -- when matter, as that which is accursed, stood opposed to Spirit. Here is a dam is not a mere play upon words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the supposed separation of man from God, and the obstacle which the
serpent, sin would impose between man and his creator.
Isn’t it interesting what she was able to derive out of the name, Adam? What could we do with her name? Mary Bake Reddy, a person who is ready to be sent to the fires of hell? Just using her methodology!
SAYING
BUT NOT CITING
Irwin Ginsburgh stated that the words used in the book of Genesis represent the best thinking and understanding of its compilers.
“If twentieth century technical synonyms are substituted for some of the general words in the book of Genesis, it becomes possible to understand some of the obscure passages in this fundamental work in terms of modern day science. The tree of knowledge, for example, could in modern language, be translated as being a central computer, since knowledge is the important concept rather than the tree. Here I make one major assumption of my concept – that is, the Garden of Eden was a space ship that crash-landed on earth and that it carried two super space people, Adam and Eve.
One small step for science and one giant leap of logic for mankind. I wonder where his space ship crash-landed? It certainly was not earth.
GRAMMATICALLY
MANIPULATED
In an attempt to annul the believer’s hope of being in the presence of Jesus Christ at death, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have a subtle change in their tampered New World Translation Bible changing the entire intended meaning of the passage.
Luke
Notice the subtle change of the message of
Jesus by moving the comma to after the word “today” instead of before. Of
course, it was “today” when Jesus said this comment so the word “today” is
redundant. However, when it is in its proper context, the repentive thief will
be with Jesus in
Let us be on guard against error and be reminded that false teachers will not only arise from without, but from within the church. It is the task of leaders to protect the flock from error, but it is also true that error may come from within the leaders as illustrated in Matthew 23 and Acts 20:28-32. When we look only to our leaders to discern truth and tell us what is biblical, what is right and wrong, when our leaders go astray, we are in trouble because we blindly follow them. This is what has and is taking place in many denominations. We are individually responsible to discern error and to respond to it biblically.
As the last days approach, let us fix our eyes and hope on the LORD Jesus Christ. Let us seek to live holy lives, so that we practice and proclaim the excellences of our God before a godless world. May we be men and women of the Word, encouraged in our study of the Bible by faithful teachers and turning from those who are false. May we not be guilty of twisting the Scriptures in our own study, but like David, turning to the Word of God to know God and to live lives that are pleasing in His sight. Amen!
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