Interpretation?

Yup. Of The Bible. And cries of misinterpretation have long been the norm among people, pretty much ALL people groups throughout time. The same is true throughout the wider (and often, even if unspoken, local) churches claiming to follow Jesus. Why?

Some would claim a thorough education disavows reams of Scripture to the extent it cannot be trusted. Frankly, I trust humans less. Yes, humans spoke, wrote and copied, and we can be sure of human flaws and bias. As if massively educated people are not as prone to the very same?

Cut to the reality- often it suits us and our personal agenda/s to read scripture as -we- so find comfort or at least a sense of value in texts otherwise tough to chew. When they seem against our personal vision of Who God is, what He means by what He says in the Bible, or at very least that we might refute what other professing believers think on you-name-the-topic we get into disagreements. Time passes and some begin to simply toss scripture out that doesn't agree with one's personal vision of God. How common has this been in history? Very.

Spirituality, metaphysics are inescapable in scripture, so let us consider conscience. Who gets to dictate yours, mine, anybody's conscience on issues?

Someone truly feel free to correct me if you have verifiable proof that the boil-down, the ultimate reason council after church council met, volume after volume published, denominational, independent and local gatherings of Christian people have argued, fought, split apart, re-branded and even left the faith of Jesus Christ isn't largely about interpretation.

Some finally distill everything down to Jesus' alleged words alone as if the rest of scripture holds little or no value when placed against THE value of His words. And STILL those who do so disagree, argue into infinity and divide from one another on any number of issues. So the four Gospels are credible but not the other commonly held Bible texts? In our time attacks via social media and etc., over INTERPRETATION are even more pervasive.

As if anybody other than God Himself has all the goods on ANYthing?!! Nope.

I suggest there are two funnel-downs on this subject: honest searching and exegesis of scripture, history and wide experience of people (in that order, mind you) versus personal opinion and "proof texting", that is, cherry-picking verses that agree with our own personal and sometimes shared bias. The first is a matter of one's motives and true goal in study with genuine humility and character integrity, the second is not about interpretation but rather shoring up the kingdom of self which, by the way, has an end unlike the kingdom of God. Confirmation bias isn't about honest truth-getting but rather like placing marked cards in one's deck. You didn't win, you cheated to get your pre-desired outcome.

We discover reality, not merely design it.

Things to consider perhaps?

As always, thanks for stopping by. -Glenn