Welcome To The Arena Of Indubitable Truth! Topic: To Avoid Error – Have The Right Interpretation Of The Scripture (6)

Topic: To Avoid Error – Have The Right Interpretation Of The Scripture (6)

Continued from last episode-

Preamble: There is obvious gross interpretation of the Scripture as a result of the way and manner the Scripture has been studied and read. The inappropriate studying and reading of the Scripture has led to wrong interpretation of the Scripture and that has resulted into wrong application of what the Scripture says.

Anchor Text:

“And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?”

Acts 8:30

Text of Interest:

“But ye have not so learned Christ;”

Ephesians 4:20

In this case, the subject matter in this context is persecution and not salvation. So what Jesus was trying to say is that he who endures persecution can be saved from it. And he went ahead to tell His disciples how to endure and be saved from persecution and that is “But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.” Notice that the disciples yielded to this opine from Jesus and they were able to accomplish their ministries to greater height.

However, it is apt and important to say that words are not what they appear to be apparently in the bible unless they have been studied in the light of their usage in the content and context. Permit me therefore to say that words like save, baptism, sin, righteousness, grace, faith, judgment, consuming fire, death, deliverance etc are not what they are unless they have been ascertained and confirmed within their usage. For instance is not everywhere baptism appears in the Scripture that it denotes “Water Baptism.” Unfortunately, it has become the order of the day that baptism is taught as water baptism in the churches without the proper scrutinizing of its usage in the chapter and verses it appears.

Another thing to consider is that in many expressions made in the root languages of the Bible, the translators found it difficult coalescing or to come to terms with what to make of them in English language. Therefore, in order to make it understandable in the English translation, they have to add some words and these words they added intentionally are in italic. It means that such words are not in the original manuscripts but for them to create a meaning to what they are translating, these words ‘must’ be added. For instance, let’s see one of the verses where this occurred.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”

Ephesians 1:3

This statement in the verse above “heavenly places in Christ” the ‘places’ in it is in italic indicating that it is not in the original manuscript and that the translators used their prerogative to add it in the verse. In fact, this particular word ‘places’ altered the meaning of the sentence, because it implies that the heavenly is in places in Christ. And if one removes the word ‘places’ from the sentence, it creates the original meaning and will reveal the thought of the writer, which is heavenly in Christ. This is very correct because the believer’s blessings are found in heavenly in Christ.

Remember, no one can ascertain the truth in error.

To be continued…..

Till I come your way again, keep on basking in the Arena of Indubitable Truth!

Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu